Consequences of Female Subjugation Throughout history, women have been fighting for equality and personal freedom in patriarchal societies. To catalyze these reformations and illuminate the underlying problems that women faced in the nineteenth century, certain women took up a pen and wrote stories pertaining to female subjugation. Thus, the world saw the genesis of the feminist movement. Two trailblazers for women’s rights and literary figures in the Victorian Era feminist movement were Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin. In their feminist works, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Stetson and “The Story of an Hour” by Chopin, the writers confront the reader with two tragic and similar literary works that paint a vivid glimpse into the mindset
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For example, in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the constant imprisonment, subjugation, and lack of mental stimulation, ultimately causes the Narrator to go insane. After multiple pleas to abdicate the house in which they are staying as well as the mental exhaustion that the Narrator incurs due to her having to restrain her thoughts and feelings in front of her husband, which is expounded upon when she states, “So I take pains to control myself --- before him, at least, and that makes me very tired,” only serves to catalyze her inevitable descent into insanity (Gilman 474). In the end, the story depicts the Narrator crawling around the room in a yellow dress, over her husband 's unconscious body. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard suffers a different fate. As she begins to proceed down the stairs, in a completely triumphant, jovial state, she sees her husband walk through the door (Chopin 308). After seeing her husband alive and well, the crowd around her hears a piercing cry from her sister, and shortly thereafter it states, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease---of joy that kills” (Chopin 308). When Mrs. Mallard sees her husband alive, she knows that the feeling of freedom she has is soon to leave, and this ultimate deferral of hope that she has, causes her heart to stop. Overall, the subjugation and lack of freedom that these women experience at the hands of their husbands cause them to succumb to horrible
For example, in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the constant imprisonment, subjugation, and lack of mental stimulation, ultimately causes the Narrator to go insane. After multiple pleas to abdicate the house in which they are staying as well as the mental exhaustion that the Narrator incurs due to her having to restrain her thoughts and feelings in front of her husband, which is expounded upon when she states, “So I take pains to control myself --- before him, at least, and that makes me very tired,” only serves to catalyze her inevitable descent into insanity (Gilman 474). In the end, the story depicts the Narrator crawling around the room in a yellow dress, over her husband 's unconscious body. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard suffers a different fate. As she begins to proceed down the stairs, in a completely triumphant, jovial state, she sees her husband walk through the door (Chopin 308). After seeing her husband alive and well, the crowd around her hears a piercing cry from her sister, and shortly thereafter it states, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease---of joy that kills” (Chopin 308). When Mrs. Mallard sees her husband alive, she knows that the feeling of freedom she has is soon to leave, and this ultimate deferral of hope that she has, causes her heart to stop. Overall, the subjugation and lack of freedom that these women experience at the hands of their husbands cause them to succumb to horrible