Similarities between Freeman's "Revolt of 'Mother'" and Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper'.

The most obvious similarity between these stories is that their protagonists are both women who in some way defy the will of their husbands. Each "revolt" is directly linked to a structure; in Freeman it is the house with which Sarah is dissatisfied (and the barn, its intended purpose as such with which she is equally dissatisfied), in Gilman the nursery to which the narrator is confined. The result of each revolt is the capitulation of the husbands; in Freeman Adoniram weeps, in Gilman the husband faints. Each of these actions represents a diminution of the husbands' control over their wives. Although we don't get to see what happens after the men regain their composure (or consciousness), that is not the point. The point is that the women have challenged the patriarchal domination to which they had been subjected, and, however fleetingly, attained a level of independence which they had hitherto never possessed.