Women in the nineteenth century had an entirely different role in society than they hold today. "The Story of an Hour" authored by Kate Chopin and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two short stories that give an understanding to what many women felt and experienced during this time. It is often difficult to understand the constant misery that many women endured because society has made the necessary changes to end the persecution that they faced. Chopin and Gilman make use of purposeful setting, obvious symbolism, and interesting irony to describe the oppression and inferiority that many women dealt with during the nineteenth century.

Kate Chopin uses setting in a way that is crucial to the main theme in "The Story of an Hour". The main theme seen in this story is the hardship of women during the nineteenth century. Chopin sets this story inside a house for important reasons. In fact, the main character, Mrs. Mallard, did not leave the house at all during the story. When Mrs. Mallard had heard of her husband's death, she first wept and "When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone" (Chopin, 223). At this time, it occurred to Mrs. Mallard that she only knew the inside of her house. She stared into the great outdoors and into the free, open sky and she became calmed. Chopin sets this entire story inside a house to show that Mrs. Mallard felt trapped inside her house and her life because of her marriage. Now that her husband has died, she acknowledges that she is now free and does not have to feel jailed by her husband and marriage. Being that this story is from the nineteenth century, it was very unusual and taboo to get a divorce. Women especially did not have a say in what they wanted or did not want in their lives. Chopin's use of setting ultimately shows the inferior position women held during this time period.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses setting in "The Yellow Wallpaper" in a highly similar way as Chopin to show the true feelings of women during the nineteenth century. Gilman's story is also set in a house, although this house is not the narrator's primary home. Her husband has brought her to this house in hopes to cure her condition of "nervousness". Similarly to Chopin's story, this story is entirely set inside this single house. The narrator goes into great detail describing every aspect about the house she is staying in. She includes " ... for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls" (Gilman, 210). This description of the setting is a more direct insight into the way the narrator is feeling. The fact that she includes that there are bars on the window, the reader can see that this room is similar to a prison cell. The narrator obviously feels trapped and locked inside this house. This use of setting is similar to Chopin's because both women possess this feeling of being locked in a single space and wanting to get out. The narrator in Gilman's story shows how she is oppressed by the setting of how she is secluded to a single space for a significant period of time.

In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour", clear symbolism is used in several ways to give a deeper insight into what women's true feelings were during the nineteenth century. The main symbol in Chopin's story is the heart trouble that Mrs. Mallard possesses. The first lines of the story include, "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death" (Chopin, 223). To the blind eye, one may think that this heart trouble that the character is given is to show that she has a weak heart and may easily be startled with the news she is about to receive. It is shown throughout the story that she was not exactly heartbroken as expected, and this is where the reader can see the deeper symbol of the heart trouble. The heart trouble Mrs. Mallard possessed actually lied within her marriage. After being informed about her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard felt as if she finally escaped something she had been trapped in for many years. This symbol in Chopin's story gives the understanding of the imprisonment feeling that many women acquired through their role of being a woman in the nineteenth century.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", uses symbolism in a certainly comparable way to Chopin's story. The main symbol Gilman establishes in her story is the wallpaper. Throughout the entire story, the narrator describes the wallpaper into great detail. In one of her descriptions she states, "The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over" (Gilman, 218). This description allows the reader to see how the narrator truly feels. Gilman uses the wallpaper to show that the narrator feels held captive in her life. She also illustrates how she is not the only woman that feels this way. She establishes that many women feel trapped behind bars. Gilman's use of symbolism in "The Yellow Wallpaper" depicts the life that many women lived during the nineteenth century. These women faced great oppression and were vastly dominated by the male gender.

In the short story, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, the author uses intriguing irony in the last lines of the piece. The last sentence of this story reads, "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- of the joy that kills" (Chopin, 224). It is ironic that Mrs. Mallard dies after seeing that her husband is in fact still alive. Her family was concerned for her heart trouble when giving her the bad news of her husband dying but in fact her heart trouble came into play when she found her husband alive. Most married women today would be relieved and overwhelmed with happiness if they found their supposed dead husband to be alive and standing right in front of them, but not Mrs. Mallard. This irony relates back to the theme shown throughout that this woman despised her marriage and the life she lived. The news of her husband dying lead her to great joy and freedom but that was immediately reversed as she saw him directly in front of her, healthy and happy. Chopin uses this irony to interpret the true feelings of a woman in the nineteenth century. This is intended to portray that many women were unhappy in their marriages during the nineteenth century because they felt belittled and oppressed throughout their everyday lives.

In "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author uses irony in a similar way to Chopin's story. The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is also found dead in the last lines of the story, although, the narrator's death is not as obvious in this story as Chopin's. The story reads, "'I've got out at last,' said I, 'in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back'" (Gilman, 221). These last words of the narrator allow the reader to see that she felt so trapped to the point that the only way for her to possibly escape is by committing suicide. It is ironic to think that the only way to obtain your freedom is by taking your own life, but this is how the narrator shows her true feelings. This action shows that the narrator fell into such oppression that the only way out was to end her own life. Gilman uses this peculiar irony to give a deeper insight to what most women of the nineteenth century felt on a regular daily basis. Her intentions are to show that some women reached the point where they did not accept and refused to conform to the inferior lifestyle they were expected to live. 

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two short stories that employ setting, symbolism, and irony in ways to show the unfortunate burdened lives that many women were forced to live in the nineteenth century. The role of women in society today is much different than in that time period. These authors use these literary elements in their stories to give insight into and to paint the emotions and hardships that these women faced.  

