Male Oppression of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper and Sweat by Gilman and Hurston

Introduction
"For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia-and beyond. During about the third year of this trouble I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in the country. This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still good physique responded so promptly that he concluded that there was nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to 'live as domestic a life as possible,' to 'have but two hours' intelligent life a day,' and 'never to touch pen, brush or pencil again as long as I lived.' This was in 1887…"
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wall-paper," 1913
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written during a time of great change. In the early- to mid-nineteenth century, "domestic ideology" positioned American middle class women as the spiritual and moral leaders of their home. Such "separate spheres" ideas suggested that a woman's place was in the private domain of the home, where she should carry out her prescribed roles of wife and mother. Men, on the other hand, would rule the public domain through work, politics, and economics.
"Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."
-Zora Neale Hurston
Discussion Questions:
What do these two stories suggest about the relationship between the main character and her husband? What is the significance of the woman behind the yellow wallpaper?
How do these two stories reflect the struggles of women during their respective time periods (1892 for “The Yellow Wallpaper) and (1926 for “Sweat”)? How are the stories different as a result of the race of the main characters?
How do Gilman and Hurston express the values and ideology of feminism through these two stories? What messages do these two early feminist writers convey through the texts?
Be sure to include quotes from both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Zora Neale Hurston in your response. You can also include examples from any other text from this course.