Austin Mason
Mr. Riggenbach
Amer. Lit.
10/10/2014
Chopin and Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper by Kate Chopin and The Story of an Hour by Charlotte Perkins Gilman focus on female characters. The female characters both share problems in their lives just like wives did in that time. Reading the two books, reading the author's biographies, and looking over 19th century marriages there are many things that are alike and things that are different.
Woman in the 19th century had hard times with their marriages just like in the two stories. Most wives in that century were 15 to 16 years of age and could be forcibly married to a 30 to 33 year-old man. In The Story of an Hour the book says, "She was young, with a fair, calm face." Putting these facts together it's clear that she was married to an older man. When she showed her emotions of the news it's obvious that they were together for a while but then she thinks and realizes that she is finally free of her husband and can now do what she wants to.
In The Yellow Wallpaper the female character has is crazy but you can see why that could have happened back then because back then wives most of the time lived a private life away from other people. This is because back then people assumed that the wives stayed home to clean, help with the children, and make dinner for the husband. So men back then had more power over them and were able to do basically anything they wanted but the women had no power and could not strike out against the men. They could not even get a divorce if the wanted to because back then the men were the judges and the only time they...