Womens Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Withered Arm

Womens Roles in The yellowed wallpaper and The withered Arm In the late nineteenth century, women were expected to conform to theconventions of society. This meant that they were expected to get unite tender, pure and beautiful. They were hard-boiled like objects asif men bought them. How the woman felt was irrelevant in this period.Women were expected to produce an heir and a sp atomic number 18. Women were alsovictim to double standards. For example, women had to lot with achild out of wedlock yet were habituated no responsibility for this.This contrasts strongly to a womans role in society today. However,women are still expected to get married and give birth to a child.I am going to explore this issue in 2 short stories The YellowWallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, and TheWithered Arm written by Thomas Hardy in 1887. The Yellow Wallpaper isabout a women suffering from postnatal depression that is given therest cure. She feels trapped and eventually goes mad. The WitheredArm is about a milkmaid called Rhoda who had a child out of wedlockand has been excluded from society. The man with whom she had thechild with gets married to a young girl who Rhoda resents and in adream disfigures her arm. The young bride tries to cure her arm bytouching a recently punish man who turns out to be Rhodas son. Theshock kills the young bride and the husband casts the flaw of his waysand soon dies himself.In The Withered Arm, Hardy portrays how negative feeling was for women inVictorian society. However, on the other hand, he clearly shows benevolence for the plight of women which suggests he had a desire forchange.Hardy shows how the role of women in Victorian society was to getmarried. If... ...ath also forces Farmer Lodgeto see the error of his ways. In The Yellow Wallpaper, The speakerdefies the conventions of society by crawl around openly in frontof John, however, in the same result she appears to have gone mad.This appears to be the only w ay out for her. both(prenominal) stories symbolise how hard it was not to conform to society a mortal died in one and in the other, a soulfulness went mad. They show that emancipation was almost impossible for a woman in Victorian times.The ii stories use different narrative viewpoints. The Withered Armuses the third person narration, which is seen to be more sympathetictowards the plight of women and more objective. The Yellow Wallpaperuses the first person narration, which seems less convincing and bias,however it also symbolises the forlornness of the speaker and her lackof voice empathises her plight.