The Supression of Women

A detailed Summary of The Supression of Women


Women were seen as inferior in the past. They were controlled by their husbands, and they were completely dependent on him. Women were often told what to do, what to wear, and how to act. They were seen as fragile and dainty and shown little respect. This suppression of women is portrayed in Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark." The stories show two women who are controlled by their husbands. Both women are portrayed as delicate and frail, as women were seen in the past. Their husbands' needs for perfection and control contribute to the deaths of the women in the end. "Desiree's Baby" and "The Birthmark" demonstrate the suppression of women in the past.

Women were once dominated by their husbands. They were told what they should and should not do. This command from a husband is seen in "Desiree's Baby." Desiree's mother tells her to come back home, but she will not leave without asking her husband first. She asks him, with no real consideration of her own desire to leave, "Shall I go, Armand" (Chopin, 325). Desiree did not make her own decisi


Both stories have depicted women in the same manner. It is also seen that both stories show irony in the husbands' need for perfection. In "Desiree's Baby" when Armand discovers that his wife and child are not fully white he becomes disgusted with them. The woman and child he loves are now imperfect. Armand sends her away to live with her mother. However, Desiree and the baby do not go to her mother. She is so dismayed that she has disgraced her husband that she kills her child and ends her own life, "she disappeared among the reeds and willow that grew thick along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou; and she did not come back again" (Chopin, 325). Armand soon after discovers a letter from his mother thanking God that, "Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery" (326). Similarly, Alymer becomes so fixated on Georgiana's birthmark that he must remove it. The birthmark, "shocks him as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection" (Hawthorne, 622). He gives Georgiana a liquid to remove her birthmark. When she awakens the birthmark h

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Approximate Word count = 757
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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