Comparison of the Yellow Wallpaper, Story of an Hour, and...

While women have achieved equality along with political and social independence in many ways over the past century, contemporary feminist movements continue to blossom as gender expectations and stereotypes remain deeply embedded in our culture. Today and in the past, feminist notions about the social norms that limit womens possibilities have yearned for expression and have found this through various artistic outlets. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin, and the 1944 Film Gaslight are three artistic works that relay feminist themes in a unique way. These three works differ in certain aspects, but all ultimately embody the same underlying theme of the oppression and liberation.†¦show more content†¦This distorted belief system implanted in the protagonists of these stories that they are ill or in some other way incapable of functioning appropriately in daily life leads them, initially, to surrender to their husbands control. In Gaslight, the protagonist Paula speaks of no longer dreaming or experiencing fear since she has been with her husband. He is seen to have saved her, yet what he has really done is robbed her; he has robbed her fears and therefore her opportunity to face them with courage, to grow from them, and to discover freedom and empowerment as a result; he has extinguished her unique dreams and talents, and manipulated them to his benefit. The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper experiences this same misfortune; she is hemmed in with rules dictated by her husband, and forbidden to write or pursue creative endeavors through which she finds relief. The Story of An Hour also encompasses these ideas, though it is never directly outlined as it is in the other works; The Story of An Hour does not concentrate on describing the nature of the relationship between the main character Louise and her husband, but rather implies it and forces the reader to imagine it through the emotional response elicited after she is informed of her husbands death. When she finally releases the words building within, the resounding â€Å"free, free, free† speaks volumes