The Cult Of Domesticity By Charlotte Perkins Gilman And...

â€Å"The Cult of Domesticity† was alive and well in the United States during the nineteenth century. Men were the leaders and breadwinners, while women were the homemakers and domesticates. Since women were considered physically weaker yet morally superior to men, they were best suited to the domestic sphere (Hughes). It is against this backdrop that Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin write â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† (1892) and â€Å"The Story of an Hour† (1894), respectively. Each story is an allegory that spotlights female oppression by patriarchal authority and the struggles of women to attain liberty from this oppression. Although these short stories share the same themes, they are told from different points of view. â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† is a narrative told from the first person point of view. â€Å"The Story of an Hour† is a short story told from a third person point of view. Both authors use space to depict the plight of a repressed wife’s conflict between self desires for freedom and society’s matronly expectations. Gilman and Chopin also use strong symbolism and irony to emphasize the social factors of the period that prevent the satisfaction of such desires for liberty by women. Gilman and Chopin use a home setting to symbolize the woman’s place in society. â€Å"The Story of an Hour† takes place in Mrs. Louise Mallard’s home; â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† occurs in a mansion that the protagonist’s husband has leased for the summer for his wife’s recuperation from