Females Finding Freedom 2
Females Finding Freedom The stories The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ( 1892), The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin (1894), and A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886) show the struggles that females had to overcome in the eigthteen hundreds to the nineteen hundreds. Females during this time period were expected to obey and not to question men. Females struggle to obey the men in thier lives but yet find freedom as evidence by the young wife struggleing to obey her husband John and yet still feeling control of herself, Mrs. Mallard overcoming the death of her husband and then feeling overjoyed of being free of the bond of marriage, and Sylvia keeping the secret of the white heron from the young sportsman. In The Yellow Wallpaper the young women struggles to perform her expected motherly and wifely duties due to depression. " Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way!" ( Gilman, 1892, 78). The depression helps her find herself and to feel freedom. The narratar leads us to believe that John truely loves his wife and is very concerned. " Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick" ( Gilman, 1892, 82). He forbids her to excerise her imagination and she is forced to become excluded from the world. He locks her up in a room and demands she has very little contact with other people at all. Her husband John is a physican and feels he knows what is best for his wife. The narrator, the young wife feels bad about her sickness and feels she has to obey her husband because that is what women are expected to do. However, because of her husbands constant control she becomes more crazy and becomes obcessed with finding the women in the wallpaper till she figures out that the women in the wallpaper is herself. " The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted out " ( Gilman, 1892, 83). " At night in any kind of light, in twillight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be ( Gilman, 1892, 84). " I wonder If they all come out of that wallpaper as I did? " ( Gilman, 1892, 88). " I've got out at last," said I, " in spite of you and jennie. And I've pulled off most of the paper , so you can't put me back!" ( Gilman, 1892, 89). Eventually she finds herself and feels free and in control for once, and refuses to let John control her anymore. In The Story of an Hour Mrs. Mallard comes across the news that her husband was in a tragic train accident and didnt make it. She feels alone and alot of grief at first, and needs some time to herself to let reality sink in. Getting married and taking care of your husband was an expected role for females during this time. Chopin leads the readers to believe that Mrs. Mallard didnt want to get married and that she felt trapped in the bond of marriage. " 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" " And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not" (Chopin, 1894, 61). Mrs. Mallard realizes that she feels a monstrous joy, and is free and can live her life as she wants and desires now that her husband is dead. " She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed kneen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body" ( Chopin, 1894, 60). " But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome" ( Chopin, 1894,60- 61). Mrs. Mallard feels free with the news of her husband death but it isnt till she herself dies that she really has true freedom. Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband really didnt die in the train accident and she herself ends up dying of shock. Chopin leads the readers to think that she would rather die then be forced to live under the bond of marriage. " when the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills" ( Chopin, 1894, 61). In A White Heron Sylvia stuggled in town to be happy and find herself. It wasnt till she came to live with her grandmother that she started to find a since of freedom within herself. One day while Sylvia was admiring the outdoors and walking home the cow she was greated by a young man. This young man was looking for a specific bird known as a white heron. He offered to pay anyone ten dollars that could show him the nest of the white heron. Sylvia and her grandmother were poor and could use the money. Sylvia had seen the bird before and had every intention on helping the young man find it. When she discovers that the heron has a family she decides that she can not help the young man any more. "She remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away" ( Jewett, 1886, 59). Sylvia spends time with the heron and feels like they are friends. "Were the birds better friends than their hunters might have been,- who can tell? Whatever treasures were lost to her, woodlands and summertime, remember! Bring your gifts and graces and tell your secrets to this lonely country child!" ( Jewett, 1886, 59). The narrator wanted us to come to the conculsion that Sylvia found true freedom with being a loyal friend to the heron and keeping its secret. The young wife finds freedom by breaking free of her husbands control. She breaks the expectation of obeying your husband and finds relief and freedom. Mrs. Mallard realizes that she never really understood the expectation of getting married. She feels that the bond of marriage is over rated and she feels joyful and free when she finds out that her husband is dead. Slyvia was a lonely child who found freedom in being a loyal friend to the white heron.