A Wife’s Escape
Kate Chopin 's novel The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” have a similar story involving a woman narrator overcoming, or escaping from, her predetermined role. However, both stories end in a negative manner for the women, with a suicide in The Awakening and insanity in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” So although the struggle for freedom is inherently feminist, it is possible that the endings could be seen as the women realizing that they will never be able to truly escape the restraints of patriarchal society.
Edna’s desire to escape her life starts to come about after she has an emotional awakening from her relationship with Robert. At the start of the novel, she is an obedient wife, although she does …show more content…
At the begging of the novel, Mr. Pontellier was an attentive father and a caring husband, in fact the other women describe him as being “best husband in the world” (Chopin 9). Whereas from the very beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper” John is portrayed as talking down to his wife and treating her like a child addressing her as “little girl” (Gilman 81). The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” even justifies the way her husband downplays what she is feeling, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (74). This line proves that a woman’s concerns in marriage are not of importance and are expected to be downplayed by their husbands, the narrator sees nothing wrong with this at the beginning of the story. At the beginning of the story, she believes that her illness is prohibiting her from doing what she is supposed to do as a wife, “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already” (76). Since she is unable to hold the role of a traditional wife, such as taking care of their child, she feels that she is a burden to her husband. This idea that a woman has to fit in a certain role to be a good wife is extremely …show more content…
It does not help that their husbands both begin to question their mental health whenever they do not understand what their wives are feeling. Mr. Pontellier consults a doctor over Edna’s behavior because he is sure that there is something mentally wrong with her because of the way she is acting out. And John makes the decision, as a physician, to move his wife to the country and completely isolate her because she is dealing with depression after having her child, who he has separated her from. John has used his influence to convince his wife that what she is going through his trivial she says things such as “my case is not serious” (Gilman 76). He is downplaying her condition in order to make her feel like she is being ridiculous which only makes her condition worse because she feels as though she should not be acting the way she
Kate Chopin 's novel The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” have a similar story involving a woman narrator overcoming, or escaping from, her predetermined role. However, both stories end in a negative manner for the women, with a suicide in The Awakening and insanity in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” So although the struggle for freedom is inherently feminist, it is possible that the endings could be seen as the women realizing that they will never be able to truly escape the restraints of patriarchal society.
Edna’s desire to escape her life starts to come about after she has an emotional awakening from her relationship with Robert. At the start of the novel, she is an obedient wife, although she does …show more content…
At the begging of the novel, Mr. Pontellier was an attentive father and a caring husband, in fact the other women describe him as being “best husband in the world” (Chopin 9). Whereas from the very beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper” John is portrayed as talking down to his wife and treating her like a child addressing her as “little girl” (Gilman 81). The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” even justifies the way her husband downplays what she is feeling, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (74). This line proves that a woman’s concerns in marriage are not of importance and are expected to be downplayed by their husbands, the narrator sees nothing wrong with this at the beginning of the story. At the beginning of the story, she believes that her illness is prohibiting her from doing what she is supposed to do as a wife, “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already” (76). Since she is unable to hold the role of a traditional wife, such as taking care of their child, she feels that she is a burden to her husband. This idea that a woman has to fit in a certain role to be a good wife is extremely …show more content…
It does not help that their husbands both begin to question their mental health whenever they do not understand what their wives are feeling. Mr. Pontellier consults a doctor over Edna’s behavior because he is sure that there is something mentally wrong with her because of the way she is acting out. And John makes the decision, as a physician, to move his wife to the country and completely isolate her because she is dealing with depression after having her child, who he has separated her from. John has used his influence to convince his wife that what she is going through his trivial she says things such as “my case is not serious” (Gilman 76). He is downplaying her condition in order to make her feel like she is being ridiculous which only makes her condition worse because she feels as though she should not be acting the way she