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Essay / Yellow Wallpaper and the Awakening Comparison
"Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story that tells the story of a young woman who ends up going crazy because of society. The narrator is apparently confused with the standard defining the “real” and “good” woman constructed by a male-dominated society. “The Awakening” addressed the social, scientific and cultural landscape of the country and the radical changes it is undergoing. Each of these stories addresses the issue of women's rights and how they were treated in the late 19th century. “The Awakening” explores a woman’s desire to find and live fully within herself. His dedication to this goal caused friction among his friends and family, as well as conflicts with the dominant values of his time. Upper and middle class women of that era mainly played a role as an ornament to their husband, an angel of the house. With the emergence of middle-class society due to the industrial revolution, many newly rich men wanted to show off their precious "treasure"; a passive, obedient, beautiful, submissive, pious and pure wife. This role of a beautiful wife to appear is similar to that of wallpaper. In a patriarchal society, the relationship between a husband and wife was similar to the relationship between a parent and a child. A parent has the right to say things and a child has the obligation to listen and do what the parent says. A child was not supposed to disagree. The child must submit to the parent. This made the child dependent on the parent. It is clearly seen that the husband treated his wife like a child. He called her his “blessed little goose” and his “little girl”. When the narrator tried to tell her what she thought was good for her, but which did not correspond to the husband's opinion, he used soft words to impose his idea on the wife. “My dear,” he said, “I beg you, for my sake and for that of our child, as well as for yours, and that you never let this idea enter your mind for a single moment!” …Can you not trust me as a doctor when I tell you? The myth of women's natural inferiority has greatly influenced the status of women in law. Under English common law, an unmarried woman could own property, enter into a contract, or sue and be sued. But a married woman, defined as one with her husband, gave up her name and virtually all of her property came under the control of her husband...