Relationships can often affect our sense of being to the point where we cannot discern the difference in how much we have changed within ourselves. Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, and Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl convey that one can easily lose their identity and self-being which can lead to one becoming easily vulnerable and lose themselves when wrapped up in a controlled connection to the people confined to us. The controlled relationships result in the themes of identity theft, lack of freedom, and gender dominance throughout each of the main characters in the given literature.
Some people become quick to lose themselves when they are involved in a relationship. Sometimes we are blinded or oblivious to this change within ourselves. In the literature The Story of an Hour, the main character Louise is subject to identity theft. It was not until her husband’s death that Louise realized that she had lost who she was in all the years of her being with her husband. As Louise’s husband died, her family feared that the news of her husband’s passing would weaken her already injured heart and cause her to die. However, when Louise heard the news of her husband the opposite happens. Louise was so overjoyed at the thought of her husband being gone as she would finally be able to retrieve her old self. Louise chants “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin, 1). For a long time, Louise was so committed to her marriage she did not realize how free she was until she was able to escape her marriage due to her husband’s death. There is the major irony that occurs as everyone thought since Louise had such a weak heart that the heartbreaking news of her husband’s passing would kill her but instead what killed her was the joy from being so excited that she would have time to herself “When the doctors came they said she had died of a heart disease—of joy that kills” (Chopin, 1). It is ironic how the joy that killed her was the thought of her husband dying but it was more so that she was so ecstatic about the thought of being able to claim who she was again; the irony that occurs in the text leads us to believe that Louise felt so trapped that something that should be considered so tragic that should have made her upset instead made her overjoyed. Similarly, in The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator that’s name was never given, struggles with the same issue of identity theft. Louise and the narrator of the second story struggle to find who they are, and a lot of that struggle is based on their commitments to their husbands. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator loses who she is based on her husband, brother, and husband’s sister’s opinions of her. Mainly in this short literature, we find out that the narrator’s husband John struggles to believe that the narrator has a sickness that leads her to be unable to live her daily life. The narrator states numerous times that she wants to do more around the house, but she cannot due to her illness. John however does not think that she is sick as in being a physician, he needs to see some sort of physical proof for him to believe that she has an illness “You see he [John] does not believe I am sick” (Gilman, 1). We are able to see a little further into John’s character in the sense that we see that since she cannot just tell John how she feels it conveys that John lives a very physical life where he needs proof to be sustained. With this in mind, early on in the story, we are able to see that John is a little more controlling as it takes a lot for him to believe that something is true. What John does not realize is that the narrator has nervousness and she might have a case of mental health which overcomes her so badly to the point where she cannot take care of her newborn child “Such a dear baby! And yet I CANNOT be with him, it makes me so nervous” (Gilman, 3). Since the narrator was never able to deal with her medical condition, she was subject to identity theft as she could never live her own life and make the decisions that she thought were best for her life as she was trapped in this difficult situation of living a life through the eyes of how someone else saw her; which is the way her husband views her-useless. Similarly, to The Yellow Wallpaper, the main character in Girl also deals with identity theft just like the other two women who were dealing with the same problem. The girl in the literature Girl deals with identity theft in a different way than the last two women as she is not in a marriage relationship instead, the girl is dealing with a never-ending list of duties she needs to fulfill. The girl never gets a chance to be her own person. The girl is a young woman who will never get an opportunity to find herself as her identity is stripped away from her due to the fact that she has a life that’s already laid down in front of her that she must follow. The girl has a list of customs that she must follow from how to fold her clothes to how to iron her dad’s clothes to how she needs to act in front of a guy she likes as well as how to set the table (Kincaid, 1). The use of repetition in the story leads us to believe that girl will struggle as she will never get to choose what type of person she wants to be; instead, she has to go with what rules are set out for her and abide by those rules. She never even gets a chance to discover who she is or how she likes to do things as there is someone always over her shoulder that is guiding her to be a certain way. In all three kinds of literature, the text is open to allowing us to think that all three women were stripped of their identity to the point where they lost all identity in themselves, they were unable to find and discover who they were as women as their rights were taken away from them; due to their relationships.
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Lack of freedom in a relationship can cause an individual to run mad. Even though in a relationship or family you are supposed to be intertwined with your significant other, it does not mean you should lose your right to freedom. Often times people, especially women lose their right to freedom when they get married. In The Story of an Hour, the main character Louise loses her ability to be free in her marriage. After her husband’s death she experiences something new approaching her which I believe was her old self coming back to her at the thought of her husband’s death “She was beginning to recognize that thing that was approaching her to possess her…she said it over and over free, free, free!” (Chopin, 1). The text invites us to believe that she was finally reuniting with her old self and she was only able to do that as her husband was not in her way. When Louise begins to find herself, the text allows us to see a different side of her. We are able to see that deep within herself there is a girl who wants to be brave and wants to be adventurous, but she was just kept hostage in all her years and was never able to bring light to her character. Similarly, in The Yellow Wallpaper, John the main character gives the narrator little to no freedom. John takes away the only thing that the narrator is good at “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman, 3). John always tells her not to write in her journal as it only makes her in his opinion sicker but in fact, it is the only thing that she has left, and it is something she loves to do. John takes away her only passion and the only thing that keeps her going from her nervousness and panic. To make things worse, John’s sister also takes away her ability to write “There comes John’s sister…I must not let her find me writing…I can write when she is out” (Gilman, 3). Taking away the only passion that the narrator has removes her freedom as this was the only thing she could still manage to do with her sickness. We are also able to see a little more into the narrator’s family in the sense that it is not just one person that is telling her that she cannot write, it is multiple people. Sometimes when the people around you are negative and it is more than one person, psychologically we begin to believe that what they are saying is true. Similarly, to the last story Girl, the girl has no freedom at all. The focus is a little different as again it is what seems to be a family member that is implying the rules not a male figure. However, from a young age girl does not have any freedom as she has rules that are set in place from generations ago that she will teach to her kids and so on. The lack of freedom never breaks, and the cycle continues. Not having freedom prohibits you to feel very low as if you cannot accomplish anything for yourself. Louise, the narrator, and the girl all face the trouble of not being able to gain their freedom back.
Lastly, gender equality has been an issue and continues to be an issue to this day. Male dominance continues to happen and has been passed down for centuries. Male figures can sometimes feel as if they can control women and not allow them to do the things that they need to do. In The Story of an Hour, Louise faces trouble in terms of gender dominance as she always felt trapped under the constraint of her husband. When Louise talks to her sister, she explains that she is not making herself ill but instead pondering upon what her life would be like if she was alone “…I am not making myself ill.’ No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window” (Chopin, 1). The word drinking symbolizes the fact that Louise is finally able to inhibit a sense of belonging to herself by drinking the possibilities and the window represents the endless possibilities that Louise will be able to take as a single woman. In coherence with The Story of an Hour, the main character of The Yellow Wallpaper also struggles with issues of gender dominance in her marriage as well. The main character feels defeated as her husband is always trying to control her; her husband always implies that he needs to do things for her and be little’s her existence by treating her like she is a young girl. The main character’s husband John controls her by saying “What is it little girl…don’t go walking around like that you’ll get cold” (Gilman, 8). Part of the main character's sickness is the fact that her husband is always trying to be the leader and never lets her get a chance to do anything herself. In doing so, the main character never gets a chance to do anything and it leaves her feeling nervous all the time. We again are able to see John’s controlling side. Gender dominance also occurs in Girls. The little girl faces the issue of having to listen to every instruction that needs to be taken care of due to the fact that she is a girl and completing her duties is her only role. In specific the little girl is told “Don’t squat down to play marbles- you are not a boy” (Kincaid, 2). Even if the girl did want to squat and play marbles or make a mess of herself, she would never be able to as from a young age she is taught that being like a boy is not her role, she must always act like a lady. Gender dominance occurs in all three stories and continues to occur worldwide.
The issues of identity theft, lack of freedom, and gender role dominance still take place on a daily basis in people, schools’ workplaces, and many other common areas. The ongoing issue is one that was seen back in the day and continues to be seen to this day. All three characters struggle with these issues as they try to claim who they are and that happens a lot of times today especially, in women. If we want to see change, we must work harder to adjust our world to the commonalities that occur.
Works Cited:
- 'The Story of an Hour', https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/.
- “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid from Charters, Ann, Ed. The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 6th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
- Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935. The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader: The Yellow Wallpaper, and Other Fiction. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
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