The late 19th and early 20th centuries were characterized as a time of increasing change for women in terms of rights and freedoms. As highlighted in “Editor's Note: Contexts of the Awakening,” women's acceptance of traditional female roles began to dissipate, and women sought to become vocal participants within society. However, many women continued to suffer in a highly patriarchal society, where the male was the dominant figure in the family. Women and men largely lived within separate spheres of society, and women were expected to live their lives within the home, maintaining the well-being of their families. Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper” present similar stories about the plight of women in an oppressive and misogynistic society. In both literary works, the respective female protagonists feel suffocated by society's suffocating expectations and both consciously and unconsciously rebel against the restrictive conventions of social norms by rejecting the conventions associated with femininity. Ultimately, both characters tragically free themselves from the social limitations imposed on them by abandoning the conscious world, through suicide in The Awakening and madness in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay During the time of Kate Chopin's Awakening, many women's role limitations prevented them from exploring their independence outside the home. As seen in Louisiana, most married women were the legal property of their husbands, and “the Napoleonic code was still the basis of state law governing the marriage contract” (Editor's Note 119). Judge Bradley further states in Bradwell v. Illinois that “the supreme destiny and mission of woman is to fulfill the noble and benign duties of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator" (WWL 77). Her opinion is a direct testimony to the universally accepted truth of the time: that women were to assume roles only within the domestic sphere of society. However, while social expectations and conventions required a married woman to subvert her own needs to those of her husband and his children, protagonist Edna Pontellier is unwilling to suppress her personal desires for the sake of her family, and instead chooses your personal self. achievement and autonomy. When Edna begins “to realize her place in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relationships as an individual to the world within and around her” (Chopin 14), she challenges the stereotypes of a submissive, devoted housewife and rebels against cultural demands of submission that are expected of her. Her deviation from social norms is highlighted in her choice to leave the home she shares with her husband Leonce Pontellier to a smaller dovecote of her choosing, as well as in her choice to openly pursue a sexual relationship with Alcee Arobin and a romantic relationship with Robert Lebrun. The culmination of Edna's rebellion against society's conventions occurs when she experiences her sexual awakening through Alcee Arobin. Edna's early interactions with Alcee bring her a sense of euphoria and liberation, highlighted in her description of her kiss with Alcee as "a flaming torch that ignited desire" (Chopin 80) that left her with "an overwhelming feeling of irresponsibility" (Chopin 80 ). Subsequently, by voluntarily choosing to continue pursuing Alcee's sexual advances,Edna risks her reputation as a woman in society and is portrayed as a character with sexual desires, making her an equal counterpart to Alcee in their relationship. Having equal responsibility for actions in her relationship with Alcee, Edna is no longer seen as the weaker, more submissive gender, and therefore challenges society's prescribed set of rules about how well a woman should behave. The conflict between Edna's desires for financial, artistic, and social independence and her lack of desire to fulfill the social ideals that bind her to the care of her children is further exacerbated by the gender stereotypes imposed on her by the world. in which he lives As Leonce Pontellier describes, "If it wasn't a mother's job to take care of her children, whose job would it be?" (Chopin 7). Her husband's expectations of her, which run parallel to society's expectations of her, directly contribute to Edna's feelings of confinement and limitation. Edna is expected to put her family above all else and sacrifice herself to belong to her husband and children, thus making her a person destined to serve others. This idea is supported by Dorothea Dix, who proposes that “[women's] chief and principal oppressors are children. In her desire to be a good mother and do all she can for the well-being of her child, the average mother martyrs herself before she knows it” (WWL 149). Edna, however, is unwilling to make the sacrifices to her family that are expected of her, and instead chooses to pursue her own personal pleasures by moving into her own quarters, taking up painting, and cultivating her own sexual relationships. Regardless, the looming presence of social pressures continues to haunt Edna. Despite experiencing joy and liberation following her interactions with Alcee, Edna still must face the fact that society prohibits her from deriving true happiness from her sexual relationships. As a married woman and mother, Edna is first and foremost connected to her husband and children. Furthermore, Edna recognizes early on that although her sexual encounters may bring her happiness in the moment, they are ultimately tied to the lifelong reality of motherhood, to a sense of bondage to family. Edna realizes that she is incapable of living up to society's expectations of being a dutiful wife and mother due to their significantly constraining nature, and decides that although her husband and children were part of her life, "not they needed to think they should do it." could possess her, body and soul” (Chopin 109), and decides that “he would never sacrifice himself for his children (Chopin 108). Tragically, the only way Edna feels she can reconcile her true desire for an existence as an individual is through suicide. A similar sense of female oppression is seen in the context of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", where others, particularly the narrator's husband, fail to treat the narrator as an individual from the Victorian era. In a world where male is the dominant gender, the narrator is extremely condescending to her husband John and her individual identity is suppressed through his actions. The narrator's fleeting observations such as "John laughs at me, of course, but it is expected to be so in marriage" (Gilman 1598) and "he is very attentive and loving, and hardly lets me move without special direction" (Gilman 1599) they detail the suffocating nature of the narrator's relationship with her husband and reveal how the narrator blindly conforms to her husband's wishes. He later reveals that despite his love of writing, "He hates making me write a word".