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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page essay that analyzes Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. The writer argues that these two nineteenth century writers consistently demonstrated through their fiction how the restrictive nature of Victorian social conventions served to create virtual prisons for the women of this era. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khywsh3.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
through their fiction how the restrictive nature of Victorian social conventions served to create virtual prisons that bound women into a culturally sanctioned "catch 22." By analyzing two of
their short stories, Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and Chopins The Story of an Hour, it becomes evident that nineteenth century women were in a no win situation. If they passively
succumbed to societal expectations, they faced a confining existence that treated adult women as if they were large children, eternally in need of male supervision. On the other hand, the
slightest sign of rebellion, any deviance from the Victorian concepts of womanhood, labeled them as not being truly "womanly." This societal system is particularly clear in Gilmans story, and
the ramifications of this system are clear in Chopins. It is fitting that the reader never learns the name of Gilmans protagonist, as she truly does not have an
existence of her own within the confines of nineteenth century notions of womanhood. Her husband-physician dominates every aspect of her life, emotionally and physically. She is not even allowed to
"own" her own emotions, as anything she utters that does not precisely fit her husbands views is belittled and ridiculed. For instance, she comments that there is something mysterious about
the house that they are staying in, her husband corrects her, saying that what she felt was a draught and he shut the window (Gilman 6). The woman is
obviously frustrated and intensely angry, but she is so dominated that she cannot admit, even to herself, the source of her frustration. She says, "I get unreasonably angry with John
sometimes, Im sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition" (Gilman 6). It is the womans "nervous condition" that constitutes the
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