Societal Restrictions Since the beginning of time, women have been treated as second-class citizens. Therefore, women were forced to face many problems and were repressed due to this. During the post-Civil War period, the Napoleonic Code stated that women were controlled by their husbands and could not freely do their own will without their husband's authority. Each character desires freedom in a different way, but because of the men in their life they are unable to make their own life decisions. In both stories, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the use of literary elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and the significant meaning of the titles are essential in drawing the reader towards an unexpected experience. and ironic conclusion. From the backgrounds of both authors, who are from the South, we can conclude how they could have described the situations they faced as political and social presumptions and/or problems especially for women at that time. In the stories "The Story of an Hour," by Chopin and "A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner, the main characters are both female. Both women in these stories were bound by what society expected of them. Each woman in different ways unsuccessfully tries to gain her freedom. Emily and Mrs. Mallard live in male-dominated societies and none of the women were free to do or be what they wanted. Louise (“The Story of an Hour”) and Emily (“A Rose for Emily”) not only feel, but live the demands that society and their family have placed on them. In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the title character feels imprisoned. from his life and looked for a way to gain his freedom. Emily must endure her father's endless denial that there is a man suitable for his daughter. Emily was left alone after her father's death, and the townspeople thought that some of her relatives should come to her. Instead Emily lived alone with only a black male servant. Grierson, Emily's father, stopped her from dating men because he thought they weren't good enough for her. After Emily's father died, she decided to date Homer Barron: "a foreman, a Yankee, a big, dark, ready man, a Northerner, a day laborer", to have companionship and a man she will share with her his time and his will. take care of her just like her father did (470).
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