Kate Chopin’s The story of an hour and The Yellow Wallpaper
Kate Chopin’s The story of an hour and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman bring out the theme of confinement and subordination of women in the Victorian. Through the texts, we see how Mrs. Mallard and the narrator are subjected to psychological horror because of being confined in one place. Their husbands are behind their miseries as they lock them inside the house with the aim of protecting their health. In the story, Mrs. Mallard chants, free free free while the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper says, I’ve got out last, to shows that they are finally free from their husband’s oppression. Therefore, women in the Victorian era were confined, and their ultimate goal was to free themselves from the cruelty of their husbands, and confinement also brought them loneliness and psychological trauma.
Mrs. Mallard seems to have had a heart problem, and this prompted the husband to impose great care on her, “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble.” Thus, the husband made her stay inside the house, which made her grow lonely. Her husband seems to have been cruel to her because his death makes her happy that she can finally have freedom. When she says, “free, free, free!” we see that she has achieved the freedom that she has been yearning for. “The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes,” shows that she had been subjected to oppression, and for her to learn that she can finally enjoy freedom, she gets relief. It is also ironic that the husband confides her because of a heart problem, but when she hears of her husband, death, and her pulses beat fast, calming her body, “relaxed every inch of her body.”
The narrator in The Yellow pages has given birth and the husband, who is a physician, thinks that she should rest and heal off, “that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get.” However, it seems that the husband does not have pure intentions for her as he does not allow her to make a decision of the room she can stay in, “I don’t like our room a bit, but John would not hear of it.” John confides the narrator in a small yellow room, where she cannot go anywhere, and this causes her to develop psychological trauma. When she says, “I’ve got out last,” it indicates that she is free at last, as she gains the freedom she has been seeking for so long.
Mrs. Mallard and the narrator go through oppression through their husbands. The husbands use their health as a way of confinement whereby they cannot live in their rooms as they have to be watched and taken care of. The women yearn to be free, and this is why they feel relieved when they hear the death of their husbands. Through the two texts, we see how women in the Victorian were oppressed and controlled by men in society.
Conclusively, the two texts can be equated to our lives today. Just like Mrs. Mallard and the narrator, we are also going through confinement due to the COVID-19 crisis. Through government regulations, we have been forced to stay in our homes so as to control the spread of the virus. Staying indoors for so many months has caused people to yearn for freedom, just like the women in the two texts.