Women are typically stereotyped as damsels in distress and often depicted as objects and as property of their husband. In Charles Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," the Princess is a very flat character. Primarily focused on her beauty and appearance, the Princess' character lacks depth and personality. In a similar, yet more modern short story by Kate Chopin entitled "The Story of an Hour", the female character is also depicted as property of her husband given that we only know her as Mrs. Mallard. The difference between these two stories is how the women change from the beginning to the end of each story. Mrs. Mallard deviates from being owned, and takes the path to independence and freedom after her husband's death. It is interesting to see how a woman can deviate from this predetermined path built on stereotypes and change to become a person of their own. Although similar in the beginning, the stories diverge dramatically when Mrs. Mallard starts to envision a life from her own perspective, while the Princess remains the same, stereotypical female.

"Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" has a Princess character that encompasses all of the traits that women are stereotyped as having such as beauty, carelessness, weakness, and in constant need of saving. The author depicts the Princess' physical image by defining her solely by the gifts she was given.  The author explains, "By these means the Princess had all the perfections imaginable" (296). Some of these gifts included that "she should be the most beautiful person in the world," (296) and that she "should have a wonderful grace in everything she did." (296) Some of the other gifts included the ability to sing like a nightingale, dance with perfection, and play all types of instruments perfectly. These traits define a very shallow idea of what the perfect woman encompasses.

The author depicts the Princess as weak in many ways. The original evil curse put on the Princess states that "the Princess should have her hand pierced by a spindle and die of the wound,"(296). By making her susceptible to evil, it shows how vulnerable she is, and vulnerability may be a sign of weakness. She is also shown as weak because she is relying on a male prince to kiss her and save her, "The Princess shall indeed pierce her hand with a spindle; but, instead of dying, she shall only fall into a profound sleep, which shall last a hundred years at the expiration of which a king's son shall come and awake her" (297). Her fate is not in her own hands, and it is completely determined by a Prince who will save her.

The Princess is also in constant need of being saved and protected. The King does everything he can to avoid the curse which is expressed when the author writes "the King, to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old fair, caused immediately proclamation to be made, whereby everyone was forbidden, on pain death, to spin with a distaff and spindle, or to have so much as any spindle, in their houses." (297) When she falls into her sleep, the fairy puts everyone around her to sleep because she thought, "when the Princess should awake she might not know what to do with herself, being all alone in this old palace." (298) Everyone in the story is always doing things for her to save her and help her, which shows that she is viewed as helpless and always in need of assistance and protection. The prince also saves her at the end of the story from his ogre-like mother who is trying to put the Princess and her children in a cauldron of snakes and other serpents. All of these traits that the Princess is given in this story are an exemplary connotation of the stereotype that woman have or are supposed to be like even in todays society.

Mrs. Mallard is depicted fairly similarly to the Princess. In the beginning of the story, the reader can grasp that she is weak. The first line of the story, "knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death," (168) is an immediate depiction of her weakness. Heart problems imply that she is physically weaker. It is also no coincidence that the bearer of bad news is a male friend who is there to support her.  The grief she experienced shows how emotional she is, especially when the author explains "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow." (168). Being overly sensitive and emotional is another huge stereotype that women possess. When the author says that "into the seat she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul," (168) it shows that she can't even physically handle her own emotions and that they caused her to be exhausted.

These stories follow the same path up until one of the women attempts to break the stereotype. Amidst all of Mrs. Mallard's grief and sadness upon hearing of her husband's tragic death, she looks up through the window and sees new opportunities. She sees how her marriage broke her down and defined her. She starts to envision a new life, "she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome." (169) The reader is let into her thoughts for the first time in the story, which shows that she is now thinking for herself. The story of the Princess ends with a typical happily ever after, whereas the story of Mrs. Mallard's enlightenment and the birth of a new woman is just beginning.

There is an unexpected plot twist at the end of "The Story of an Hour" when Brently Mallard walks in the door. It turned out that the information of his death was false. Upon seeing him, Mrs. Mallard drops dead instantly. The heart disease mentioned at the end of the story echoes the heart trouble mentioned in the beginning, intensifying this unexpected ending and bringing the story to a complete close. This ending eliminates the opportunity for the reader to wonder how Mrs. Mallard would have continued to live out her life.

In conclusion, both stories start out similarly but completely diverge by the end to teach two opposite morals. In "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," there is a moral at the end of the story that states that a woman should wait as long as it takes for true love and for the right man to save her. Bringing the stories to a much bigger point, this is the stereotype that girls are taught at a young age because of the fairytales and princess stories that they grow up hearing and reading. They live their life in accordance to this idea because it has been engraved in their minds from a young age, and they are afraid to deviate away because it might be viewed negatively. Both stories take two women and show two different paths they could take to either follow the stereotype or diverge from it and live as their own person. "The Story of an Hour" attempts to demolish this stereotype because it makes a point to show that women have the power and control to live as their own person. Although both stories start out similarly, the change that Mrs. Mallard undergoes has a powerful effect to show that women can break this stereotype.
