Similarities And Differences Between The Yellow Wallpaper And The Story Of An Hour

Two stories, two characters and a serious of events that change them from beginning to end. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman focus on two similar characters who turn out to be dynamic. Dynamic characters are ones that undergo inner changes throughout the course of the story due to certain events and experiences they live. Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” is a woman who suffers from a certain heart trouble and whose husband is apparently killed in a railroad accident which triggers the changes that are to come to her character. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” our character in the story is portrayed by the narrator whom suffers from some type of mental issue and is married to

Throughout the events that take place in the story, both characters start out being someone and based on certain circumstances experience inner change which makes them dynamic. These two women shared similar experiences, had different thoughts that changed them both throughout the stories, but unfortunately not for the best, as their fate at the end of the stories weren’t the best. These two women changed from whom they originally thought they were and their husbands played a part in that change. “The Story of an Hour” is told in third-person and allows us to connect to Mrs. Mallards thoughts. At the beginning of this story we learn that Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart troubles and is informed of a tragic railroad accident in which her husband was killed. The very first line of the story tells us “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin, Kate 179). In the very first line is where we

She shares a similar experience to Louise Mallard, but in a different situation and ending. The character also suffers from some sort of mental condition that her husband whom also happens to be her physician says is a “temporary nervous depression”. She is staying their over the summer with her husband for her condition to improve. Her husband John, also prescribed her the “rest-cure” treatment for her own good. She is confined to bed rest in a former nursery room with a yellow wallpaper. This is where the narrator will start to experience the changes as she unfolds the hidden “text” in the yellow wallpaper. She starts by explaining each detail that she doesn’t like about the wallpaper and also makes a comparison to how she understands why children never liked a room like this. First of all, she didn’t like the house, second, she did not like the room that was picked for her, and lastly she was not able to perform any activities that she enjoyed. She would try to restrain herself from telling anything to her husband because since he is the physician he wins all the arguments. These are simple stated facts that we know are going to transform her from bad to worse. She is suffering from some sort of mental condition and is being placed somewhere she does not feel comfortable in. “There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will”