An Hour Women
“Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story focusing on the hour life of the main character, Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard struggles from a heart condition. Her husband, Mr. Mallard, soon dies which leaves her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richard to break the horrifying news to her gently. When Mrs. Mallard heard the news, she was surprisingly happy. She feels “Free! Body and soul free!” (631) from a depressing marriage and loves that she does not have to live for anyone but herself now. However, she walks into the house and soon appears Mr. Mallard. Upset and confused, Mrs. Mallard dies immediately of a heart attack. Chopin suggests that the role of women is defenseless and shows how an unequal marriage in the nineteenth
…show more content…
century allowed men the privilege to claim and control women. Women lost their identities and battled profoundly in marriage. Therefore, when a woman’s husband died, she felt free and excited. The main character’s husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” belittles both his wife’s thoughts and illness.
She is suffering from “nervous depression” and of her marriage. John tells her that the best treatment for her condition is to not be active. He also forbids her from writing and working. She believes that activity, freedom and work would help her so she begins to write in a secret journal. The narrator becomes disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom. She becomes very well at hiding her journal from John, and eventually becomes fond of the yellow wallpaper. Attempting to figure out its pattern has become her primary entertainment. As time passes, the wallpaper dominates her imagination and rules her creative ability. She believes that the wallpaper resembles a woman who is trying to get out from behind the pattern. The narrator begins tearing at the wallpaper to help free the trapped woman. By the end of the story, the narrator is hopelessly insane and believes that she herself is trapped as well. John opens the door and his wife says, “I’ve got out at last… and I’ve pulled off most of the wallpaper, so you can’t put me back!” (10). After hearing this, and seeing the horror of the situation, John faints. John is a perfect example of how men suppress women. He is controlling what his wife does and thinks. The wallpaper represents the narrator as trying to escape her husband. John decides for his wife what she should or should not do, leaving her
incapable of making life decisions for herself.
century allowed men the privilege to claim and control women. Women lost their identities and battled profoundly in marriage. Therefore, when a woman’s husband died, she felt free and excited. The main character’s husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” belittles both his wife’s thoughts and illness.
She is suffering from “nervous depression” and of her marriage. John tells her that the best treatment for her condition is to not be active. He also forbids her from writing and working. She believes that activity, freedom and work would help her so she begins to write in a secret journal. The narrator becomes disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom. She becomes very well at hiding her journal from John, and eventually becomes fond of the yellow wallpaper. Attempting to figure out its pattern has become her primary entertainment. As time passes, the wallpaper dominates her imagination and rules her creative ability. She believes that the wallpaper resembles a woman who is trying to get out from behind the pattern. The narrator begins tearing at the wallpaper to help free the trapped woman. By the end of the story, the narrator is hopelessly insane and believes that she herself is trapped as well. John opens the door and his wife says, “I’ve got out at last… and I’ve pulled off most of the wallpaper, so you can’t put me back!” (10). After hearing this, and seeing the horror of the situation, John faints. John is a perfect example of how men suppress women. He is controlling what his wife does and thinks. The wallpaper represents the narrator as trying to escape her husband. John decides for his wife what she should or should not do, leaving her
incapable of making life decisions for herself.