The reader can infer that the narrator in the story is suffering from post-partum depression, soon after she has had a child. In the story, John tells the narrator that he’s taken her to a vacation home for the summer. However, it seems to be more like a mental health facility. Of course she has no ruling in this decision, and is simply told to relax and recover. When the narrator shows an interest in visiting her cousins Henry and Julia, her husband again disregards her wishes. Without the husband’s awareness, the narrator secretly holds a journal. She is able to covertly write things in her journal, which John would not knowingly allow. She shows how secretive it is when she says, “But I can write when John’s sister is not in” (Widger 1). This journal of hers offers her the means to easily express her feelings.
When the narrator continues to find her husband’s prescription of complete rest limiting, she looks for additional ways to express herself. The narrators mind then turns to the yellow wallpaper in the room, and “she begins to find in its tangled pattern the emotions and experiences she is forbidden to record” (Schumaker 509). While doing his best to make sure the narrator represses her imagination, John ultimately creates the very conditions he wants to prevent. The narrator starts to become insane, thinking that the wallpaper is looking at her and that there is a woman trapped behind the bars of the paper. The narrator says, “I really have discovered something at last…The front pattern does move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Widger 1). When the narrator saw the woman captured by the wallpaper, she begins to want her freedom even more. She starts to realize that she too, is a prisoner. The more the thinks about it, the more insane she becomes. During the day, the narrator sees the woman walking around, which shows her that she can be free during the day at times, but is certainly trapped in the wallpaper at night. The author wrote, “I think that woman gets out in the day time! I’ve seen her! I can see her out of every one of my windows!” (Widger 1). The narrator yearns to “creep” like the person in the wallpaper, forcing her to crave freedom even more.
Insanity seems to be the only way for the narrator to get free from the life she’s in. Through her growing madness, the narrator is simply not conscious of all that is happening around her. This is clearly evident when she chooses to free the woman trapped by the yellow wallpaper, which could symbolize freeing herself. She says, “I’ve got out at last…in spite of [John] and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Widger 1). When her husband finds her and realizes what she had become, he faints on the ground, and the narrator steps over him. This is a very symbolic moment, because this is the first time that she seems to be in control of her life. Though she is oblivious to the magnitude of her actions, she has finally found freedom from the repression of her husband.
Similarly, in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” it seems that the main character Louise Mallard ends up realizing how oppressed by her husband has always made her feel, although she doesn’t lead her life in misery as the narrator in the previous story did. After learning of her husband’s apparent death, Mrs. Mallard does not get upset. Instead, she is portrayed as being particularly apathetic. It is evident in the story that she is oppressed, when looking at the way Mrs. Mallard reflects on her husband. Mrs. Mallard recognizes that she should feel troubled about her husband’s death, yet the thought of living for herself for the remainder of her life, unlimited by her spouse’s desires, fills her with delight. The only reaction Mrs. Mallard has for the news, is saying “Free, free, free!” (Woodlief 1). It is also evident that she feels freedom by her husband’s death, by the interesting way she begins to acknowledge her environment. She begins to experience her senses in ways she had never previously imagined. The awareness of the noises and aromas coming from the spring day outside, symbolize her brand-new freedom. When Mrs. Mallard finds out that her husband is not actually dead, as she believed, she immediately dies from her heart disorder. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills” (Woodlief 1). Finding out that her husband is still alive, forces her to relinquish her newfound freedom, because she is put back into the role of being a submissive wife. Only through her husbands death was Mrs. Mallard able to maintain the independence she desired.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of an Hour” are two literary works that focus on the importance of independence for women in the cruel and culture of the 19th century. The main characters in both stories struggle to take the freedom they so desperately desire, and both momentarily discover it in the walls that once confined them. The parallels between “The Story of an Hour” and “Yellow Wallpaper” accentuate the profound transformation that was happening at the time of publication and reinforce the hope for an improved society, where women can have a much stronger voice.
Works Cited
Schumaker, Conrad. "Too Terribly Good To Be Printed": Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." American Literature 57.4 (1985): 588. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 June 2012.
Widger, David, comp. "THE YELLOW WALLPAPER ." Project Gutenberg. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2012. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm>.
Woodlief, Ann Matthews. "'The Story of An Hour.'" Web Study Texts. N.p., n.d.
Web. 13 June 2012. <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/>.
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