Realism, the Portray of Women Mistreatment

Realism, the Portray of Women Mistreatment In the 19th century a new trend of writing appeared in the American literature called, realism and it is defined as the "faithful representation of reality'. Writers attempt to document life as it "without romantic idealization or dramatization" and "character is more important than action and plot". Two short stories are representative of realism "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Story of An Hour. " In these stories Charlotte Gilman and Kate Chopin characterize women who are being dominated by a manly society nd who do not see women more than a simply spouses or mothers.

However, they are faithful believers that women in reality are beings that should be allowed to express themselves because they are strong enough to stand for themselves; and should not be subordinate in any marriage. Likewise, in these two stories the realism portrays the maltreatment of women in their marriage, which clearly can be seen develop in the plot, characterization, setting, and theme of the stories. The works of realism are present in the plot of both stories. Throughout the story of "The Yellow

Wallpaper" her husband John treats the protagonist with a lot of authority and demand. "John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall... But John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. (Gilman, 86-90. ). And this overwhelming treatment carried the poor woman to a deep insanity, making her hallucinate about the paper design of her room. "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!

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It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw”not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old oul, bad yellow things... Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does move”and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. " (Gilman, 95, 96. ). The husband's controlling attitude and low ignorance against her destroyed this woman mental stability.

At the same time in "The Story of An Hour," Mrs. Mallard thought that the death of Mr. Mallard would be the opportunity or her to get out from an oppressed marriage that didn't let her live the life that she ever dreamed. For the first time in her life, she could visualize herself without the control and pressure that her marriage gave her. "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully... 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, 66-67. ). In these two stories we can see the great desire of these women to be treated with respect; a ense of dignity for what they are, something that would make them feel like their voice counted rather than having a meaning to their life because of who theyre married to. Moreover, the women of these stories are truthful realistic characters. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" it is a docile, "ordinary' (Gilman, 85. middle class woman who suffered from a "temporary nervous depression" (Gilman, 85). She is forbidden to work and writes in her Journal, which she enjoys very much. She is also torbi dden to take care ot ner newborn baby and visit any triends, making ner eel like no control over her life. "Am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again... "There comes John, and I must put this away, ”he hates to have me write a word... And yet I cannot be with him (baby), it makes me so nervous"... (Gilman, 85-87-88. ).

The main character of this story is an oppressed woman, who could not escape from her reality and in real life a vast of women around the world go through this kind of situation. For instance, my mother is one of them, for many years she undergoes from a temporary nervous depression, caused by my little brother's birth. My father labeled himself a very wise man, but never looked for the help she needed to. As well, he prohibited her to work and the only thing that she could do was to take care of house's chores.

Couple times in my life I saw my own mother in the edge of the madness that her monotony life and my father little comprehension about her illness carried her. I remembered, myself scare at her and crying because I did not understand why she behaved in those manner and why my father was so authoritarian with all of us; and with so low emotion about my mother situation. One day my mother woke up from her dream and decides that she had to take control of her life and run away from him, leaving my little brother and me in his cares.

I strongly believed that many women around the world, most of the time married the wrong man, because they cannot understand them and do not make them feel valuable as their marital partner. On the other hand, in "The Story of An Hour," Mrs. Mallard is another typical middle class woman that has "loved her husband sometimes" (Chopin, 67. ), but with a "certain strength"(Chopin, 67. ) that all she anted is to "drink a very elixir of life", (Chopin, 68. ). And who suffers from heart problem, that probably her outrage marriage had left her with "Knowing that Mrs.

Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble... " (Chopin, 66. ). In fact, Mrs. Mallard is an intelligence woman with a great desire of living her life without any attachments and a visionary woman that proved that she did not need any man to stand up for her. As an illustration, Mrs. Mallard story is similar to my cousin Birmania's story. She is also a very intelligent woman, who married her boyfriend whom she was for a long time. After the wedding, they got a beautiful house, equipped with a lot nice furniture. Her boyfriend (now her husband), as soon they got married prohibited her to work.

At first, she was happy with the idea because she used to love him and she wanted to play a wife's roles. Times passed and her monotonic life started hit her and her husband's behavior was not what she dreamed about, she felt she wanted to escape from him and divorced him. He, otherwise did not accept her idea, he thought that could not be possible because he had always give her all the material thing that she ad wanted; house, money and car. But, in reality she needed more than that. Birmania needed more emotional attention; she wanted to work, to be herself, once for all.

Eventually, how many women nowadays are yet bowed in the oppression of their marriages? As well as the plot and characterization, these two stories share realistic settings. Both take place in the United States during the 19th century and fully described the surrounding of their main characters. For example, in the "The Yellow Wallpaper" the story take place in a summer's house, specifically in the narrator's room. She does not have lot furniture on it, except for a bed, the barred around the window and the "queer" (Gilman, 85. ) yellow wallpaper. I'm really getting quite tond ot the big room, all but that horrid paper... It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should Judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls. "(Gilman, 87-88. ). Consequently, "The Story of An Hour" happened in the Mrs. Mallard's house mostly in er room, where she sat in a chair to contemplate the outside windows landscape and dreamed about her future. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair... A dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection. "(Chopin, 66-67. ). The ironic reality in the settings of theses stories is that even though the environment illustrated for these women were a comfortable life, nice houses and neighborhood, deep inside of themselves, their hearts were screaming to be understood as well as heir need of a sense of freedom. Above all, the themes in these stories are the reflection of real struggle of women in their marriage.

Even though it is not explain in the story, Mrs. Mallard perhaps had to encounter a lot discouragement and affliction in her marriage in order to feel that only with Mr. Mallard death, she would be free. A sense of freedom that was stronger than the sadness she felt from this news. "Free! Body and soul free! " She kept whispering" (Chopin, 68. ). Today, despite of a lot of women, they don't feel treated, as they wanted by their spouses; they continue in ilence, struggling in their marriage enduring maltreatment and restrained themselves from the pleasure of doing what they dreamed one day for their life.

However, in "The Yellow Wallpaper" the woman did not have a voice, she loved her husband too and appreciated all what he did for her, she suffered to know that whatever she said or did was never enough for him. "John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him... I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all ver the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it. (Gilman, 86- 87. ).

For this woman to feel underappreciated by her husband, may have been more depressing than her own nervous condition. It is fair to say that the themes of this story it is also relate to the fact that many women in all cultures of our society, become victims of their circumstance, and they lose the control of their life when their husbands do not look at them as human beings that are capable of going beyond of their genders' identity. For the most part, the characters in both of tories go along in the theme of discouragement in their marriage.

To conclude, "The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour" we now agree that the realism is shown in the plot, characterization, setting, and the theme of both stories. Also, we can see that both characters share the same concerned to their reader, they want women around the world to have self-expression, freedom to be themselves. They believed that women, not only deserve a good house and furniture, but they do also deserve respects. Gilman and Chopin with these work portray themselves as faithful believer n women 'capacities and do not support any physical or mental mistreatment to them.

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