s that deny her. The narrator is being silenced by her husband, and she is forced to be dependent on John for her every need. He treats her in a very paternalistic way, for example, when the narrator gets up to see if the wallpaper really does moves, John reacts by saying, "What is it, little girl?...Don't go walking about like that-you'll get cold" (Gilman, 23). The paternalistic manner in which the narrator is being treated only foreshadows her child-like state at the end of the short story: in a metaphor for the entrapment of bourgeoisie women, the narrator is reduced to crawling on all fours. In their work, Chopin and Perkins seem to be conveying a message about men that is very critical. They seem to be alluding that men see their wives as property, as dolls, or as an extension of themselves. By portraying the husbands as they do in their respective works, Chopin and Perkins are calling attention to the need in society to move away from the separate spheres, and a need to move closer to the equality of the sexes attained in the 20th centuryIn the novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin takes Edna Pontellier on a journey of self-discovery. In doing this, she uses many symbols to show the relationship between Edna and the world. Clothing, or rather, the lack thereof, displays this relationship well. As Edna progresses throughout the novel, she discards more and more layers of the confining clothing that surrounds her body and soul. By taking off her clothing, one piece at a time, she disobeys the rules that society has set for her, and in doing this, she exerts her independence. In this summer voyage, Edna becomes a free woman. In the Victorian society that Edna lives in, the proper attire for women requires them to wear very confining clothing. This clothing symbolizes the constraints on the social behavior of women in this age. It restricts Edna's body and impedes her freedom to move. At the beginning of the novel, fully dressed Edna wea...
