Recently in class, we read two short stories about women who refuse to sit back and take conditions they don't agree with. The first of these was "The Yellow Wallpaper", and the second is "The Revolt of 'Mother'" . In each of these stories the mother in the story decides to take a stance against the patriarchal values and social norms of her household. In The Yellow Wallpaper we see the narrator triumph over her stifling husband in the end. In The Revolt of 'Mother' the wife takes a stance against her husbands wishes and also ends up triumphant. Also, I found it interesting that in both stories the the wives are viewed as "crazy" by other characters in the story. The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is clearly viewed as crazy by her husband and her home visitors, for she is kept up in the attic with barred windows and a locking door. In The Revolt of 'Mother' we see a similar stance taken by the other characters of the story as Mother becomes a sort of town spectacle, and the townspeople stop what they are doing to go by her home and see what she has done. Neither of these women care what anyone else has to say about their wishes, including their husbands. Rather than remain confined to conditions they are not happy with, they make a change in their life, and defy their traditional gender roles while doing so.
(As a side note, I also found it really ironic that in both stories the chief complaint about the living conditions was the peeling and tattered wallpaper. I do not know if my Professor intended us to notice this shared quality, and I'm not sure if the wallpaper holds any special significance to the stories, but I found it interesting.)
No comments:
Post a Comment