Analysis of Two Works to Explore the Theme of Gender Roles and Marriage - Essay Example

Comparative Analysis of two works to explore the theme of Gender Roles and Marriage Gender role and marriage related issues always remain an important area of interest and focus within the literary sphere (Clugston, 2010). From time to time there have been numerous plays, stories and other literary pieces created to depict the theme of gender role and marriage from different standpoint. The essay aims to compare and contrast two literary works with respect to the shared presentation of the theme of gender role and marriage. The essay compares and contrasts the short story The story of an Hour with another short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and explores the theme of gender role and marriage presented in these works. It has been unveiled that both of these short stories delicately cover this issue and divulge intricate message about the importance of gender roles and marriage in the life. The short story The Story of an Hour has been penned by Kate Chopin in 1894. It narrates the interesting tale of the protagonist Louise Millard who heard about her husband’s death in a railroad disaster and then discovered that he is alive. She feels liberated to know that her husband is no longer in the world to restrict her. Her emotions have been portrayed with great delicacy to illustrate the importance and worth of self-freedom for women that is often taken away from them in the male dominating society. The story is an impressive description of difference in the role and status of male and females in the society. The story has been writing at the end of the nineteenth century when the feminist rights were not widely recognized socially and male have the right to dominate the women and their lives. Usually, it is believed that the news of husband’s death is the most horrifying and intolerable news for a wife. Mrs Mallard was also informed by her sister about this incident in very gentle manner to avoid any mishap due to her heart problem. After hearing this news, she was also expecting that a great wave of sorrow, grief and mourn would surround her but when she locked her in a room she was surprised to discover that she was actually feeling the sense of exhilaration rather grief and distress. She thinks about the benefits of the death of her husband in terms of her freedom. Free! Body and Soul free!” (Chopin, 1894) These expressions describe her inner suffocation and stiffness that she experienced throughout her marital life due to the dominating and supressing attitude of her husband. The emotions of Mrs Mallard represent the feelings of all the women of the male dominating society restricted to live, feel and think freely due to their inferior position in the society (Bender, 1991). Chopin deeply reflects the emotions of a woman who spent years in restrictions from her husband on her body and mind who eventually started enjoying the feelings of being free on the death of her husband rather mourning at this major loss. However, the story took very interesting turn when it was revealed that Mr Mallard was not actually involved in that railroad accident and he returned home safely. After an hour, the woman got to know that her husband is still alive and she has not actually attained the freedom and pleasure that she experienced during the hour. Eventually, she suddenly died leaving several questions on the reason of her death if it was a heart attack due to her known heart problem or it occurred due to physiological shock that she received after knowing that her husband has not died. The end of the story is very interesting and gripping and provides food for thought for the readers regarding the issue of gender roles in the society and role of marriage in transforming the lives and emotions of the people. The story follows an ironically detached and melancholy tone as it expresses the unspoken and unrecognized limitations and unhappiness of the life of Mrs Mallard that she experienced throughout her marital life. Though her marital live has not been directly discussed in the story but her emotions to feel free at the death of her husband speaks all about the restrictions and constraints imposed by her husband on her life, body and mind. Her happiness on getting freed from the shackles of marriage depicts the lives of typical women of the nineteenth century society mostly ruled by their husbands. The story presents marriage as a factor that takes out freedom from the lives. The author gives the message that when men and women got married they are bound with each other to perform the responsibilities and duties and their personal lives, wishes and freedom of action and thought is taken away from them. It does not mean that the husband abuses the wife and makes it life difficult but it is all due to the nature of the relationships that make the involved people engaged and imprisoned. The issue of gender role and relationship of men and women after getting into the marital relationships are described in another style in a short story The Secret life of Walter Mitty penned by James Thurber in 1939. The story has been regarded as one of the most famous story penned by Thurber. The story takes a very interesting and unique style to express the inner feelings of a man out for shopping and other activities along with his life. During this time, he day dreamed for five times and in these five heroic day dreams he saw his self as pilot of U.S. Navy, a surgeon, a cool assassin, a Royal Air Force RAF pilot and a person facing the firing squad. The interesting thing about these dreams is that all of these dreams were actually related with some of the happenings going around Mitty. He was a man with very strong imaginations who used to escape from the reality of life seeking place in the fantasy world. For instance, his day dream of being a navy hydroplane pilot just because his wife complained that he was driving very fast. Later when he put off and then put on his gloves he assumes him as a surgeon busy in a surgery. He then started reminding the things that his wife told him to buy from the market and during this process of refreshing of the memory he found himself in a courtroom. He saw him as a fighting bomber when waiting for his wife he read about the Germany air war progress in an old magazine. Similarly, facing the firing squad was his imagination during the time when he was smoking standing against a wall (Thurber, 1942). Thurber has created the character of Mitty in very interesting manner and shows that a person makes fun of him when he tries escaping the reality of life going in to fantasy world because it is not possible for a person to perform heroic role while living his normal life and performing routine actions. When he was pretending to be a pilot, surgeon and fighter people around him made fun of him and his wife got worried about him that he might have got some temperature as he was not acting normally. This tale also takes about the gender role and marriage issue but in very different manner. It does talks about suppression or limitations directly but Mitty’s wish to live in the fantasy world also shows that he wants to escape from his real life and want to append a different life as he was actually spending (Thomas, 2001). The protagonist of the story strongly represents the genre of people having lot of high aims and dreams in their minds without thinking about the practicality of their intentions. These people use to live a normal live and remain unaware that being a real hero is not an easy task and it take years to a person to perform a heroic job like a pilot or surgeon etc. (Thurber, 1962) The comparison of these two stories shows that the issue of gender role and marriage is an important area of concern for the writers. The stories have been writing during late nineteenth and early twentieth century and depict the lives of the people during that time. Both of these stories have common theme that marriage takes away freedom from the lives of the people. The story of an hour tells that a woman is always bound by the society towards marriage that mostly took away the essence of freedom from her life giving the husband complete authority to rule her body and mind. The issue of miseries and unhappiness attached with the lives of women has been described in the story is delicate manner. The tale represents all the supressed women of the society and shows the meanings and importance of self-freedom for them. It tells that marriage that gives a new start to the lives of the individuals often adds unhappiness to the lives when the partners fail to create balance in the relationships. Similarly, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty also talks about the limitations of a husband and his wish to live in the world of his own choice. Though these two stories are focused upon the common theme of gender role and marriage but the stance taken by the authors in these stories also varies from each other. The story of an hour has been written in very sensitive and serious manner whereas The Secret Life of Walter Mitty talks about the struggle between real and fantasy world by taking a humours approach. The stories depict the common themes with different style and different background but the message about freedom vs. marriage seems common in these stories because Mrs Mallard wants to live a life of her choice in which she could have freedom of body and life whereas Mitty also wants to life a life of his own choice in which he wants to perform heroic roles. It implies that despite the strong position enjoyed by the male in the society they still face limitations and restrictions and it is not necessary that lack of freedom is only felt and experienced by the women. The men also have limitations and want to be freed from the boundaries of marriage and society but like women they are also bound by the society and it is not easy for them to escape from their surroundings. These two stories have very interesting description of different aspects of marriage life. Mrs Mallard seems to be oppressed by her husband though there is no information that shows her husband an abusing person but the marital relations were the actual thing making her restricted and she wishes to escape from her marriage life to seek freedom. Mitty on the other hand also has no direct complaint with his wife and everything seems normal between them from shopping activity to their conversation but still he seems unsatisfied from his life due to which he strong through to escape from the real life. The comparison and contract of these two short stories reveal that gender roles play very important role in determining the position of people in the society however when it comes of marriage and the limitation attached with this relationship, both men and women have to face some sort of restrictions. Both of the partners have to sacrifice their freedom and have to prepare their minds and routines according to the requirement of their marital life. They lose their port marriage life where they usually have freedom of action and through because after marriage they have to respect each other. Despite the fact that they perform their duties and responsibilities as spouse in perfect manner, the wish to become free stays inside their heart and this wish has taken two very different and interesting forms in the two stories discussed in the essay. This wish often compel them to live a life of their own choice in their dreams using strong imaginations. References Bender, Bert (1991). "The Teeth of Desire: The Awakening and the Descent of Man." American Literature 63 (3): 459-473 Chopin, K. (1894). The Story of an Hour. US: Vogue Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Thurber, J. (1962). A Thurber Carnival. New York: Samuel French, Inc. Thurber, J. (1942). The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. NY: Brace and Company Thomas, F. (2001). The Man Who Was Walter Mitty: The Life and Work of James Thurber. New York: New Century Books Read More