The Death of the Female Protagonists in The Awakening, "The Yellow Wallpaper" and The House of Mirth, and Its Realistic Foundations.

Thesis abstract This thesis analyzes the theme of death not only as the internal struggle of a certain individual, but follows its development with respect to society and the pressure that society places on the individual in question. The main foci of the analysis are Kate Chopin"s The Awakening, Edith Wharton"s The House of Mirth, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman"s "The Yellow Wallpaper". Literary typology is emphasized as a tool for creating contrasts in specific conceptions of the deaths of the women protagonists, and for facilitating an understanding of the basic framework of the individual novels. Chopin, Wharton and Gilman conceptualize death, as a complex phenomenon, in a broad perspective, not perceiving it exclusively as an end to physical existence but also as a reflection of the struggle between, on the one hand, external elements that are social, economic and familial in nature, and on the other, the sum of internal elementspredispositions, wants, imaginations and ideals. The thesis analyzes the impact that this struggle has on the perception of the heroines' own identities. The erosion of their original identity and the effort to cope with the problem is not only a direct precursor of a "traditional" death but also allows an understanding of this phase as "metaphorical" death. Gilman's "The Yellow..