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Mr Peeble's Heart Analysis

Decent Essays

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the most important authors and feminist during the late 19th century as her work examined the position of women within society. Her critically acclaimed work "The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories" took a deeper look at women during the 19th century and focused on women and their roles in marriages, the resting cure, mental constraints and the role that society played in defining and shaping women. One of the short stories written by her titled “Mr Peeble’s Heart” revolves around Dr Joan, physician, who comes to live with her sister and brother in law as she sets up practice in their town. As she gets to know the relationship between her sister and brother in law she determines that they have a unhappy …show more content…

Peebles is not feeling the freedom that a man in the late 19th century should feel in a relationship. “He was not ‘the slave of love’ of the Arab tale, but the slave of duty,” she writes (Gilman 269). This displays to the reader that Pebbles ,although in a relationship, feels burdened by the expectations of being in a relationship as he looks at it as a duty not something that he is a part of. Furthermore he feels oppressed because what society expects out of him to the point where he gave up his dreams. He took care of his mother until he died due to his father's passing and is responsible for taking care of his wife. When asked if he had a choice to choose his profession he stated it was music but wouldn’t be allowed to bring it to the house. He was also discouraged to play guitar because the society expected only girls to play the guitar stating “It was for the one who learned to play it first. He meant the girls of course”(Gilman 273). This is evidence to the claim that the author choose to focus on male suppression and the diction throughout the writing displays what society expected out of a man and how they were often under pressure to be something society wants them to

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