“hardly lets me stir without special direction”
I believe Gilman made the male more dominant in this story because women were hypothetically supposed to obey men and do as they were told during the 19th Century also by making John dominant out of the two, she makes the female look like a victim, this shows her sympathy towards women. In Hardy’s short story the women are once again being controlled in the sense that they are told what to do.
“will ye lie down in the back part of the waggon’
However, the difference between the two stories is that in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ the woman is ill so she doesn’t really have any choice but to listen to her husband, although the three women in Hardy’s story are portrayed as being pathetic so it is their own fault that they are controlled and treated badly by Tony Kytes because they allow him to do so.
The authors’ of the four short stories have portrayed women in different ways. Chopin decided to make Dorethea a very superficial character. She is supposed to feel very passionately for her other half but as soon as he loses his looks due to serious illness she can’t bear to be around him.
“At the sight and the touch of him something within her seemed to be shuddering”
If Dorethea’s love for Randall was true then his looks wouldn’t bother her in the slightest, however many readers feel sympathetic towards her situation and would agree to behave in exactly the same manner as she did. Chopin may have decided to portray Dorethea as shallow to show how females can be superficial as well as males. Schreiner, on the other hand, has portrayed her two female characters to be the total opposite to Chopin’s Dorethea. They do take in the fact that they are both attractive women but their bond is stronger and more deeper – not superficial at all.
“But I thought she felt my presence in a room just as I felt hers.”
In this short story Schreiner has portrayed the two women to have a special bond, therefore the readers can perceive them both to be truly not superficial. The portrayal of characters here may have been influenced by the fact that Schreiner is a female – she may have been sending a message saying how woman are more sensitive and unlike men they are not as shallow.
Women may be portrayed as shallow but can they labelled as being weak as well? The narrator of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ was physically weak however Dorethea from ‘The Unexpected’ is weak mentally in my opinion. I believe this to be true because she cannot handle the fact that her husband no longer has picture perfect looks.
“she realized that there would soon be people appearing to whom she would be forced to face and speak to.”
This quote shows how Dorethea is not mentally able to handle the stress and strain of people’s gruelling questions. In the end she decides to take the easy way out and do the most selfish thing possible – she runs away. In my opinion this makes her a mentally weak individual. Chopin may have portrayed Dorethea this way to show how women are just humans and have feelings too whether they are weak or not. Another story in which the women are portrayed as weak is ‘Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver’. The women in this story – especially Milly Richards – are weak due to the fact that they allow Tony Kytes to walk all over them.
“You didn’t really mean anything you said to them?”
I think that Tony Kytes chose Milly Richards to be his wife because he knows he can do whatever he pleases; like flirt with other women, and she will forgive him. This makes her naïve and it is her own fault for being so weak that she allows Tony to abuse her and treat her with this behaviour. Hardy most probably decided to portray Milly’s character in this way because during the 19th Century women were supposed to behave and act the way she does. This story fits perfectly for the time it was written in.
Schreiner’s short story can be considered as ahead of its time. The two women, who would normally be rivals fighting for the men’s attention, have an understanding between them. However, their bond is a secret one, if they were to openly be kind to each other, it would seem an unladylike thing to do.
“She and I never spoke to each other.”
Many people bring up the idea of lesbianism in this story, however this would be severely frowned upon during the 19th Century and wouldn’t be accepted. This makes the story ahead of its time. Another female thought to be ahead of her time would be Dorethea from ‘The Unexpected’. Back during the time this story was written, if a woman’s partner were ill, she would be expected to nurse and look after him until he was better. This is not the case however with Dorethea, she did what women most likely these days would do. By running away, she is showing emotions, which women were to keep to themselves, it was thought to be highly immoral for a woman to leave whereas nowadays it is a common thing that takes place. Both stories have female authors, this could be the explanation to why the women are so ahead of their time. The authors wanted to express emotions, which most women would have kept to themselves in those days and by doing so, the female characters come across with a personality not fitting their time.
Hardy is the only male author of the four short stories; he has portrayed his women the way they were supposed to behave, like being manipulative. All three women try to manipulate Tony to make him their husband.
“I should have made ‘ee a finer wife, and a more loving one too.”
By doing so, the women inevitable do not get along. This story can be compared to Schreiner’s ‘The Woman’s Rose’. The women in this story do actually get along even though they are expected to be rivals.
“I could not bear that they had deserted her for me.”
The fact that the women tolerate each other and wish to be friends can be perceived as controversial; the women are both fighting for the men’s attention yet they still do not desire to be enemies. This story shows how women in general should bond and stick together, helped by the fact that a woman wrote this story, other female’s should catch the message and hopefully start to appreciate her female friends.
In conclusion to this essay, I believe that the sex of an author can play a vital part on the content of stories, for example, a woman wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and in this story it is the female who is being victimised by her husband and in-laws. Each of the four stories present women differently, some portray women the way they were supposed to at the time it was written, others portray them ahead of their time. Each of the four stories sends out their own special message across to the readers ranging from: running away doesn’t answer everything to you don’t always know what is best for your partners.
