The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a literary piece written in the late nineteenth century which portrays a woman, the narrator, who feels somewhat physically and emotionally trapped by the world around her. The narrator of the story constantly feels oppressed by the opinions of her husband throughout the story. During the late nineteenth century American women as a whole were constantly feeling oppressed and trapped by the America and more specifically, men of America. In the article "The Fight for Women's Suffrage" from History.com, the type of oppression from America that women of the late nineteenth century were under. The article also compares what was expected by America from women of this time with what women of America felt should be expected of them. Another piece of literature dealing with the issue of women oppression written during the late nineteenth century is "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. In "The Story of an Hour" a woman named Louise Mallard, who has heart problems, is told that her husband was killed in a rail accident. As Louise begins to mourn she suddenly feels a feeling of freedom come upon her. Just when she begins to be at peace with her new, freeing life without her husband, the door opens and in walks her, believed to be dead, husband. At the sight of her living husband Louise falls to the ground dead of a heart attack. Chopin's story written only two years after Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" gives aid to the fact that women in America in the late nineteenth century felt that they were being oppressed by the American government and society as a whole. 

If one were to read the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman without any outside information of the time period or without reading any other pieces written during this time period the reader would simply interpret the text as a woman who was surely mentally handicapped becoming insane. One may interpret the woman in the wallpaper trying to escape as some sort of inner being of the narrator. Though through the aid of outside sources giving background information on the time period one is able to see what was happening in America during the late nineteenth century which was, as mentioned earlier, the political and societal oppression of women in America. This information aids the interpretation that the narrator trying to escape her isolation and the woman trying to escape the wallpaper were metaphors for woman during this time period trying to escape the oppression that they were feeling during the late nineteenth century. 

The article "The Fight for Women's Suffrage" from History.com, is an online article explaining the life of an average American woman in the late nineteenth century. The article explains the trials and tribulation that a woman living in America during this time period faced societally on a daily basis and the trials and tribulations that a woman in America during this time period faced politically on a daily basis. In the beginning of the article it states that in the late nineteenth century American women began to "chafe against what historians have called the "Cult of True Womanhood": that is, the idea that the only "true" woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family" (History.com), this means that in this time period many women began to disagree with the social stereotype that women were to be defined by their husbands and children. In a way a women being defined by her husband and children does not allow a women to be her own person, which takes away a woman's identity and traps her in the image of her husband or children. The idea of societal and political entrapment felt by American women during the late nineteenth century coincides with the idea of entrapment felt by the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper". In "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the narrator is trying to escape her isolation and the woman who is trying to escape the wallpaper were metaphors for woman during this time period trying to escape the oppression that they were feeling during the late nineteenth century.

In the article "The Fight for Women's Suffrage" from History.com it states that in this time period women believed that they were "autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities"(History.com), or in other words women were beginning to realize that they were people too and they needed a voice in politics as well. In a way women in America during the late nineteenth century were trapped by the societal and political standards in which they were held to, but by women stating that they were "individuals who deserved their own political identities"(History.com), women of this time period were attempting to escape for the social entrapment placed of gender roles which were forced upon them by the nineteenth century world. Similarly in the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman throughout the entire story the narrator saw a woman trapped inside of the wallpaper who, near the end, was trying to escape. The information presented on the time period in which "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written, given from the article "The Fight for Women's Suffrage", aids the interpretation in which the narrator and the woman seen in the wallpaper in "The Yellow Wallpaper" both represented the women in the late nineteenth century in which the narrator represented how women were treated in the nineteenth century and the woman seen in the wallpaper represented how women felt in the nineteenth century. 

Another short story written in the late nineteenth century was "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. As mentioned earlier, in this story a woman named Louise Mallard, who has heart problems, is told that her husband was killed in a rail accident. As Louise begins to mourn she suddenly feels a feeling of freedom come upon her. Just when she begins to be at peace with her new, freeing life without her husband, the door opens and in walks her, believed to be dead, husband. At the sight of her living husband Louise falls to the ground dead of a heart attack. This short story is very similar to the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" the narrator feels oppressed by her husband telling her what to do the entire story and not believing that she has serious depression. This is similar to the short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, because in this story Louise feels a sense of freedom when she hears that her husband is dead, which points to the idea that she felt trapped in her relationship with her husband; as if she could not be her own person with him. In both stories the two main characters are both in relationships in which they feel trapped or oppressed by their husbands. Furthermore, the freeing feeling felt by the main character of "The Story of an Hour", Louise, can be directly compared with the obsession that the narrator had with freeing the woman from the wall paper in "The Yellow Wallpaper". In both stories there is an overarching theme of the desire for freedom in the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Louise from "The Story of an Hour". The evidence depicted in the short story "The Story of an Hour" in which the main character feels oppressed by her husband and is desperately searching for a sense of freedom, aids to the interpretation of "The Yellow Wallpaper" in which the narrator is a representation of how women were treated in the late nineteenth century and the woman in the wallpaper was a representation of how women felt in the late nineteenth century. "The Story of an Hour" aids this interpretation of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by demonstrating that all women in the late nineteenth century did indeed feel oppressed by society's stereotypes in which the husband defined the wife.

In conclusion, the article "The Fight for Women's Suffrage" from History.com aids the interpretation in which the narrator and the woman seen in the wallpaper in "The Yellow Wallpaper" both represented the women in the late nineteenth century by explaining how women were viewed during this time period and how women felt during this time period. The short story "The Story of an Hour" helps demonstrate the interpretation of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by demonstrating that all women in the late nineteenth century did indeed feel oppressed by society's stereotypes in which the husband defined the wife.

