Womens Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Withered Arm

Women's Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Withered Arm In the late 19th century, women were expected to conform to the conventions of society. This meant that they were expected to get married young, pure and beautiful. They were treated like objects as if men bought them. How the woman felt was irrelevant in this period. Women were expected to produce an 'heir and a spare'. Women were also victim to double standards. For example, women had to deal with a child out of wedlock yet were given no responsibility for this. This contrasts strongly to a woman's 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 two short stories; The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, and The Withered Arm written by Thomas Hardy in 1887. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a women suffering from postnatal depression that is given the 'rest cure'. She feels trapped and eventually goes mad. The Withered Arm is about a milkmaid called Rhoda who had a child out of wedlock and has been excluded from society. The man with whom she had the child with gets married to a young girl who Rhoda resents and in a dream disfigures her arm. The young bride tries to cure her arm by touching a recently executed man who turns out to be Rhoda's son. The shock kills the young bride and the husband sees the error of his ways and soon dies himself. In The Withered Arm, Hardy portrays how negative life was for women in Victorian society. However, on the other hand, he clearly shows sympathy for the plight of women which suggests he had a desire for change. Hardy shows how the role of women in Victorian society was to get married. If... ...ath also forces Farmer Lodge to see the error of his ways. In The Yellow Wallpaper, The speaker defies the conventions of society by creeping around openly in front of John, however, in the same moment; she appears to have gone mad. This appears to be the only way out for her. Both stories symbolise how hard it was not to conform to society; a person died in one and in the other, a person went mad. They show that emancipation was almost impossible for a woman in Victorian times. The two stories use different narrative viewpoints. The Withered Arm uses the third person narration, which is seen to be more sympathetic towards the plight of women and more objective. The Yellow Wallpaper uses the first person narration, which seems less convincing and bias, however it also symbolises the aloneness of the speaker and her lack of voice empathises her plight.