Woman’s Position in Marriage: Similarities in History

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The woman’s position in marriage, her contentment, the attitude to her from the partner and the whole society does not stop being controversial issue throughout history. In recent years women observe various changes in many spheres of their lives and the “re-evaluation in the modern society,” though the progress in the family sphere remains unclear (Blossfeld, p. 11). Despite the religious and social consecration of wedlock, the significant number of women remains unfortunate and oppressed retrospectively and nowadays. Many writers in their works keep exploring the woman’s role in marriage and her emotional state. The purpose of this essay is to analyze, compare and contrast the married women portrayed in two stories of the American writers – “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri – and to elicit generalizations about marriage between different historical periods supported by these stories.

Main body

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” the story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one of the first feminist female authors of her time, was initially written and published in 1892. The story describes the narrator’s insanity as the response to the oppressive patriarchal treatment, applied to her. The narrator was exposed to the therapy of her husband, the physician, who regarded her nervous depression, so-called “the hysteria,” as a typical feminine deceases and the result of any activity and reflection. The family rented the mansion for the summer, where the woman was imprisoned upstairs, with the barred windows, only with the access of the fresh air she “can absorb all the time” (Gilman, p. 3). With time she began to see the creeping figures in the pattern of the wallpapers in the room; with an absence of any physical and mental activity, her anxiety began to increase and resulted in madness. This story is the crucial example of male control, the vision of the appropriate married woman as the weak, silent, and tamed, without work, and socialization with the world outside her family circle.

“Interpreter of Maladies” by Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri is a more recent work; it was published in 1999. It is the collection of short stories and “Interpreter of Maladies” addresses the essential topic of woman’s loneliness in marriage and the desolation, which can lead to the inevitable mistake. Mr. Kapasi is an interpreter for the Indian patients; working as a guide, he accompanies the American couple and their three children to the temple at Konarak. He feels sympathetic towards the woman, Mrs. Das, who shares his professional stories with her and during the communication finally discovers that one of her sons does not belong to her husband but to another man. Seeing this young woman with the enormous pain and shame in her heart and all the family members isolated from each other extremely depresses Mr. Kapasi.

These two stories were written in an entirely different time, and most certainly two women are described in various ways, they follow no particular pattern in their behavior. Compared with the highly submissive position of the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” defined by the man and the patriarchal society, Mrs. Das is more liberal; she is having full access to intellectual and physical activities. But despite the level of freedom defined by the historical periods, these two women have significant similarities in their marriage. Their alliances were formed in love from the beginning – the narrator speaks about her husband as “very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction”, as well as “he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (Gilman, p. 3). Her love and gratitude to him can be observed. Mrs. Das in the description of her relationship with her husband also pointed that they were engaged and married being very young as they could not spend much time without each other until her isolation with small children and the routine corrupted their alliance. This feeling of unhappiness, frustration, and social deprivation consolidate these women as well; their marriage is not “the remedy for loneliness” but its source (Osborne, p. 6). Their mental health is also strongly affected; in the first story, the depression and anxiety caused by the seclusion and carelessness of her results in the madness of the heroine. Mrs. Das was abandoned in her marriage; her isolation led to the great mistake that will remain the secret, constant grief, and shame in her heart.

Conclusion

Despite the difference in time, these works indicate some standard features of the woman’s position in marriage. Based on sincere feelings and affection, it can result in isolation and social segregation to the woman as she is regarded as feeble and dependent or fully responsible for the infant care. Regardless of the historical period, the husband’s domination, oppression, and control play a significant role, in many of the circumstances; they affect the mental health and emotional well-being of the woman. Though the public approval of such position in many societies dispirits beyond measure, it is to be hoped that the continuous attention of the writers to this issue will be able to change the predicament in the future.

Works Cited

Blossfeld, Hans-Peter. The New Role of Women: Family Formation in Modern Societies. Routledge, 2019.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Short Stories: The Yellow Wallpaper.” Eastoftheweb. Web.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Interpreter of Maladies.” Genius.
Osborne, Jr., Marshall. The Roles of the Woman. AuthorHouse, 2019.

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Woman’s Position in Marriage: Similarities in History

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