IN THE STORY OF AN HOUR, MRS.MALLARD DIES VERY SUDEENLY AT THE END. IN THE YELLOW WALLPAPER. THE NARRATOR GOES INSANE. WHAT SIMILARITES OF CAUSE AND EFFECT Free Essay Example, 1000 words

Your Your Number 14 April 2006 Too Much Love: Similarities in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† When a marriage is a prison and the husband is a warden, strong women must eventually find a way to escape. Mrs. Mallard in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin and the narrator in â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are both intelligent Victorian women, but neither is allowed to publicly express herself. Instead, each woman is forced to keep her ideas bottled up inside because her husband smothers her with love and deprives her of her freedom. For the unnamed woman in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper, † this suffocation overcomes her and she escapes to the only place she can avoid John’s crushing caress: the madness of her own mind. Mrs. Mallard is allowed to finally release â€Å"the strongest impulse of her being† (Chopin 537) and when reality tries to replace the cork on her freedom, it is too much for her to bear. She dies of heartbreak. In these two stories, we see how the oppression of women under the guise of love leads to the destruction of both the love and the woman. Both characters are constrained in the very beginning by the social conventions of their time and class. We will write a custom essay sample on IN THE STORY OF AN HOUR, MRS.MALLARD DIES VERY SUDEENLY AT THE END. IN THE YELLOW WALLPAPER. THE NARRATOR GOES INSANE. WHAT SIMILARITES OF CAUSE AND EFFECT or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Many middle class women in that time period were expected to confine themselves to the home and domestic sphere, and even then, they were not expected to be in charge of the house, having lower class servants to do the cooking, cleaning and childrearing. It was thought that true women should not exert themselves, because they were too fragile to handle any strain. So it is for the characters in these stories. They are thought to be weak. Mrs. Mallard, we learn in the first sentence, â€Å"was afflicted with heart trouble† (Chopin 536) and thus â€Å"great care† (Chopin 536) is taken with her. Her family does not believe she can handle the news of her husband’s death on her own and does even allow her the luxury of sitting alone in her room. The narrator of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† relates that her husband, John, â€Å"is very careful and loving† (Gilman 727) and John’s sister is â€Å"so careful of me† (Gilman 729). Further, her unnamed condition, which seems to be lack of stimulation, is exacerbated by a husband who belittles her with his every loving gesture. She says, â€Å"He laughs at me, of course, but one expect that in a marriage† (Gilman 725). He reduces her anger with him to a â€Å"nervous condition† (Gilman 726), dictates â€Å"a schedule prescription for each hour in the day† (Gilman 726), â€Å"hates to have [her] write a wordâ⠂¬  (Gilman 726), forbids her to have â€Å"stimulating people about† (Gilman 728), forces her to live in a nursery, and calls her â€Å"little girl† (Gilman 732).