social changes Essays - Fiction, Literature, Gender Studies

In the nineteenth century gender specific roles and male repression of women?s roles and ideal was common place. Women had stereotypes and restrictive criterion placed on them. In the represent day women have made huge strides in their struggle for equality with men. However, the nineteenth century was still very early in the women?s movement and very different from today. At this time women were thought to be incapable of much of what men were. Consequently women were often not allowed or expected to do the things that men did. At times simply being treated as an imbecile or a child by the men of society would take place. A woman's independence comes with a price only if that society creates it, which many of them do, because most societies have long operated on the base of controlling women. Not working with women, but controlling them and keeping them financially and emotionally dependent on men. There was nothing chivalrous about this, yet, it was about control. A woman must lear n to speak her mind in a way that earns her respect and dignity from her husband, which in turn, will be accepted by society. In the short stories, Story of an Hour written by Kate Chopin, and Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Gilman shows the repression of two women that are being dominated by their husbands in different ways. On the contrary, in Daisy Miller, society is attempting to repress her of freedom of self-expression. Emotional repression, male domination and female oppression are methods to keep women from gaining their independence in society. In Story of an Hour, Louise Mallard was emotionally repressed by her marriage to her husband, Brently Mallard. Upon learning that Mr. Mallard was killed in a tragic accident, Louise was faced with a storm of emotions. Briefly, she mourned his death, and then she discovers this to be her way to emotional freedom. Throughout her marriage, she was forced to live up to his expectations and always had someone to look after her or tell her what to do.? There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself?. She realizes after his apparent death that she was ?Free, free, free?. This shows how her life would change and she is now a new person and removed from the emotionally repressed life that she lived before. Louise was a wife finally free of the domestic servitude called ?marriage? she was trapped in. Mr. Mallard?s death brought upon a sense of liberating independence because when he was alive he would use his ?powerful will? to bend hers. The emotio nal repression from her marriage is what ultimately killed Louise. Mr. Mallard?s death unleashed an array of emotions that was too much for her weak heart to handle. The young wife in the Yellow Wallpaper also faced similar repression, along with extreme male domination in her marriage. John, the young wife?s husband, diagnoses her as having a mental nervous condition. His assumption of his own superior wisdom and maturity leads him to misjudge, patronize and dominate his wife, all in the name of ?helping her.? She is reduced to acting like a cross, petulant child unable to stand up for herself without seeming unreasonable or disloyal. ?What is it, little girl? He said. Don?t go walking about like that ?you?ll get a cold.? This quote shows that John treats his wife as if she is a child in need of his guidance. He talks to her as if she was his daughter instead of his wife. She does as her husband asks of her but secretly disobeys him when he is not around. John?s dominating demeanor forces his wife to find solace in the yellow wallpaper and ultimately uses it to retain some control and exercise the power of her mind from her oppression and escape s her binds. Although she does become mentally ill by the end of the story, she does conquer her dominator by breaking out of her isolation and proving to herself that she can accomplish what she set out to do regardless of people trying to direct her and her life. In Daisy Miller, society is attempting to get Daisy