Freedom
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Hidden Freedom
“The fact is I am a little afraid of John” (614). To most people, that does not sound like something someone in a healthy and trusting relationship would say. But then again, nearly all people do not believe they are in wallpaper like the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. This story resembles another tale, “The Story of an Hour”. Besides the fact that they are written in the same time period, the main characters, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, both women desire for freedom from their husbands and it is made possible by their diseases.
One reason they are similar is because both women crave independence but their husbands are holding them back. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrators husband will not let her leave her room, thinking it will help her. He will not even let her see her relatives. “[She] tried to have aÐtalk with himÐand tell him how [she wishes] he would let [her] go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia” (612). This quote is just one example of how her husband will not let her make her own decisions and have the freedom she wants. “In The Story of an Hour”, when Louise finds out her husband dies she feels that she is “Free! Body and soul free!”(2) and that “There would be no powerful will bending hersД (1). That line from the dramatic story shows that while he was still alive she felt like he had control over her. Now that he is gone, she has no one telling her what to do and she is free.
The second way that they are alike is that both women acquire their much yearned for freedom because of their illnesses. “In The Story of an Hour”, in the beginning it is stated that “Mrs. Mallard [is] afflicted with a heart troubleÐ…” (1).