Paige Watson

Ms. Kenny

English 11

March 7​th​ 2019

Chopin-Gilman Analysis

Chopin and Gilman were both alive during a time that women were seen as weak and

reliant on their husbands help. They were not treated the same way that the men were and they

were treated as inferiors. While these two stories have similar themes represented, they were

written in very different ways. Chopin wrote the story from a third person omniscient, while,

Gilman wrote it with a first-person point of view. They both used these point of views with a

similar purpose and goal. Chopin and Gilman wrote both their stories in different ways but gave

the same theme with using their version of narration.

Chopin’s The Story of an Hour was written in the third person omniscient point of view

for many reasons. Third person omniscient is when the narrator of the story knows all the

thoughts and feelings of all the characters. Chopin wrote it this way because it allows her to give

a complete view of the situation these people are in rather than just the limited view of the

narrator. It allows Chopin to point out the irony of the situation that is going on. Mrs. Mallard’s

family is concerned about her because she just found out her husband died. They thought she

was going to be extremely upset about this news when it was, in fact, the opposite. For example

on page 763, she is whispering to herself “Free! Body and soul free!” while Josephine is outside

the door shouting at her saying “I beg; open the door -- you will make yourself ill.”. While you

can see from one perspective you can see that she is happy that she is finally free but Josephine
is really concerned for her. Another example is also on page 763, Mrs. Mallard is thinking

“There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself.”

While she was celebrating her sister thought she was going to hurt herself or make herself ill so

she “Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole imploring for

admission”. This shows that Josephine has no idea about what Mrs. Mallard is actually thinking

or feeling. It allows for dramatic irony in the text to make it more entertaining.

Gilman wrote the story from the first person point of view. She wrote this from the point

of view of the wife because it allows you to see her thoughts and feelings along with showing

how women were suppressed during this time. It also shows how the woman gets closer and

closer to a psychiatric break because of the lack of care she is receiving. As the story progresses

you can tell that the woman’s condition is getting worse and worse. At the beginning of the

story, she describes the wallpaper as “One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing

every artistic sin”. While more towards the end of the story she describes it as, “All those

strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision”. As the

story progresses the more disturbing her descriptions become. This is a clear example of how her

condition is getting worse with the situation she is in. Since her condition is being ignored

because women’s mental health during this time was not a primary concern to doctors. It leads

her to more problems and having a mental break where she tears down all the wallpaper. With

her husband being a physician you would think it would make him be more inclined to help his

wife get better. Instead, he ignores her problem because she is just being “dramatic”. On page

776, it says “He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and
self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me”. Women were often claimed to just

have a nervous condition and they needed to just calm down.

Chopin wrote about being repressed in her relationship and was showing it through the

dramatic irony of how the new widow was actually happy that her husband died while everyone

else thought she was extremely upset about this finding. While Gilman wrote about how women

being ignored and disregarded about their health problems, or in general, can lead to worsening

their conditions. Gilman wrote it in the first person so you could see her condition slowly get

worse as the story progresses. Both of these women wrote about how women were not treated

equally during this time and how they were repressed in different ways. They used different

forms of narration to give a full effect of what it was like to be a woman during this time.