Kate Chopin versus Charlotte Perkins Gilman

While there are many differences between writers in various perspectives such as their writing styles, personality, writing lives, themes and so on, there are also various similarities between them. An exceptional illustration of the resemblances between writers can be seen in “Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” alongside Chopin’s “Story of an Hour.” Kate Chopin along with Charlotte Perkins Gilman offers the reader a perception of the taste of how marriage used to be and is still being for some. Accordingly, the relator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman along with Mrs. Mallard, the raconteur in Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” is repressed. Notably, the societies in which they reside, in addition to gender responsibilities add to their suppressed status. Both writers write about the women problems in many of their writings besides exploring the responsibilities as well as the lives of women even though in totally different approaches.  Specifically, the similarity between the writers is that both depict women who feel imprisoned and lack the control of even the most palpable factors of their subsistence.

Biographic Data of the Writers

Before delving into the discussion of the similarity of how Chopin as well as Gilman address the issues of women, it is vital to know these authors first. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860 to Fredrick Beecher Perkins alongside Mary Fitch Westcott. Notably, her father, who was a librarian as well as a writer, predisposed Gilman’s adoration of literature along with the dedication to intellectual search throughout her life. According to Beer (98), while residing in California as an adult, she was exceedingly encompassed in women’s academic as well as socialist establishments such as the Pacific Coast Women’s Press Association (PCWPA), The Women’s Alliance, The Ebell Society, The Economic Club, The State Council of Women, and The Parent’s Association. In 1896, she was a key speaker at the National American Women’s Suffrage Association convention besides attending the International Socialist and Labor Congress as California’s envoy. Gilman’s work ranges from narratives to poetry, lectures and political essays to short stories (Beer 98). However, her most celebrated writing includes “The Yellow Wallpaper” along with the “Women and Economics” put out in 1892 and 1896 respectively. The recurring theme in most of her writings was patriarchal oppression.

Kate Chopin, on the other hand, was born in 1850 to Thomas and Eliza Faris in St. Louis. She attended St. Louis Catholic Girl’s School Academy of the Sacred Heart after which she went to St. Louis society, where she met her spouse, Oscar Chopin who later died of malaria in 1882. In 1884, Chopin and her children returned to St. Louis. After a year, she started writing, initially publishing a musical piece in 1888 known as “Polka for Piano” and later a poem in 1889by the title “If it Might Be”. Within a span of 12 years, she had published 100 short stories along with three novels in addition to one play (Beer 100). One of her most recognized work “The Awakening” was issued in 1899, and it was concerned with the issues of morality along with identity. However, before the publishing of “The Awakening”, she had printed “The Story of an Hour” in 1894 (Beer 100). Nonetheless, Chopin’s works were not significantly acknowledged in the established literary realm until 1969 (Beer 100). The American feminist movement in the 1960s had a considerable deal in augmenting her fame as it brought recognition to the work of the females that had been left out from the literary catalog by its male authors. Presently, her writing is a portion of the American literary tenet.

Discussion

In both “The Yellow Wallpaper” along with the “Story of an Hour”, liberty is accomplished in increasingly unusual approaches, but the form of autonomy the raconteurs attain is not accessible to most females of the era. In Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the raconteur, who is significantly not named, is considerably suppressed by her spouse, John. Ideally, her spouse, who is a physician, is at best denigrating and at worst belittling to her. She mentions, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman). Apparently, according to Golden (25), this makes the one question the affiliation between the reporter and her spouse.

The narrator also mentions, “Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose” (Gilman). Once more, John is denigrating her. Notably, it does not mean that she does not adore her spouse or that he does not adore her. Simply, this is how marriage is supposed to be. Primarily, she must bend to the husband’s every notion and do precisely whatever is required of her. Golden (27) mentions that she lacks even her body control or the control of her medical therapy in the story because her spouse is a man as well as a physician, which makes him “not wrong.”

Golden (27) explains that the reader assumes that the speaker has lately delivered a child and has post-partum depression that is not diagnosed at the period Gilman writes. Her spouse, John, has transferred her to a psychiatric health amenity for the summer and she does not have an opinion in this choice but is only told to relax and recuperate. What is more, when she desires to visit her relations Julia alongside Henry, she is not permitted. Her spouse certainly plays more of a maternal character with her. Ultimately, to find something to do, she begins peeling the wallpaper and she sees a female entombed behind it. The female epitomizes the narrator.

Specifically, Golden (30) highlights that she is ensnared in that house and in her life and she does not have a single person to aid her in escaping. Consequently, she sets about liberating this female, but when she does, she abruptly becomes the female. The relator mentions, “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’ (Gilman). Essentially, she has absconded even though she has mislaid her rationality as well. According to Gilman, the reason she wrote the story was to stop women from losing their sanity. Accordingly, women require liberating themselves from the suppression by men.

In the “Story of an Hour,” by Chopin, the storyteller gives the impression as a archetypal wife. She is initially depressed when she learns of her husband death during a hunting trip. Then she starts to comprehend the consequences of the absence of her husband; the notion that she now has a chance to live for herself, and she rejoices. “She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” (Chopin). Bausch (33) is of the view that the narrator comprehends precisely what the death of her spouse implies. “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 with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature” (Chopin). Nonetheless, this merriment is ephemeral since she then receives news that actually, the mate is not dead. She passes on from heart failure. Everybody is convinced that she has passed on from “the joy that kills,” (Chopin) but the reader recognizes she has passed on due to the spiteful astonishment that her spouse is not dead. Of course, Chopin, in this case, as explained by Bausch (32) is implying that genuine contentment cannot subsist devoid of the indispensable circumstances of autonomy along with impartiality. Whereas the narrator, Mrs. Mallard, has not been despondent in her matrimony, and the fact that she did not devote her time contemplating about whether her matrimony was blissful, she has now had a foretaste of what living alone would means. She cherished the idea and was thrilled about experiencing life by herself as exemplified by Bausch (32). Accordingly, Bausch (33) argues that the one comprehends that although the raconteur never essentially recognizes it at the moment; she was still suppressed by her matrimony and that persistent bending of her resolve to another person.

Essentially, both Chopin as well as Gilman offer a convincing depiction of what matrimony could as well as can be. The women are stifled as well as confined in their associations but each writer illustrates a dissimilar approach out. Ideally, in Gilman’s writing, incongruously, the reporter elopes through irrationality. She liberates the lady behind the wallpaper, thus, liberating herself of social anticipations. What is more, in Chopin’s writing, the relator first escapes through her spouse’s death and then via hers. This does not imply that the love for him is dead. Notably, she experiences anguish momentarily, but through that sorrow along with anxiety, she gets a picture of the appearance of her future. She comprehends that she would eventually be able to live without repression in the absence of her husband. Therefore, when she gets the news that her spouse is not dead, she passes on of heart failure. How miserable it is that these ladies cannot elope in any other means.

Conclusion

Chopin along with Gilman are experts in enabling one to understand the manner in which women were suppressed in their society. During their time, both writers were immensely involved in women issues, which inspired their writing. In the two stories, the writers illustrate women who feel confined and lack control of even the most noticeable factors of their existence. This theme of patriarchal oppression is seen in the two stories significantly. Essentially, both Chopin and Gilman offer a convincing depiction of what marriage could as well as can be. The women are suppressed as well as imprisoned in their associations but each writer illustrates a dissimilar approach out. Therefore, even though women may feel repressed in their marriages, the two writers illustrate that there are numerous approaches through which such women escape from the repression. The stories of the two writers significantly relate to the marriage of some people even today.

Works Cited

Bausch, Richard, ed. The Norton anthology of short fiction. WW Norton & Company, 2015.

Beer, Janet. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction. Springer, 2016.

Chopin, Kate. “Virginia Commonwealth University – Commitment To Privacy”. Archive.Vcu.Edu, 1894, https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/. Accessed 7 June 2018.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper”. Csivc.Csi.Cuny.Edu, 1899, https://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/wallpaper.html. Accessed 7 June 2018.

Golden, Catherine J. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The yellow wall-paper: a sourcebook and critical edition. Routledge, 2013.