Through out history women have been personified as objects and treated in ways that suggest they are objects rather than people. In both the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century women specifically were expected to embody the typical house wife. Instead of receiving an education or obtaining a job, most women cooked, cleaned, and took care of their family. With this being said, Guy de Maupassant's The Necklace and Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour instill a deeper understanding of how women were living during the late 1800s. Both Maupassant and Chopin paint a clear depiction of women during a discriminatory era and demonstrate the immense sorrow of these women. However, despite their similarities, Maupassant argues that women were unhappy due to the social rank of their family while Chopin argues that women's despair stemed from the inability to become independent. By positioning these two texts in conversation with each other, the reader has a clearer understanding on social norms during a specific time period and can more easily apprehend the livelihood of women during the 19th century.  

The Necklace written by Guy de Maupassant and is speculated to emulate the life of his own mother. Growing up as a young boy, Maupassant's family was relatively poor. However, before unlucky circumstances arose, his family was actually quite wealthy and prosperous. In this story, the mother constantly yearns for the beauty and glamour that she once possessed. 

With this knowledge, it is extremely likely that he wrote this text in light of his mother. Not only did she spark his interest in literature, but also she essentially gave him the premise for his story. 

During the late 1800s, women weren't solely classified by their social ranking and which family they were birthed into but also on their beauty, grace, and pure charm. The Necklace revolves around a young married woman who was unfortunately born into a poor family of clerks with very little expectations and no means of being known. Though she possessed charm and beauty, her inability to afford nice clothes forced her to dress plain. Even so, she had plenty of friends who became rich after grade school, but no because of the melancholy state that would arise within her upon her arrival back home she no longer visited them. With this being said, Her husband, Loisel, constantly tried to improve their lives and always put her need before his own. For example, at the beginning of the story, the wife got upset when the the couple received an invitation to an annual ball from their dear friends because she had nothing to wear and no money to afford anything new. Loisel, being the good man that he is, gets his savings and allows her to buy a new dress accompanied with her friend's diamond necklace to complete her glamourous look for the ball. After the ball she reaches for the necklace to discover that it had gone missing. In panic, they search everywhere. Unfortunately, with no luck they attempt to buy a brand new necklace to replace the borrowed one, only to find out the old necklace was made from paste. Given the circumstances they purchase of the new necklace and Loisel and his wife become in debt for the rest of their lives. In this case, glamour was ultimately the downfall for the main character. She chose to emulate beauty as a substitute to what she thought would be a life of poverty and unhappiness. Instead, in her quest to be glamorous was her demise. 

In The Necklace the woman become distressed due to her poor lifestyle and shows her unhappiness in many ways. For example, she begins to talk to her husband about the ball, "'No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich.'" (Maupassant). Clearly, she is ashamed of her living environment and articulates her need to look and feel accepted amongst rich women.  Her ignorance not only discounts her husband's sacrifices for her but also provokes her inability to appreciate what she already has. After she looses the necklace and thus looses all her money as well, Maupassant explains her new found lifestyle, "With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the window, and she thought of that grey evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so feted"(Maupassant). Even after she experienced the repercussions of trying to be something she was not, the woman's attitude still suggest that she would give up her entire life for one night where she could feel important and wealthy among all of her friends. Maupassant's story revolved around the theme of glamour and beauty which was pivotal to a woman's happiness during the 1800s.

Kate Chopin on the other hand had a very different understanding of women contentment during the 1800's in her book, The Story of an Hour. Chopin was known to write texts that were extremely controversial to the general public. She pushed limits with what was accepted and what were considered "improper" subjects. Many of her written works received national acclaims; however, after publishing The Story of an Hour, her publisher dropped her and the majority of her novels were pulled off the shelves. In the late 1800s, many of the topics she discussed were immensely controversial and soon became very unpopular to the majority of readers.

This story was published in 1894 and revolves a lady named Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard was a housewife for her very wealthy husband who commuted to the city for work everyday. She had a heart trouble, but it never bothered her much. After her loving friend and sister revealed the news that her husband had passed due to a freak accident her grief encompassed her body. Immediately and originally, Ms. Mallard was extremely upset and began to cry. However, it wasn't long until a new found sense of happiness emerged from Ms. Mallard after the passing of her husband. She discovered that she was now free; free to live her life fully and free to make her own decisions. This was her true dream. She wanted a life beyond her home, she thrived to become more than just a wife that cleaned and had supper on the table before her husband come home from work. Though she felt guilty for being happy her new found freedom allowed her to come to peace with his passing. Just as dreams of the future and hope for a more fulfilling life engulfed her mind, a man had entered the door. It was her husband. Immediately she dropped to the floor and died. Though on the surface the story says that she had died from heart disease; the deeper meaning and the intentional irony suggest that she had really died from a broken heart full of unfulfilled dreams. 

Even though this story is tragic, Chopin makes it evident that a woman's happiness is through her ability to be independent. She believed that women thrived to be in charge of their lives, to be able to have a job, and to have more than an obligation to their husbands.  Many examples can be found in the text that display Mrs. Mallard's willingness for independence. Chopin states, "She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: 'free, free, free!'" (Chopin). The pure joy that filled her soul not only allowed her to accept her husbands, but also allowed her to enjoy it. She finally had realized she was free from her obligations as his wife and instead could focus on what truly mattered to her. As the end of the story approaches, the husband appears, "He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease of the joy that kills" (Chopin). The end of the story completes the idea that independence was the main wish for women in the 1800s. Chopin uses her "veiled hints" to articulate the controversial topic of women's rights and their positions in life and marriage.

Guy de Maupassant and Kate Chopin both highlight the ambitions of women in late 1800s. Maupassant believed women strived for glamour and beauty, while Chopin believed that women's happiness was driven by their independence. Maupassant illustrates the young wife in his story to be a woman of pity and low self worth to guide the audience into feeling that woman were truly living unhappy lifestyles during these years from the lack of luxuries that others possessed. Chopin illustrates Mrs. Mallard to be a strong woman who hid her true feelings till the day she believed her husband had passed away. By portraying her in this way, she was able to guide the reader into believing that woman during this time hid their feelings from being less impactful in society than men; due to the fact that woman were believed to be wives and only identified as wives. Because Mrs. Mallard is the wife to a wealthy business man, glamour and beauty does not appear to be a vital theme like it is in The Necklace. Mrs. Mallard already has money for the items that she wants, so she is able to dream about material items unlike Loisel's wife. In both stories it appears that, women want what they do not already have. If we were to compare these stories, the woman in The Necklace would be striving to live similarly to Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard however, in the Story of an Hour, would likely be striving to become a female version of her husband. Each woman has a dream, but that is exactly what a dream is, something you truly wish to obtain that you do not already have.

