Comparing The Juxtaposition Of Control And Freedom In Literature

Since the beginning of time, women have been treated as second class citizens. Therefore, women were forced to face many problems. Because of this women were repressed. At that time, the Napoleonic Code stated that women were controlled by their husbands and cannot freely do their own will without the authority of their husband. This paper shows how this is evident in the "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In both stories, the use of literary elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and significant meaning of the titles are essential in bringing the reader to an unexpected and ironic conclusion.

Historically, women have been treated as second class citizens. The Napoleonic Code stated that women were controlled by their husbands and cannot freely do their own will without the authority of their husband. This paper shows how this is evident in the "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In both stories, the use of literary elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and significant meaning of the titles are essential in bringing the reader to an unexpected and ironic conclusion.

“A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner and “Desiree’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin are short stories that contain similarities in the writing styles as well as the stories themselves. The writings of Faulkner and Chopin convey periods in which social status was vital to the lives of their characters, and served the basis of their stories. In “A Rose for Emily”, the social standing of a women fueled the curiosity of the town; in fact, that curiosity is what kept the readers fascinated as well. In “Desiree’s Baby”, the importance of social status meant the end of a marriage and the end of two innocent lives. Both Faulkner and Chopin gave little detail as to who their characters really were. Most of the questions about the characters were left unanswered to allow readers to fill in the blanks in a way that is relatable to them. Both of these stories take place in specific time

In the short story “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin, the character Mrs. Mallard is a grieving wife who pictures her life by herself. While grieving her husband’s death, she is thinking about being free and independent. Mrs. Mallard and women in the days where they depended on their husbands to provide for the family, while they stayed home and took care of the house. “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would be hers absolutely.” (Chopin 548) She was a sympathetic character who loved her husband but is ready to be free. Mrs. Mallard’s reactions to Mr. Mallard’s death is justified by the way she grieves for him. The way she is dealing with the loss of her husband is admirable, even though in the end it kills her.

This personal confession shows that Mrs. Mallard, though she will mourn at first, now is free to “live for herself,” (228) not for her imposing husband. Before her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard believed she was in a healthy, normal marriage. This death revealed to her how while she cared about her husband, she despised the lack of freedom her marriage had given her. All of the realizations that Mrs. Mallard reaches during her time of reflection shows the readers exactly why she will no longer mourn the death of her husband.

A women’s obligation in the 19th Century was to keep an eye on the necessities of their significant other's needs and take care of the house chore. Who was Ms Mallard before the news of her husband’s death? Before the news, Ms Mallard was a sickly women who felt trapped in her marriage and lost the will or the vision of the beauty of life. Chopin states “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” A very exhausted women who is tired of the daily burden of taking care of her husband and the household.

“But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin 157). She feels free from the obligations to her husband that was forced upon her during the Victorian era and she is looking forward to the years of independent freedom that are yet to come. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature” (157). Mrs. Mallard did not want to submit to the oppressor, who in this case, was her husband. She wanted to make her own decisions and didn’t want to take orders from her husband. She was forced to live that way because her husband controlled her. Once she found out that he was supposedly dead, she felt free from the male oppression that she had been a victim of since the day she and her husband exchanged vows. Mrs. Mallard would rather live for herself and not have to live for her husband, and his alleged death allowed her to live for herself without getting a divorce, so her society wouldn’t look down upon her.

Chopin’s protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, clearly reflects that which has transcended to an irreconcilable conflict. The evident exuberance she felt by the death of her husband is considered crass and in poor taste, yet the embrasure of Death exemplifies the understanding that Mrs. Mallard has her desire

Mallard, the main character, faces internal conflict on the subject of her husband’s death. In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard is immediately presented with the horrible news of her husband’s death. Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister and the one responsible for giving the news, explains to Mrs. Mallard that he was killed in a railroad accident. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms” (Chopin 607). This statement clearly shows that Mrs. Mallard is upset about her husband’s death, which is to be expected.

Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart condition; thus, her sister Josephine gently and carefully breaks the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Richards, a close friend of Mr. Mallard, is the first to discover the news of Mr. Mallard’s railroad tragedy. When hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard collapses in grief into her sister’s arms and retreats upstairs into her room. While her sister begs Mrs. Mallard to open the door, Mrs. Mallard reflects on her feelings. She sinks into an armchair facing an open window noticing the “new spring life, the delicious breath of rain in the air, the peddler in the street crying his ware, the notes of a distant song which someone was singing and countless sparrows twittering in the eaves” (Chopin 556). This signifies a new blossoming life: a life that she would live for herself. Although her husband is loving, and she knows that she will weep again when she sees his dead body, she realizes how confined marriage is for her. Robert Evans, author of “Literary Contexts in Short Stories: Kate Chopin's “‘The Story of an Hour,’” claims that Mrs. Mallard looks forward to a bright future rather than a dreadful life. She becomes aware that she must live alone rather than being imprisoned by marriage. As these thoughts circulate in her mind, she keeps whispering, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 557).By conveying the story through Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, Chopin portrays how women actually feel compared to what they present in society. While Josephine and society expect Mrs. Mallard to be grieving, Mrs. Mallard is actually looking forward to the days ahead of her: “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin 557). When Mrs. Mallard discovers that the news of her husband’s death was inaccurate, Mrs. Mallard dies from a heart attack after seeing her husband alive. The

Author, Kate Chopin, presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. Finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow: "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." In her soul, the dark clouds are disappearing because she is illuminated. All the memories of her husband are now of the past. She is living in the present. At this point, she is no longer "Mrs.Mallard." She is Louise and is ready to welcome a new horizon of freedom : "Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own." Overwhelmed with a new sense of herself, she feels as if she

However, after failing to abandon the new feeling she senses, she ultimately decides that “she would live for herself” (Chopin). This reversal and unexpected outcome, better known as the climax, is the most intense moment for Mrs. Mallard in all her life because she has never experienced such a sensation before, nor lived a life in which her independence is the core of her being. Teresa Gibert, an English researcher, describes the climax as this: “Then, when we are ready for a detailed description of the sad emotions she [Mrs. Mallard] is likely to experience while mourning, we are confronted with an astonishing passage about the sense of relief and freedom enjoyed by the woman during the hour when she mistakenly thinks she is a widow.” That one special hour is considered the point in which a women’s true freedom is underscored, and specifically, those sixty minutes are Mrs. Mallard’s best time in life.

I n the Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin gives us the feeling that Mrs. Mallard is unhappy in the by telling us “she was presses down by physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (227). We learn right off that Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition and should be treated tenderly. When she heard the news of her husbands death, she was at first upset and distraught. She did not begin to feel better until she had time to sit and think, with “the delicious breath of rain was in the air” (227). Mrs. Mallard felt lonely and did not know what to do with herself anymore. She realized that there would no longer be someone there with her to be there when her life expired. She often had the feeling that life was too long and that the end would never come for her. That was a sign that Mrs. Mallard was a lonely and isolated woman. She was sitting there in the chair when it came to her in a sudden rush. That she is “Free! Body and soul free” (228). Mrs. Mallard knew then that life was not short after all. Life was short and she should live it to the fullest. She is now free to do as she pleases. Mrs. Mallard has a feeling of freedom, freedom form the loneliness and isolation that she has felt for a very long time. She is now free to be herself

Women were to obey their oppressive husbands and take care of their children. Marriages were not always about mutual love, but especially during this era, for women it was about living comfortably and social status. In both stories, the female characters are involved in relationships with dominant men and feel unfulfilled. In Kate Chopin’s short story, the protagonist Louise is clearly a woman that was not fulfilled in her marriage and was controlled by her husband. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression” (Chopin 1).

The marriages in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell are similar as both portrayed the traditional gender roles for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this time, the wives felt oppressed by the more male dominated society. In “The Story of an Hour”, Minnie was forced to be with her husband who stole all her freedom. In “A Jury of Her Peers,” Louise becomes much happier after hearing the news of her husband’s death. This displays how women were restricted after marriage and did not get the freedom that they desired. In both the stories, the women are looked down upon and are not respected. “It outlines the rich and colorful history of women struggling to publish and define themselves and the complex and tangled tradition of women’s writing in this country” (Roiphe). Both stories undeniably show the battles that women had to face during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.