19th And 20th Century Literature: The Unequal Treatment Of Women

During the 19th and 20th centuries, women relentlessly faced discrimination throughout most of their lives, and society considered them unequal to men. The authors Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote about the suppression of women during this time, exposing the unequal treatment that they suffered. Their literary works contain common theme of freedom from the discrimination and harsh treatment of male figures that played a prominent role throughout their lives. In these stories, the main characters freed themselves from unhappy marriages, the inability to express ideas and emotions, and abuse. Through the use of symbolism in Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her
Instead of prolonged sadness, Mrs. Mallard celebrates, in a way, her freedom from her marriage; at long last, she could finally live her life the way that she wanted. In the story, the author implies that possibly Mrs. Mallard married him because of the conformity that all women should marry. After hearing about the death of her husband, she feels sad for a short period of time and locks herself in her bedroom to be alone. Eventually, she begins to think about the positives of the situation. The story states, “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!’” (Chopin 2). She finally becomes liberated from her relationship with her husband. Locked away in her room, she sits in a chair facing the window. The author states the
The “rest cure” was a common treatment for nervous tendencies during the 19th and 20th centuries in which one was bedridden until their symptoms improved. While under treatment, the narrator suffers from boredom and tries to distract herself by focusing on the yellow wallpaper that covers the room. Following the pattern of the paper day and night, she drives herself into madness. During her time locked in her room, the narrator faces a psychological confinement by which she cannot think for her own; her husband, who was a doctor, shut down all of her opinions on her treatment or even day-to-day activities. The narrator states, “There comes John, and I must put this away, - he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 3). Her husband did not want her to even write in a journal because he felt confident that doing nothing was the best for her. At the beginning of the story, the narrator only discusses the paper occasionally in her diary, but as the plot progresses, the paper is all she talks about. The story ends when her mental state has finally deteriorated. The narrator writes, "’I've got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!’” (Gilman 10). The