Comparing Desirée's Baby And The Yellow Wall-Paper

“Schools of Thought-Short Story Essay”

During the nineteenth century, women were not given the respect they deserved, and the need for their self assertion was essential. The short stories, “Desirée’s Baby,” by Kate Chopin, and the “Yellow Wall-Paper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both demonstrate the need for self assertion among women by using realistic representations of human behavior and personal psychological states. From both stories, the main female characters’ behaviors and emotions reflect their psychological state, how they feel about their lives, and how they believe they should be treated. Desirée, from “Desirée’s Baby,” and the nameless narrator, from the “Yellow Wall-Paper,” both have weak and dependent personalities, which the reader learns from their actions and their relationships with their husbands. Throughout history, women have not been able to be
The narrator is stuck in an awful situation, where she is not allowed to write or do anything creative. Her husband, John, is the cause of her situation, and while the narrator abides by almost all of John’s rules, she believes many of them to be a hindrance to her feeling well again. Gilman uses the narrator’s actions and thoughts of rebellion to prove the need for self assertion among women. As quoted from the short story, “And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way-it is such a relief!” This line describes the narrator’s opinion about writing, which is something John forbids. She puts herself before him, and by doing so she is being independent and assertive. The narrator’s personality is a reflection of a real woman who wants to be in control of her life, but cannot, due to her husband. Gilman uses her own personal experience with depression among nineteenth century women to portray an accurate description of human