This era is especially interesting because women were still treated as second-class citizens. ... Her husband, "a physician of high standing " (Gilman 55), has diagnosed her as having a "temporary nervous depression " a slight hysterical tendency " (Gilman 55). ...
Literature of this time embodies and mirrors social issues of women in society. ... Many women characters throughout American literature reflect the same conflicts and attitudes of Nora in Ibsen's play A Doll House. ... Although the women during this era showed no social domination, their attitudes of acceptance promoted this stereotyping of social roles based on gender. ... Her husband has diagnosed her with a nervous condition, and although she does not agree with him she feels that "If a physician of high standing...assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matte...
This ideal, known at The Cult of True Womanhood, was presented to women of the nineteenth century by women's magazines, annuals, and religious literature (Welter 151). ... This was the era, in which Kate Chopin lived, and wrote The Awakening. ...
