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Gilman and Chopin both knew the significance of speaking up. Back then, however, America was far from ready to be changed. These works were treated as dishonorable and bizarre, and were not accepted.
Both Gilman and Chopin managed to raise a few rather important questions about the sex-roles and differences between men and women. Although they were not the starters of the first wave of feminism, they can be viewed as creators of some of the major arguments – they broke through the veil of silence and emerged into an important source of discussion and cultural expression. Their works helped women organize against the oppression by men by inserting the ideas of every women being a person for themselves into women's heads.
In the end of 1920s,
Because sexism and racial prejudice still occur today, it is important to look at these social conditions of women and minorities that were discussed by Gilman and Du Bois in the 19th and 20th centuries. The objectification of women throughout the media imposes the idea that women should focus on how they look rather than on their intellectual capabilities. While the U.S. has imposed laws that prohibit the systematic discrimination of African Americans, there is still large income inequalities because of the racial prejudices that occur during the hiring process. Thus, it is important to study the works of Gilman and Du Bois to understand how woman and minorities continue to be treated.
During the nineteenth century, Chopin’s era, women were not allowed to vote, attend school or even hold some jobs. A woman’s role was to get married, have children
Allen, Priscilla. "Old Critics and New: The Treatment of Chopin's The Awakening." In The Authority of Experience: Essays in Feminist Criticism, ed. Arlyn Diamond and Lee R. Edwards. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977, 224-238.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are both centralized on the feministic views of women coming out to the world. Aside from the many differences within the two short stories, there is also similarities contained in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” such as the same concept of the “rest treatment” was prescribed as medicine to help deal with their sickness, society’s views on the main character’s illness, and both stories parallel in the main character finding freedom in the locked rooms that they contain themselves in.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structure. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society. Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men.
“Gilman railed against the condition of women who were regulated to a life of confining costume and care for child and home”(Article 2). Women felt they were capable of working jobs that were often labeled as a “man’s job”. “Gilman introduced her readers to a country of women who work cooperatively”(Article 2). Gilman did a lot to be involved in the Suffrage Act. She spoke at the 1896 convention of the Women’s Suffrage Association, she also wrote a wide variety of writings, from poems to lectures, political essays and novels. Her most famous work “The Yellow Wallpaper” published in 1892 and Womens Economics in 1898. “She envisioned a world in which women were free from the drudgery of cooking and cleaning and could engage in intellectual pursuits- a world in which women threw off their corsets and breathed freely”(article 2). There were many risks starting this movement, men weren’t used to women speaking out or even having an opinion. Many people disagreed with their statements, wanting life to be the way it always is, men being the “breadwinners” of the household. Women were often arrested for going against the social norm. Women decided this needed to change, after all they are people therefore they should have the same
Both Gilman's and Chopin's stories are, in effect, stories of women who feel "trapped" by the men in their lives. Gilman uses first person narration to reveal a woman's "creeping" loss of reality to her readers, while Chopin allows us to experience the joy Louise Mallard felt upon hearing of her husband's death through third person narration. Interestingly, neither story would have been able to reveal either woman's psyche to impact the reader as successfully as both did had their individual narrations been attempted through another form.
...ble to see that it actually incorporates themes of women’s rights. Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes. This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasing large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more then a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century.
... of race, class, gender and culture were very important in that time and Chopin makes sure to address those issues. Whenever someone reads a book, they can look further into the story and find a great deal of the ideas and beliefs of people of that time.
Both stories were written by women, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin. But is this fact important to understand the aim of every story? Would they have had the same effect if the had been written by men? I will explore these matters.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assigns gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically, Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolve around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom for women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dreams and impose their will on their wives (149).
Bryfonski, Dedria, ed. Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.
Kate Chopin was a woman whose feminist viewpoints were far ahead of her time, which of course garnered her more than her share of criticism. In a time when women were expected to behave "properly" and sexual desire was considered to be something only experienced by men, Chopin spoke with exceptional openness about human sexuality. She lambasted society for its perpetual close-mindedness in a time when righteousness was considered to be an attribute, and she helped to generate more enlightened attitudes among both the women and men of her time.
With exquisite mingling in sound of quiet and agitation, fluidity and interruption, with a gorgeous melody of cautious, tightly contracting circles and sudden leaps into space, Chopin, the subtle-souled psychologist, opens his waltz. How does Chopin speak through his waltz? How does the music play the listener? Minds think through forms. Form follows content. Music’s structure matters. In Chopin’s Opus 69 No.1, the AA’BA’BA’CCDCDA’ structure of reoccurring themes uncomfortably prolongs the inevitable return of the tragic first theme which the audience does not want to hear but expects to hear anyway.
Everybody is different in every unique way, and that a group of people being in the same roof doesn’t mean they are similar, but that they influence by each other time through time. Through Edna’s transformation, Chopin, under the feminism lense, condemns the sexist society and stand up for the equality, rights of a woman. Chopin portrays how society affects to people behave and thinking which is a two slide knife that could whether more useful or more harmful.