aracter welcomes insanity. Wharton's character initially chooses to risk losing the man she loves, rather than go back to a life plague by social conventions and expectations. Not one of the main characters chooses to go back to their original situation. In Soul's Belated, it is implied that Lydia decides to return to Gannet and possibly marry him, and restart living a new life with the man she loves, though she detests societies conventions.All characters were in, or had been in unhappy marriages where the distribution of love was one-sided. All their marriages seem to have been marriages of convenience, as was the custom of the day mainly for the upper classes, and all felt trapped. Chopin's character, Edna, married Leonce Pontellier because he was financially stable, and because she wanted to go against her family's wishes. ".Add to the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage to a catholic and we need seek no further motives which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier for her husband". In the Yellow Wallpaper, the main character speaks of the one-sided love when she reflects; "It is so hard to talk to John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so" (663). The author Soul's Belated in giving the reader a pointer as to why Lydia acted on her emotions writes " .. from the first, regarded her marriage as a full canceling of her claims upon life" (674). In all the stories, the authors commonly depict propriety in marriage, a yearning for freedom from convention, loveless marriages, wealth and unconventional women. Chopin and Gilman imply that the mental illnesses experienced by their characters are due mainly, to male oppression. Chopin and Wharton write about infidelity, passion and love; and Chopin and Gilman write about women working for pay. All authors write about women who feel trapped by tradition and convention and all display abhorrence toward the social expect...
