The Story of an Hour
Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin was the third of five children, but she was the only one to live past the age of twenty- five. Since we know that now, it makes sense that she's no stranger to death.It was also said that she was a feminist as well, which is clear in her book "The Awakening" (Something I recommend you should read) and in this short story In The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard discovers that her husband has died. Although most women would be terribly distraught over this, she kind of got over it a little quickly. She says she's "free, free, free" on page 556 and she whispers "Free! Body and soul free!"on page 557. What I got from this was that her husband was kind of over protective or possessive. He probably smothered her and, although it's a little sad, she feels free. At first I assumed she probably knew she was going to die, but she didn't want to leave her husband alone in the world, so when he died she felt she was free to die. I read this story another time and came to the conclusion that she was probably in a relationship she wasn't too fond of which is why she considers herself free at the end. I thought it was pretty sad that she ended up dying though. She had barely been free and she just dies right after she realizes it. This wasn't my absolute favorite piece Chopin has written, but it was still interesting(:
The Yellow Wall-paper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
I actually really liked "The Yellow Wall-paper". It turns out this was actually kind of based on Gilman's life. She was a writer and a social activist in the 1800's and 1900's. She was married to her first husband for several years and they had a daughter. Gilman suffered from Postpartum depression throughout her marriage and "The Yellow Wall-paper" was a little insight on how she felt. She went through so many treatments just to get through it. As you can tell from the story, she was also a feminist and she wrote books on that topic. She ended up marrying her cousin after her first marriage ended and after he died, she found out that she had breast cancer. She ended up committing suicide August 17, 1935.
In "The Yellow Wall-paper" the narrator never reveals her name, which annoyed me a bit. If I'm going to read something, I want to know everything about the narrator. It did make me a little more interested in the story though. Why didn't she reveal her name throughout the story? There's a part at the end where she says "I've got out at last... in spite of you and Jane!..." I didn't really know who Jane was, then I thought Jane might be the narrator's name. I really didn't like John in this story. He didn't take her feelings into consideration and he just assumed he knew what was best for her. Her breaking out at the end was a symbol for her breaking free from her husband. That shows how much feminism was important to her. I felt bad for the narrator in the story because she wasn't crazy to begin with; she just had postpartum depression. It was sad how she mentioned they wouldn't let her hold her baby.
I did read this story in high school and I still like it to this day.(:
