le of earth beneath their feet and the lady in black was creeping Behind them (483). In another example, The lovers, on their way to mass are, already strolling along toward the dwarf, while the lady in black, with her Sunday prayer book, velvet and gold-clasped, and her Sunday silver beads, was following them at no great distance (492). In yet another example Chopin writes, The lovers were all alone. They saw nothing, they heard nothing. The lady in black was counting her beads for the third time (493). Having them juxtaposed underscores the ways in which they contrast one another. The lovers and the lady in black are only stick figures even though they represent important themes. I feel that by keeping them undeveloped Chopin emphasizes that young love andstrong religious commitment are stages that Edna has passed beyond. The infatuation of new love inevitably fades and with regard to religion, Edna says, during one period of my life religion took a firm hold upon me (480). These stick figures are important characters which Chopin uses brilliantly in order to stress some important themes in The Awakening. Society of the 19th Century gave a heightened meaning to what it means to be a woman. According to the commonly known "code of true womanhood," women were supposed to be docile, domestic creatures, whose main concerns in life were to be the raising of their children and submissiveness to their husbands. Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper capture, in their respective works, two women who have turned down these expected roles, and, consequently, suffer because of it. The husbands of these women, entirely because they stand to represent patriarchal society, are a great deal to blame for the "condition" of their wives. In an examination of these works, this essay will discuss the role played by the husbands, as well as what these female writers might be saying about men in general in their wr...
