"The Story of an Hour" & "The Yellow Wallpaper"

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin provide interesting insights to life in the 19^th century.  The main themes in both texts revolve around gender roles, power, control, oppression, love, and independence.  Both stories also contain symbolism, metaphors, and irony which add to the overall themes of the texts.   

Main themes in both texts revolve around gender roles in society, power, control, and oppression.  Male domination ruled daily life during this time period in history.  Females were simply seen as house wives and their roles included bearing and raising children, housekeeping, and cooking.  In both stories, the women were under the oppression of their husbands.  In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard was dominated by her husband. This becomes evident after Mrs. Mallard receives the news of her husband’s death.  She initially grieves his death but then “She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!"  Mrs. Mallard feels a sense of freedom and relief.  She is now an independent woman.  From this point forward, she will only know joy and happiness.  “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence.”  Although she will grieve her husband’s death, inside she feels joy.  It was “only yesterday she wished that life would be short, now she wishes that life will be long.”  Mrs. Mallard is eager to return to her vivacious spirit that she once knew.  However, she really did love her husband. Mrs. Mallard’s true love for her husband is revealed by the statement “She knew that she would weep again, the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.”  She clearly loved her husband; however, she was suffocated by his attempts to put her on a golden pedestal.     

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” John’s domination is evident from the beginning.  To carry out the narrator’s treatment, she was not allowed to read, write, or see her newborn baby.  Throughout the story, John constantly patronizes his wife by calling her “a blessed little goose.”  He continues to show his dominance throughout by vetoing her smallest wishes such as her fancy to change bedrooms.  Being a physician of high standing, John believes he knows the best remedy for his wife.  He has instilled in her head that his ideas are the only ones that matter.  The narrator “personally…disagree[s] with their ideas,” but the powerful and authoritative voices of John and her family urge her to remain passive.  She might disagree with her treatment but has no power to change the situation.  She is unable to stand up for herself without seeming unreasonable or disrespectful.  As a result, the only place she can retain some control is in the power of her mind.  John seemingly has control over her physically but also of her mind.  When the narrator says “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 it to think about my condition.”  It is interesting that the narrator interrupts her own thought process and immediately recalls John’s instructions.  This shows how John has internalized his authority within his wife to the point that she hears his voice within her head.  The narrator was not content with being the typical housewife.  Her love of writing and creativity distinguishes her from the idealist picture of woman in the 19^th century.                 

“The Story of an Hour” contains a vast amount of symbolism.  The “Dull stare in her eyes” embodies her true feelings.  She is set in a routine and has become less independent; however, she is looking forward to her new freedom.  The room Mrs. Mallard goes to once she hears the news of her husband is a reflection of her newfound freedom.  The window which she looks through represents the beginning of new opportunities that await her in the years to come now that she is free from the control of her husband. “The delicious breath of rain [that] was in the air” is analogous to the cleansing nature that spring rain brings new life to a dead landscape.  New life has not broken ground yet but will soon sprout, as will Mrs. Mallard’s life.  A new dawn is upon her.  The patches of clouds amongst the blue sky represent the different aspects of her relationship with her husband.  The clouds are the rough spots when she felt a puppet of her husband.  The blue sky peaking through the clouds symbolizes the shift from oppression to the opportunity for renewal and freedom.  At the end of the story when Mrs. Mallard leaves her room, she sees her husband walk through the door, alive and well.  She lets out a piercing scream and then collapses.  “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of a joy that kills.”  This is ironic.  Although she was excited about her newfound freedom, her weak heart could not withstand the happy shock of seeing her husband and ultimately resulted in her death. 

The yellow wallpaper is the most significant symbol in Gilman’s story.  The wallpaper is a symbol of female imprisonment within the domestic sphere.  Throughout the story the woman tries to figure out the sub-pattern within the wallpaper.  “The dim shapes get clearer every day” until she eventually unscrambles the pattern.  It resembles a woman “stopping down and creeping” behind the main pattern which looks like the bars of a cage.  The cage represents the woman’s structured life and her feeling of being trapped.  At night the narrator envisions the woman in the wall struggling, shaking the bars in an effort to escape.  The lady trapped in the wallpaper is the narrator, trapped under the control of her family.  As a result, the narrator begins to tear down the wallpaper.  When she finally tears down the wallpaper, she believes she had finally broken out of the ‘wallpaper’ which John has imprisoned her.             

Gilman also uses situational irony in the text.  Situational irony is when a character’s actions have the opposite effect that was intended.  For example, John’s course of treatment backfires.  His wife’s depression gets worse and she is eventually driven insane.  The narrator’s fate development also is ironic.  At the beginning, when she is mildly depressed, she is under the complete control of John.  The narrator only gains power and insight by losing her self-control and sanity at the end of the text.

In conclusion, both texts contain symbols that greatly contribute to the overall themes of the stories.  The main theme of females breaking out from male oppression is clearly evident.  Both stories provide an interesting outlook of life in the 19^th century.