Diferenecias de estilo y tema entre escritores y escritoras

IMAGES OF WOMEN IN
The Yellow Wallpaper and
The Awakening.
4º Filología Inglesa.
The aim of this article has been to analyse women´s images in The Yellow Wallpaper and in The Awakening,
since the two readings has become the focus of feminist controversy.
Both stories were written by women, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin. But is this fact important to
understand the aim of every story? Would they have had the same effect if the had been written by men? I will
explore these matters.
I also considered it could be rather interesting to study and compare how heroines act, how they are
constricted by patriarchy, how their husbands treat them, and if they triumph or not, in every story.
There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex.
A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is
biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. A woman´s writing is always femenine says Virginia
Woolf
But we all know that Western societies have normally divided many human activities labelling some of them
as masculine and others as feminine. So women are naturally femenine, and men are naturally masculine, and
this fact should be reflected in their writings. I don´t agree with this assertion, a woman is naturally female,
and by means of every culture, she is femenine. The same happens with men.
According to nature all human beings should write in the same way, but according to culture women are
forced to write in a different way. And this difference must be sought ( in Miller´s words) in the body of her
writing and not the writing of her body ( Showalter:252)
The two stories I am going to study were written by women. I think it is virtually imposible to tell, without
previous knowledge, that these stories were written by female authors. Virginia Woolf says that the first
words in which either a man or a woman is described are generally enough to determine the sex of the writer .
I don´t agree with this point, that is very difficult, and it must be also very difficult for specialists. But I must
say that there are always something inherently different.
Women have a different way of viewing the world, because of the culture not the nature. They tend to write
diaries, autobiographies, poetrybecause the cultural context in which they write asks for that kind of literature
. They write about the daily lives and experiences, they often treat problems of love, sexuality and marriage.
These matters were undervalued, private life and feelings are less important. For example Virginia Woolf´s
Mrs Dalloway ( 1925) presents a day in the life of a married woman giving an evening party. Mrs Dalloway
has a lot of responsabilities such as buying flowers, arranging food and drinks.These tasks can be considered
as being trivial, but what Woolf is trying to point out is that these trivial tasks perfomed by a women make it
possible for other characters to live in comfortable circumnstances. Woolf helps the reader to appreciate the
importance of aspects of life which are considered to be trivial.
The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening are centered on a female character. Is this relevant?. I think that we
cannot say that a novel focused on a female character is a feminist novel, a femenist novel can also be
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centered on a male character. Perhaps, in works by women, there are relatively few male characters, or they
occupy a less central place that the women characters do. Of course, few writers write about the experiences
of one sex only. For example, Shakespeare´s plays have a predominance of male characters, but the few
women appeared are of central importance. But it is of course not the case that women write only about
matters specific to themselves, or about private rather than public matters. Nor do women necessarily write
novels in which the central characters are women. It is imposible to generalize, although as I have done before
we can talk about tendencies. But in the past, works which focused on women were often thought to be aimed
at women readers, while works which focused on men were considered to be aimed at general audience.
Are The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening aimed at women readers? I think every story is aimed at
general audience, suitable for reading and study by both men and women.
But what was the intention of writing these stories? Was it merely unintentional or on the contrary these
female writers were in search of something? The literature becomes a mirror for women´s position in society,
patriarchal opression appears in both texts. They reflect their situation. Gilman and Chopin wanted to be
recognised as women first and as writers. They wanted to take part in a society which mistreated them. They
were new women who went against the rules imposed by a male society. They wanted to liberate women of
all the archeotypes attached to them. They wanted to change social and cultural structures. They tried to
demonstrate that there were no general women, and that writing was not something only for men.
Both authors were unfairly treated, but at present they are being studied more and more and they are
considered to have played an active part in the feminist movement. The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakenig
are considered to be classics within the feminist theory. When they were published, critics criticized them
severely. Some critics asserted after reading Kate´s story, that they felt a kind of relief, when Edna drowned
herself, and dissapeared forever.
Both stories deal with women dominated by men, Edna and the nameless main character in The Yellow
Wallpaper are repressed, controlled and overprotected by their husbands. Both stories represent the effects of
that oppression. In Gilmnan´s tale we have a hysterical woman who is taken to a summer house to recover
from a nervous condition. She is told to rest and sleep, she is not even allowed to write. The things she has to
do are reduced to sleep and to have a domestic life. In The Awakening we have a woman who is submitted to
her husband. The only thing she has to do is to take care of the children because it was her place. But as in
Gilman´s tale, Edna decides to lose her chains, and start a new life. We´ll explore later the consequences of
these defiant facts.
I will start studying and comparing female characters in both stories. How are they portrayed? Do they
represent all female society? Are there different kinds of women within every story? Which role do they play?
Do they triumph or not? In which way do they rebel against their overbearing husbands?
In both stories, we have a woman as the main character, and I should say that the whole stories are told from a
female perspective.
In The Yellow Wallpaper the nameless narrator is not the only female character in the story. Gilman´s decision
of not giving a name to the narrator is quite significant, and I will explain this later. As well as in The
Awakening, there are more female characters apart from Edna Pontellier.
We have the two basic types of women in every story. The narrator in Gilman´s tale and Edna Pontellier
represent the madwoman in the attic. They were submitted to their husbands, and they assumed several
obligations imposed by their husbands. In the first case the narrator is forced to live in a house which she
doesn´t like. I would say a haunted house(Gilman, 1996:46). She feels that there is something queer about
the house(46). Then her husband choooses a room for her that she doesn´t like either I wanted one downstairs
that opened on the piazza(48). So since the beginning the narrator is portrayed as a submissive wife, she starts
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explaining how her husband and other men in her life direct her.
Personally, I disagree with their (her husband´s and brother´s) ideas. Personally I believe that congenial work
with excitement and change would do me good. But what is one to do?() I did write for a while in spite of
them; but it does exhaust me a good deal− having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition
(48)
So, we have here a woman who has a formed opinion, a woman who thinks that she needs to write, although
she is not allowed. The way in which the narrator speaks suggests us that the narrator has no means to
disagree with her husband. She does´t have any power to do what she thinks is best for her. But she is
courageous and starts writing in spite of her husband. This is the first act of defiance.
In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the main character also suffers the oppression of her husband. She is not
happy, but her husband is said to be the best husband in the world, and she has to admit it. Edna assumed that
her responsability was to take care of children. At the beginning, we see Edna crying, she is very oppressed by
her husband. Her husband returned late, and a bit drunk, sat on a chair to smoke, and ordered his wife to look
after one of their children because is ill. And he also remembers her that is the only thing she has to do. She
realises that is not happy, and starts thinking about herself, thinkink about her life, she started following
whatever impulse moved her, she wanted to renew herself. The first act of defiance is when she refused to go
to bed with her husband. You must come in the house instantly but she didn´t yield, she decided to stay
outdoors.
But what are the other types of women appeared in every story? In The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator is not
the only female character in the story. John´s sister is the other one, Jenny. Both the narrator and John´s sister
are completely different. Jenny is the angel in the house, she is the typical housekeeper, a woman who has no
hopes. She is forced to stay at home and the only thing she has to do is to keep the house clean and take care .
She is a silenced woman, a woman kept in dark. The most significative of this character is the she agrees with
her brother. She thinks that the narrator shouldn´t write at all.
The equivalent in Kate´s story is Àdele Ratignole, she is the perfect wife. Never were hands more exquisite
that hers(Adele), and it was a joy to look at them when she threated her needle. Ratignole was in charge of
keeping the harmony at her home.
Mademoiselle Reisz is another female character in The Awakening, she is the best depiction of the madwoman
in the attic or of the new woman from the beginning to the end. She lives alone, she doesn´t have children.
She is always ready to fight against anyone. Àdele and Reisz play the piano but this activity has different
meanings in each one. For Àdele, playing the piano is a way of keeping the harmony in the family. But for
Reisz is a way of rebellion in the society.
Edna, the main character, is fond of the music, she thought it was a way of evoking pictures in her mind. The
music of Reisz is the basic element which helps Edna to find out herself, to rebel against society. It is of prime
importance the passage, at the beginning of the book, when Reisz was playing the piano, and made Edna cry.
The music made her be aware of her situation as a woman.
What about the great husbands? How are they? Do they have similarities in common? Of course, they have!!
In Gilman´s tale, John is a physician of high standing( 46) which implies the high ranking of men in society.
Léonce Pontellier is a bussinesman. Both causes to feel their wifes like a child, they must be obedient and
follow all their orders. Burt the difference lies in that they can do whatever they whish. Mr Pontellier is fond
of playing a game of billiards, so he used to go to a hotel every night. His wife stayed at home, because it was
her place, the home. Personally I think that these two great husbands are womanizers who don´t give a damm
about their wifes. John prescribed his wife complete rest. A good prescription to carry out an affair. And
Leonce, spent whole nights outside of the home, which implies that he could also be having an affair.
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And what about the two marriages? At first sight, neither in Gilman´s tale, nor Kate´s story, there is warmth or
passion, we don´t have any passage where we may see that we are talking about a couple. Edna says that her
marriage was an accident, she wasn´t sure. And she also says that there is no passion in her marriage. In The
Yellow Wallpaper John never takes his wife seriously. He also says things to her which put her down such as
his little girl(54), blessed little goose(66). He doesn´t take into account his wife´s feelings and desires. And
dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid and read to me till it tired my
head(64). Who could ever say that this passage is about a wife and her husband? For me this passage is more
of a father than of a husband. Edna and the narrator og Gilman´s tale should complete faith in her husbands as
most children put faith in their fathers.
Children? These marriages have children. Edna has got two children, and John one. They are mentioned very
little. But why? Does it mean that the mothers don´t love their children? No, of course not!
The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper does not mention the baby very much, she is somewhat ignoring the
baby. I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous(52) I suppose John never was nervous in his life(52).In
saying so, the narrator is implying that John, as the man in the house, was never suppossed to look after
children. The problem here is that the narrator is not allowed to see her child, so she avoids talking about him
because it saddens her. But, personally I think that she avoids the child to emphasize that children is not the
only place for a woman. Something similar happens in The Awakening, Edna ignores her children up to the
point of getting rid of them. A woman in Iberville was in charge of them. I think that Kate´s decision of not
mentioning the children is not arbritary, she wanted to highlight that women´s place was not the care of
children as well.
But what happens in every story when the blesssed wifes decide to lose their chains? How do John and
Lèonce react?
In Chopin´s story when Mr Pontellier realises that his wife´s attitude is changing, he gets angry and furious
first, but then he thinks she has driven crazy. Edna starts doing different things, she starts painting pictures.
She does so to be able to live on her own and to develop her own creativity. She lets the housekeeping go to
the dogs, and what´s more, she dares to rent a house to live alone,and have an affair. What a crime!!!
But Leonce is not worried because he thinks that his wife can be a little bit unstable. He went to a doctor to
observe Edna´s behaviour. Edna´s father also thinks that Edna is crazy, but she is not crazy, she just does what
she wants. She is struggling to get independence and identity. It is as if when a woman decides to stand up for
rights, is crazy.
On the contrary in Gilman´s tale the narrator loses her grip on reality because of the oppresion she endures.
The author´s representation of the narrator´s madness is critical, in this story what drives the narrator mad is a
confining of her creative imagination. So what Gilman is trying to say is that women have ideas and
aspirations, and that if they find obstacles to do so, they will be driven crazy.
But do these heroines triumph at the end of every story? They should have but they don´t. In The Yellow
Wallpaper, the narrator sees the wallpaper, and the rest of the room as her situation. She tries to free herself
by tearing off all the paper, but that is not the solution to her problem or situation. It is clear that the narrator
starts leaving her position as a submissive wife, and adopts ans agressive position. But I´m here and no person
touches this paper but me no alive!(80). Here we have a display of power, but although she manages to be
heard, she is driven crazy. She sees herself as having escaped from behind the wallpaper, but she will be
trapped physically and emotionally in a world ruled by one man, her husband. In some way Gilman´s narrator
wins and loses. Madness is an escape from one state into another, from one cage to another. So the heroine in
this story is destroyed.
The same happens in The Awakening, in this story we have soon a display of power in Edna, but the her end is
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quite discouraging. She gets independence, she lives on her own, and she realises that her true love is Robert,
in short she is happy. But she was not able to carry out her decisions to a courageous end, and decided to
drown herself. So here the heroine is also destroyed.
Wouldn´t it have been better to create two stories with a happier ending, especially for the female characters?
Because these stories create woman characters who are strong, and try to be free. They could serve as role
models for women readers. But the end is quite discouraging, they present a hopeless picture and ignore the
real strengths that these heroines have done. Personally I think that all these literature written by women
should not reflect their situation, but should seek to change it, and not emphasize the difficulties women must
struggle.
WORKS CITED
GILMAN, CHARLOTTE PERKINS The Yellow Wallpaper and the Giant Wistaria.Universidad de
León.1996.
CHOPIN, KATE The Awakening.Madrid. Ediciones Hiperion.1997
SHOWALTER,E. Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness
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