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by Sarah Block | |
| 1 | Two stories in our text that were fairly similar are "The Yellow Wallpaper," and "The Story of an Hour." Both of these stories dealt with middle-aged women who longed to attain their freedom. When I first read these stories, I read them back-to-back and got the same meaning and feeling from both of them. The two stories have different authors and I could tell this when I read them. Personally, I was drawn into "The Yellow Wallpaper," but got a little lost when I read "The Story of an Hour." The two stories are very close in theme, but contain different styles and qualities in how they convey their message. The two stories are about women who are fighting for their freedom, happiness, and the ability to express themselves in any way possible. |
| 2 | The biggest similarity is how the main character in each story is a woman who desires the feeling of freedom. Both of these women want it badly, but are not allowed to have it. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character is a woman who is depressed mentally. To treat her sickness, she is sent with her husband to live in a haunted mansion that is supposed to make her better, but it only makes her worse. Her husband is the primary reason why she remains in the depressed state. He makes her stay in a room that she does not like, as it is his preference. She is also forced to stay inside that room for every part of the day and she is not allowed to express her creativity in any shape or form. "The Story of an Hour" is very similar to this, but contains many differences. It's like the other story in the way that the main character is in a room by herself, but she was not forced into the room, and she could leave if she wanted to. It's also similar in the way that she wants her freedom. However freedom is different from the other story .The woman wants to actually be free and be able to live her own life. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the woman wants to experience her own life, but, more importantly to her, to have the ability to express herself and be creative. She wants to be able to write and take walks while in "The Story of an Hour" the wife wants to live without her husband. Both of these characters want freedom, but only one gets it. In "The Story of an Hour," the woman believes freedom is hers, but the shock of her losing it again causes her to have a heart attack and die. However, Death is eternal freedom. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the woman goes crazy for lack of freedom, yet does not die. She goes crazy and experiences her own type of freedom, but her freedom is only temporary, and once she leaves the house she is going to start getting better. |
| 3 | Another similarity between these two stories is that both of the characters have husbands who take their freedom away. In "The Story of an Hour," the woman' s life has not been her own ever since she got married. When she learns of her husband's death, her thoughts on what life would be like without her husband are pleasing. "'Free! Body and soul free!' She kept whispering" (Chopin 159). However, when she finds out her husband is not dead, she is so upset that she has a heart attack and dies. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the wife has the same type of controlling husband, but we actually see him in the story. He refuses to let her stay in the room that she wants, he won' t let her do the things she wants, and he won't let her be the person she wants to be. In the two stories, both of them have controlling husbands, but in "The Yellow Wallpaper," instead of dying from lack of freedom, instead causes her to go insane. |
| 4 | Another major common point between the stories is that both female characters have a period of hysteria. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," she never cried but was upset that she could not do anything. She was so obsessed with the wallpaper in the room that it caused her to go crazy. Her altered mental state had her thinking there was a woman inside the wallpaper. She tore down the paper on one of the last nights that they spent there. She wanted to free the woman who was trapped inside of the wallpaper, but then she started to act like she was the woman inside of the paper and had just gotten out. Tearing down the paper was her only distraction inside the room, so she would not let anyone in. When her husband and his sister finally got in, they were shocked and scared at what they found. She had gone crazy and was acting out what she was feeling. "1 wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did" (Gilman 241). I can honestly say that she went crazy. In "The Story of an Hour," she went crazy but not to this extreme. She also locked herself into her room, but she was not forced to remain there. She went crazy, but it was only the form of crying and thinking about how her life was going to be. In this story, people tried to get her out of the room just like in the other tale. The difference is that the woman emerged from the room on her own free will, and not because someone found the key. |
| 5 | These two stories are also very similar. Both have women who are very weak and let little things annoying them. One let the wallpaper drive her crazy; the other had her freedom drive her crazy. Who knows what would have happened if these two characters were allowed to express themselves and have their freedom. There would probably be one less crazy woman and a wife still alive. When we are not allowed to be the person we want to be it can drive us crazy, makes us confused, and makes us do things that we normally would not do. The mind is very powerful, yet when we can't use it to its full power, it starts to do things to compensate for the parts of it that we are not using. These two stories are definitely a cry to let women be who they want to be and not to shut them away to try to make them better. Everyone needs to freely express himself or herself and women must be included in that "everyone." |
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Nominated by Ellen Franklin, Writing Instructor
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