Both "The Yellow Wallpaper", written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and "The Necklace", written by Guy de Maupassant, include females as the lead role in these short stories. While each of their roles in the stories are different, women back then were still treated a lot differently then they are in today's society. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" the main character is portrayed as weak and she cannot take care of herself like most women of the late 1800s. However, Mathilde Loisel in "The Necklace" plays a role where she is above her husband and he will do anything for her. Although the females play different roles in these two stories, they still have a similar mindset, and are treated the same as all women back then. The female roles in "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Necklace" are different, because one is in control of her husband and the other is under the control of her husband, but are similar in that they have alike thoughts and are typical depictions of women from an early time period. 

In the short story, "The Necklace," Mathilde Loisel makes a lot of the decisions for her and her husband and has more control over her husband than he does over her. Her husband does everything for her and lives just to please her. He got her into an elite party, bought her a new dress, and helps her endlessly after she loses her friends necklace. Monsieur Loisel truly loves her and does not treat her with disrespect. He does not have much to his name, so getting the two of them invitations to the ball was a great deal for him. He believed his wife would like it but 

instead, "she threw the invitation on the table with disdain" (de Maupassant, 34). In other households, women could not get away with acting like this and not being appreciative of the things their husbands do. However, in this scenario she can act like this, because she leads the household rather than him being in charge. Another example that shows she is the head of the house was when she complained about not having a dress to wear for the ball. Her husband's suggestions were not enough to persuade her greediness, so he gave up four hundred francs that he was saving up for himself so she could purchase a dress. Because he gave up his entire life savings for her proves that she can manipulate him to do just about anything. The final example of where she applies dominance over him is at the end of the story when the two of them were looking for the lost necklace. Even though he had to work the next morning, he committed his whole night to searching for her necklace on foot. While he was out until seven in the morning, "[Mathilde] sat waiting on a chair in her ball dress," instead of going out and helping her husband (de Maupassant, 37). She has so much power over him, she can sit and rest while her exhausted husband goes and searches for the lost jewels. Mathilde Loisel and Monsieur Loisel live a different lifestyle than most of the women back in the late 1800s, and she plays the role of the head of household.

Unlike Mathilde Loisel, the main character in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is not the head of household. Rather than her husband doing everything for her, she is treated like a child and is alone most of the time. In this short story, the husband John locks his wife up in a house, does not give her proper treatment she deserves, and she is not allowed to work. In the beginning of the story, her husband and her go to a summer colonial mansion that is away from everyone and civilization. While her husband thinks keeping her alone will heal her, he is very wrong. The wife in this scenario has no rights and is told to do everything by her husband instead of her telling her husband what to do. Temporarily moving to the mansion, John believes "this place is doing [her] good," and making her well again (Gilman, 211). Her husband talks down to her multiple times in this short story, proving his dominance over her. John's profession is that he is a physician and he is meant to take care of people. However, he neglects to actually help his wife and does not believe she is actually sick. By disregarding his wife's illness, John does not care for her. He has to take care of her, unlike Monsieur Loisel who wanted to take care of his wife. The husband in "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the husband in "The Necklace" are very different in that John is in charge of his wife and Monsieur is pushed around by his. Finally, the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is limited to what she is allowed to do within the house. She is not allowed to sleep with her own husband, and especially restricted from doing any form of work. Because she is restricted from doing these things, shows that she does not have any kind of standing in her household. While Mathilde Loisel was content with not working, the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper" believes that, "congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good" (Gilman, 209). The women in the two stories have very different roles in their household with their husbands during that time period.

Although one wife is in charge of her husband and the other is not, the two women have similar thoughts. Both women are unhappy with their lives despite the role they play in the house with their husbands. In "The Necklace," Mathilde Loisel is put in a great position, yet she is still unhappy with her life. She believes the only thing she truly has is beauty, because she does not attain any riches or jewels. Because "she suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries," she is unhappy and thinks she has nothing to her name (de Maupassant, 33). Her ungratefulness is magnified when the two wives are compared, because 

she has so much more than many women of the time. She has the most important thing a woman could wish for at the time, and that is her own freedom. Nonetheless, Mathilde Loisel is still unhappy, just as the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is unhappy with her life, too. However, the reason she is unhappy is not because she is poor, but it is because she has no rights or say in her relationship with her husband. Because John restricts his wife from being able to do anything, she is unhappy and eventually goes crazy. She never is allowed to speak of her feelings, so she holds her emotions in until they explode at the end. She "gets unreasonably angry with John sometimes," because of the situation he put her in (Gilman 209). She has a reason to be unhappy in her relationship, because she does not have rights, but Mathilde Loisel is just ungrateful. Both of the women are similar, because they are unhappy with the situation they are placed in but it is for very different reasons. 

During this time period in the late 1800s, women barely had any rights. Mathilde Loisel being in charge of her household was a big deal during this time. However, the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper," who also happens to be left nameless does not have such a high standing in her household. She is under the rule of her husband, and he makes all her decisions for himself. Compared to the women of modern day society, these women were not as fortunate. Mathilde was luckier than John's wife, but she was still unhappy with her life. While there are women who are unhappy nowadays, the times were different in the 1800s so she had other things to be unhappy about. Mathilde Loisel is a closer depiction of women in the current society than John's wife. She had her own rights in the household, mainly for the fact that her husband loved her and cared for her so much. Even though the wife in "The Necklace" can be closely compared to to the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper," she is more closely related to modern day wives. Mathilde and Monsieur Loisel only had each other. She had beauty but nothing more. Monsieur was forced to work very much just so he could please his wife. She always wanted more and was greedy for money and jewels. He tried doing that for her by giving her all his wealth. They were considered a team, and he actually cared for her. This relates to the normal husband and wife situation in current society. However, the scenario with John and his wife is not similar to a modern day wife. Everything she did was under the control of John, who also thought he knew what was best for her. This is a typical scenario for this time period, because women could not vote or have jobs really and this story depicts the times back then. The two stories depicted women in different situations and can be compared to the women of the current time. In "The Necklace" Mathilde Loisel is much more closely related to women in the twenty-first century, than the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is depicted. 

In both the stories, "The Necklace" and "The Yellow Wallpaper," women are portrayed in different roles in their households. Mathilde Loisel plays a dominating role between her and her husband, while the wife in "The Yellow Wallpaper" takes orders from her husband and is not appreciated like a wife should be. John's wife is portrayed a weak and she cannot take care of herself, which displays how women had to rely on their husbands back in those days. Although the two women's roles differ, they have similar mindsets throughout each of the short stories. They both are unhappy with their lives, whether it is because one wants more riches or because another does not have any choices for herself. The women think alike which makes them similar with each other. Both stories are from the 1800s and both depict the typical husband wife situation from that time, but the characters in "The Yellow Wallpaper" are more of an example than Monsieur and Mathilde Loisel in "The Necklace." While both "The Necklace" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" have few similarities, there are many differences within the plot that relates back to how women were treated then and currently.

