Preview

Summary Of The Hand By Gabrielle Colette

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
300 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of The Hand By Gabrielle Colette
“The Hand” by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette portrays stereotypical American marriage as well as uses symbolism to evoke mood and tone. The story shows the submissive role and conformity to male dominance played by a woman in the relationship. Without understanding the symbolism in the story, the reader merely sees a story about a woman who picks out peculiar things to be embarrassed about. Broadly, the story is about a newlywed woman and her acceptance of the masculinity of her husband. As the young bride's husband sleeps, the wife lies awake, supporting his head so that he may sleep in comfort. In society during this time, women were taught to provide comfort and soothe their husbands in order to ease the men's lives. Yet, Colette’s actions make
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Edna Pontellier's Familial Tensions In The Awakening
    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Edna Pontellier's Familial Tensions In The Awakening

    In 19th century Louisiana, there was a gender role for men and women. The men went to work while the women were “mother wives” whose main job was to to care of the children and help the family. This way of life was predominantly unquestioned, except in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, a wealthy “mother wife”, tries to fight her gender role and become independent. Edna Pontellier’s strive for independence leads to struggles with the society’s gender role upon women.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of The Hand By Gabrielle Colette
    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary Of The Hand By Gabrielle Colette

    The Hand by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette follows the transformation of the main character’s opinion of her newly wed husband. Her emotions towards her husband's hand changes from ecstacy, to disgust, and finally to acceptance and resignation. When the husband starts to fall asleep, his wife is wide awake with excitement. The feeling when his arm “had slipped his big arm under the small of her slim, adolescent back,” lights up her face.…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Wives as Deputy Husbands
    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Wives as Deputy Husbands

    The author’s thesis of this article is to inform the reader that women had more roles in colonial times than people rarely consider. Ulrich’s contention is that “the husband was in control of the external affairs and of the family, a husband’s decision would incorporate his wife’s opinion, and should fate or circumstance prevent the husband from fulfilling his role the wife could stand in his place” (Paragraph 4.). Women didn’t only depend on their husband. She was not helpless. Her commitment to her husband did allow him to be able to trust her with difficult tasks that a servant couldn’t be trusted with. A wife specialized in housekeeping skills but it also included the responsibilities of being a deputy husband. Ulrich says “Economic opportunities were limited for women; however, female responsibility was a very broad topic” (Paragraph 8.). A woman could do any task as long as it furthered the good of her family and her husband deemed it acceptable. Wives could double as their husbands and became respected companions and shared the spouse’s authority. There was no sharp division between home and work in the colonial time period. Many people worked on a farm which also doubled as their home. This was also true for male and females, their spaces overlapped. While the husband was around her responsibility was…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Imagery and Symbolism in the Yellow Wallpaper
    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Imagery and Symbolism in the Yellow Wallpaper

    The story begins when she and her husband have just moved into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness. An ailment her husband has conveniently diagnosed. The husband is a physician and in the beginning of her writing she has nothing but good things to say about him, which is very obedient of her. She speaks of her husband as if he is a father figure and nothing like an equal, which is so important in a relationship. She writes, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction." It is in this manner that she first delicately speaks of his total control over her without meaning to and how she has no choices whatsoever. This control is perhaps so imbedded in our main character that it is even seen in her secret writing; "John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition...so I will let it alone and talk about the house." Her husband suggests enormous amounts of bed rest and no human interaction…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Usurpation of Identity in the Yellow Wallpaper
    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Usurpation of Identity in the Yellow Wallpaper

    Prevailing attitudes in the late nineteenth century in America were that women were frail, feeble-minded, and prone to hysteria unless carefully managed by men. A key passage in the story that illustrates this is when the narrator says “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do?” (Gilman 792). In Gilman’s story, the narrator’s husband John is not only her spouse but a respected physician. This dual status gives John a weight of seeming wisdom that creates an unhealthy atmosphere for the narrator. She says that “It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so” (797). First she is taken out of her usual habitat as they live in a rented house for the summer, and then she is separated from her family and friends.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mrs. Mallard In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour
    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

    Kate Chopins short story , “The Story of An Hour”, describes Mrs. Mallard as being ienslaved in an idealistic marriage during the nineteenth century. Mrs. Mallard, unlike the stereotypical women of the time, tastes the momentary sweetness of freedom when she hears the false news of her husband’s death.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Who Is Edna Not Only Oppressed By Her Husband Or A Woman?
    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Who Is Edna Not Only Oppressed By Her Husband Or A Woman?

    Paragraph 1: Edna is not only oppressed by her husband, but instead she is held down by the expectations and the social norms of her society. During the 19th century and early 20th century, women were looked down upon as mere property that was meant to cook, clean, and care for children. It was uncommon for women to act promiscuously and for them to be rebellious towards their husbands who were supposed to keep them obedient. In The Awakening Edna is limited to setting up dinner, caring for her children, and staying home on Tuesdays for the reception days.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Perrault Cinderella
    • 1294 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Perrault Cinderella

    Folklore, modern media, and historical events within the western world have shown us time and time again that women are meant to be the fairer and weaker of the two sexes; while reiterating the idea that men are strong, valiant, and ultimately the saviors of all women. This notion has been used to fortify the difference between the two genders, asserting the claim that women cannot save themselves or each other, and can only find their “happily ever after” with the help of a man. Perrault’s “Cinderella: or The Glass Slipper,” is the story of a mistreated, but kindhearted, girl who eventually marries a prince and goes on to live happily ever after. Within Perrault’s “Cinderella,” women are illustrated as powerful, and are the sole characters that drive the plot. While the male characters within the story remain flat and generally unimportant, therefore challenging the gender dichotomy that has depicted women as demure, and men as being critical in the lives of women.…

    • 1294 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Kate Chopin's Till Death Do Us Part
    • 1279 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Kate Chopin's Till Death Do Us Part

    Kate Chopin’s creation of the frail hearted Mrs. Mallard enlightens through irony and twists, about the servitude and acceptance of fate women in the nineteenth century faced regarding marriage. A life of independence outside of the constraints of marriage was a fantasy for women like Mrs. Mallard. When she is finally offered the opportunity and it was taken away from her abruptly, it leads to her literal heartbreak. Mrs. Mallard’s death showcased her unwillingness to return to her life of limitation that she’d been longing to escape, the irony of her broken heart, the exemplification of the lifestyle of women of the era, as well as the bittersweet undertone of marriage.…

    • 1279 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Loss Of Innocence In Cousin Kate
    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Loss Of Innocence In Cousin Kate

    The poem ‘Cousin Kate” written by Christina Rossetti signifies a story of the speaker which explains what happens to a ‘cottage maiden’ once she has been sullied by a man which consequently leads her to lose her innocence. ‘Cottage maiden’ creates a rural simplistic image of the speaker who has a low status. Due to the Victorian era in which the poem was written it is clear that the poem is based around the fact that women were not treated fairly as there was a patriarchal society.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And The Story Of An Hour
    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And The Story Of An Hour

    Women have been viewed as the inferior sex in the domestic sphere for ages and the protagonists in Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are both examples of women suffering in their own marriages. Both protagonists of the stories have their lives ruined through the confinement that they feel. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator listens to her husband’s suggestions as she is expected to do, which slowly makes her insane. While in “The Story of an Hour,” the return of the confinement in Mrs. Mallard's life literally kills her. While it is easy to blame the overpowering image of the men in both of these stories for the oppression the protagonists faced, the authors make it clear through…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Disparity in 'Story of an Hour'
    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Gender Disparity in 'Story of an Hour'

    Reading Kate Chopin's 'Story of an Hour' leaves on reader's mind a strong theme of the gender disparity present in the institution of marriage. The narrative about a woman's sorrowful state and life under her authoritarian husband introduces Mrs. Mallard first in the exposition paragraph as having a 'heart trouble' which requires 'great care'(pg. 15). It is quite ambiguous as to whether the trouble is physical or emotional. Even so, Chopin uses this trouble as a way of symbolizing the suffering of the woman in the institute of marriage. This central theme is also replicated in Gail Godwin's 'A Sorrowful Woman' as well as Sidonie Collette's 'The Hand'. Godwin depicts the man as the one with the last 'say' and that the woman has no authority of her own. She is to obey her husband, even forcefully. I think Collette on the other hand tries to show the husband's authoritarianism in the institution of marriage from a traditional perspective. This is so because according to her, the inequality has always been clearly set up and the roles well defined such that the husband may not even be able to able to tell how strong his influence on his wife might be. The three stories share the misery of the woman under the man in the institution of marriage.…

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Story Of An Hour Analysis
    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Story Of An Hour Analysis

    The author, Kate Chopin uses marriage to show how powerless women were compared to men during the late eighteen hundreds in her short story entitled, “The Story of An Hour “. At the beginning of the story the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard has a heart condition. Due to her illness, her sister Josephine and her husband's friend Richards has the hard task to tell Louise that her husband Brently Mallard has died in a train wreck. During this first hour Mrs. Mallard experiences the sorrow of her husband's death and the loneliness she would feel, but also the conflicting and exciting feelings of being able to feel alive and the freedom she will have in the future being alone without her husband.…

    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper Vs Story Of An Hour Essay
    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper Vs Story Of An Hour Essay

    Women were always oppressed by men, leaving them to more subordinate roles in marriage. In the story Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson and The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin, contains two married women that have expected roles towards their husbands.In the Yellow Wallpaper the narrator is forced to live in a nursery room her husband John believes will benefit her. His solution for her ‘sickness’ is bed rest, but he never lets her say how she feels about that. And, in The Story of An Hour, Mrs.Mallard , the wife of Mr.Mallard receives the news that her husband allegedly has passed away during a tragic accident, and she begins to mourn differently than someone would. They both viewed their husbands as superior, and felt restrained in their relationship, but during that time period this was a society norm.…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cult Of Domesticity
    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cult Of Domesticity

    During the late 19th and early 20th century, strict and confining gender roles existed for women throughout the United States. While men were able to pursue out-of-house careers, women were trapped in a Cult of Domesticity, disabling them from acting in a “manly” manner in fear of losing their reputation. In this Cult of Domesticity, women were born and bred simply to marry a man with a higher social status and monetary value, and procreate with them to form a family. However, because the women of this era were raised as if they have few rights and only live for money, the inflated, bratty and materialistic lives of these 20th century women irritate me. In Edith Wharton’s novel, The House of Mirth, she explores the struggles of a woman, Lily…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics