Emotional Revival in Feminist Writers’ Short Stories

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Table of Contents

Introduction
“The Story of an Hour” and Its Misogynistic Repercussions
The Rebirth of the Woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Feminism and emancipation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries have got intriguing forms. Female writers received more recognition and attention from readers and due to the natural progress in literature, the themes of the stories became more complex and dramatic. The inner world of a human came into the public eye, and many psychological doctrines appeared at this time. Not surprisingly, the female emotional and psychic inner world has become a popular topic in the new literature with elements of post-modernism. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two remarkably talented writers who revived women’s understanding of their individuality and opened the eyes of many to society’s limitations that had to be overcome. This paper aims to discuss the emotional revival of heroines in the short stories of Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

“The Story of an Hour” and Its Misogynistic Repercussions

“The Story of an Hour” is a very short story that describes a woman’s experience with the death of her husband. Despite the reader’s expectations, young Louise Mallard is not crushed by grief, but rather experiences the overwhelming feelings of self-assertion, and self-liberation. Louise is suddenly very acutely aware of how drab and lifeless her life has been (Chopin 5). She had sacrificed herself to the ‘private will’ of her husband that was imposed on a woman in a usual and almost natural way, although there was nothing natural about it. Louise learns of the incident from her sister, who carefully conveys the news to her, framed in hints and careful phrases (Chopin 5). Going upstairs to her room, Louise sits by the window in a large comfortable armchair. Outside the window, windy and sunny weather calls to live, the birds sing in the crowns of trees, but Louise remains indifferent, and in her eyes, the reader sees an empty expression and emotional engulfment.

Louise seems to meet with her soul, which comes to her through a spring landscape illuminated by her own emotions. Chopin explains that emotions come to Louise from her body, probably due to the physical awareness of the falling barriers that suppressed and restrained Louise’s will and emotionality (Berkove 153). Previously, she had no opinion, no right, being only a shadow of herself, a stereotypical ‘woman’ or ‘young wife’. But now she takes on self-assertion, and this self-assertion is more important than any moral reflections on the ethics of these feelings.

Emotions sweep through Louise’s body and she suddenly sees, hears, and breathes in the world around her, repeating the word ‘free.’ After years of subjugation, it has become so integrated into her nature that after hearing the news, Louise cannot feel free and safe from the shadow of a threat that retains its power over her (Chopin 5). Embraced by a new, unfamiliar sense of being herself, which is now the most important thing in the world, Louise leaves the room, accompanied by her sister. She comes to the stairs and suddenly sees her husband entering the house, safe and sound, having by chance escaped the accident. Louise falls unconscious – she is dead, and the doctor later states that she died of “joy” that she could not cope with.

It is noteworthy that the plot has several layers that help the reader understand and feel the life of Louise and everything that gave it meaning. Pumping up emotions through slurred and then increasingly straightforward phrases, simplistic expressions, and precise metaphors that are akin to insights are the tools through which the author conveys the main idea of the story (Jamil 216). The reader, therefore, can share the feeling of depression, constraint, being in captivity, and the pleasure of freedom, sharp as pain, and the joy of being oneself.

The contradiction between these feelings is deceptive, and they are probably caused by external emotional influences, such as the expectations and ideas of other people, reflected in Louise’s inner world. Yazgi reveals a remarkable element of the story, the so-called “second layer,” which contains irony and disdain for Louise (148). Here she is presented as an immature egoist who puts feelings before understanding, and who is condemned for having come to ‘enlightenment’ not by reflection, but through “animal indulgence” of her feelings (Yazgi 148). Conservative readers, who agree with such an assessment, condemn Louise and devalue her discovery.

Interestingly, in such a hidden form, men tend to humiliate women whom they consider close or with whom they have an intimate relationship. As subtle as it is, such ‘irony’ is capable of destroying the fragile emerging world, and its translucency, elusiveness is designed to make the object of irony accept these views as their own, as part of themselves. Only a truly brave, strong, and free soul can resist such invisible pressure, which is much stronger than it pretends to be.

Chopin masterfully unraveled this ‘conspiracy,’ and finds a way to arouse sympathy for her heroine from the conservative society. To do this, she is ending the story with a catastrophe, which turns Louise into a tragic heroine. According to Aristotle’s Poetics, the suffering of tragic heroes causes pity and fear in the public, which then transforms into sympathy (Yazgi 147). Therefore, by turning to the genre of tragedy, Chopin avoids wide criticism and achieves recognition of her truth.

The Rebirth of the Woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

The Layers in the Story

“The Yellow Wallpaper” short story has several layers, just like “The Story of an Hour.” Although Gilman’s story is several times longer, she depicts in more depth the process of Jane’s liberation, who avoids self-assertion, and does not have the same foothold that Louise had. Jane is more anonymous and faceless than Louise: her name is barely mentioned in the text, and she is even more of an ‘unreliable narrator’ (Gilman 13). The layers include the heroine’s communication with the outside world – occasional visits of her husband and his sister, who plays the role of a ‘prison guard’. Other, more important layers are the inner world of the heroine.

The story depicts the life of a young woman who undergoes rest treatment to cope with postpartum depression. Her husband takes her to an old estate, where she ‘chooses’ to live in an ugly, and poorly furnished children’s room. The woman writes diaries, which she is strictly forbidden to do because of her treatment regimen (Gilman 7). From her diaries, it is obvious that inaction and being closed and controlled by the outside power destroys her willpower. Therefore, the image of the woman behind the wallpaper is the image of Jane, who has fallen into the trap of her husband’s perception, from which it is very difficult to escape.

The Lacanian Perspective

Interestingly, St. Jean presents an alternative reading of the story through the Lacanian perspective. Importantly, St. Jean says that “my Lacanian reading of the story represents patriarchy, or specifically the arrogant abuse of patriarchal authority, as the primary source of the protagonist’s ultimately complete inability to separate fantasy from reality” (397). Then the Lacanian theory is applied to give a perfect structure to the heroine’s psychological evolution. This theory implies the existence of the ‘Imaginary,’ ‘Symbolic,’ and ‘Real’ aspects of the self, and allows to link all the elements of the text (St. Jean 399). In the beginning, Jane has internal dialogues and uses notes to awaken her imagination, which fits perfectly with the Lacanian ‘Imaginary’ stage of self-formation.

Then, during the ‘Symbolic’ stage she peers into the patterns on the wallpaper, and other elements of the interior, such as a bed with an iron headband, iron bars, and iron rings on the floor. The setting symbolizes the prison of ‘treatment’ in which the heroine was placed by her husband, while the patterns on the wallpaper show her awakening inner world. As the patterns fade away, the heroine sees the silhouette of a woman behind the wallpaper, which she must release. This is the Lacanian ‘mirror stage,’ or finding the ‘Real’ by the ego. Therefore, the Lacanian theory explains why the third phase is so important for the heroine, who decides to go all the way in her emotional struggle for self-liberation.

The Queer Perspective and Modern Feminism

The queer perspective on “The Yellow Wallpaper” deserves particular attention. Its strong side is the implied questioning of the normality of patriarchal norms (Núñez-Puente 12). At the same time, ‘the queer eye’ is mostly focused on the paranormal events, the things that are new and queer about the heroine, and does not go deeply into the details of ‘heterosexual dominance’ (Núñez-Puente 14). This very dominance is being presented and analyzed by Gilman, in the first place. Certainly, the prose of Chopin and Gilman is a feminist breakthrough for their time. Nonetheless, this prose should not be seen as more independent than the works of contemporary authors.

A distinctive feature of the prose of Chopin and Gilman is the generalization of the concept of “men”. The heroines are confronted not by people who oppress their will, but by some faceless and therefore even more powerful ‘patriarchal order of things.’ Núñez-Puente notes that Gilman’s heroine “succeeds in breaking free from the masculine construction of meaning” (12). In the modern eye, the heroine only turns out to be morally stronger than her husband and eventually defeats him. To defeat ‘the system’, she will need all her rediscovered emotionality and fortitude to endure each of the battles. Fortunately, modern society differs significantly from the “patriarchal Victorian society that values only the practical” (Núñez-Puente 13). Today, suppression of women’s will, humiliation, and the desire for control are seen as deviations from normal, natural, healthy behavior in relationships. Therefore, feminist novels of the early 20th century can be used as a handy tool for the wounds brought by domestic violence.

Conclusion

Thus, the emotional revival of heroines in the short stories by Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman was analyzed. “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are prime examples of Victorian feminist literature. In these stories, the writers depict heroines who are completely crushed by the need to obey their husbands. Scholars widely discuss the features of the emotional rebirth of the heroines and provide valuable perspectives and insights on their emotional development. In general, both stories contrast the individual strength of the heroines with the blind and deaf power of patriarchal social norms that suit their husbands. Chopin masterfully describes the process of the rebirth of the soul that is literally ‘entering the body’ of the heroine, which is associated with the awakening of hope and faith, followed by a catastrophe. At the same time, Gilman describes the process of struggle, ultimate victory, and personal rebirth, which is followed by the symbolic death of the protagonist’s old self.

Works Cited

Berkove, Lawrence I. “Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”.” American Literary Realism, vol. 32, no. 2, 2000, pp. 152-158.

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Joe Books Ltd, 2018.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings. Gibbs Smith, 2019.

Jamil, S. Selina. “Emotions in the Story of an Hour.” The Explicator, vol. 67, no. 3, 2009, pp. 215-220.

Núñez-Puente, Carolina. “A Queer Eye for Gilman’s Text.” Atlantis , vol. 41, no. 1, 2019, pp. 11-30.

St. Jean, Shawn. “Hanging” The Yellow Wall-Paper”: Feminism and Textual Studies.” Feminist Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 2002, pp. 397-415.

Yazgı, Cihan. “Tragic Elements and Discourse-Time in “The Story of an Hour”.” The Explicator, vol. 78, no. 3-4, 2020, pp. 147-152.

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