The Yellow Wallpaper Comparison Essay

During the 1890’s married women had little to no freedom or rights, the men controlled the life of the women, therefore marriage was often viewed as imprisonment and a burden. The chains of marriage would change women’s perception of reality, causing women to often question their importance in this male driven world. Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour and
Charlotte Perkins­Stenson’s The Yellow Wallpaper captures the views of these oppressed women very efficiently by using devices such as symbolism, imagery and irony, both tales center around one woman and her fall from reality and life due to the shackles of marriage.
Both authors used symbolism to reflect their point of views on marriage, in The Story of an Hour, Chopin states that Mallard suffered

Mallard suffered immensely throughout the story as did the narrator in The
Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator was also diagnosed with an illness.”I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more . society and stimulus ­ but John says the very worst thing
I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.”. Most likely considered a mental illness, however her being a married woman forced to stay at home and listen to the every whim of her husband caused this illness to appear. Both illnesses were caused by being in a one sided marriage, both women’s minds and perception of reality were changed due to marriage and oppression, they could not think or act for themselves.
The use of imagery in both story is pellucid, in The Story of an Hour the most iconic image used is the window. The window represents Mallard’s desire to be free, however she can only imagine and picture her freedom “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.”. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the wallpaper wild and unique pattern represents the narrator’s inner self. The lines being wild and crazy yet

Mallard. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator begins to lose her mentatlity being confined to one room and not being able to most anything even write. She truly becomes free once she is no longer in control of her mind.”Then I peeled off all the paper I couldreach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it !All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision i”,”And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don 't like it a bit. I wonder ­ I begin to think” She becomes insane or severely traumatized from this event, the wallpaper and woman represents her true self, however when she rips apart the paper on the wall she is destroying what she once was. The irony in both stories is that both protagonists must pay a price for their freedoms.
Both stories revolve around the theme of confinement and oppression in marriage,