Freedom: The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

While men’s lives were placed on pedestals in the early twentieth century, women’s lives were taken for granted. Women had a scarce amount of social opportunities, and were often limited to being a mother and a wife. Instead of being able to be themselves and speak their mind, females had to take the back seat and allow men’s feelings and voice to be heard and catered to. The custom of the early twentieth century encompassed the idea of men working all day while the women cleaned the house, cooked the food, and took care of the children that the men did not always want. Women had no opportunity to express themselves in a different way, other than small parties or get togethers held during vacation time. The women that found themselves and focused

As humans, we live our life within the boundaries of our belief systems and moral guidelines. Yet, one unexpected event can suddenly knock us out of our comfort zone and thrust us into a completely different arena. Such is the case of the central character in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Louise Mallard, upon hearing the news of her husband’s tragic death then subsequent revelation of its fallacy, finds herself quickly moving from grief, through a sense of newfound freedom, and finally into the despair of the loss of that freedom.

Kate Chopin is the author of the book The Awakening published in 1899. “Kate was born February 08, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri and died on August 22, 1904” (Feminist Writers). “Born as Katherine O’Flaherty and she graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart in 1868” (Feminist Writers). “Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and had five sons and one daughter” (Feminist Writers). “Kate wrote fictional novels; her most known novel is “The Awaken” and short stories; her most known short story is called, The Storm” (Feminist Writers). “Chopin’s fiction details the social and sexual subtleties of the Cajun and Creole culture in which she lived during her childhood and marriage” (Feminist Writers). “Chopin represents ironic and seven daring treatments of the sexual, racial, and moral underpinnings of polite southern Louisiana society” (Feminist Writers). “The Awaken has become a required reading for any student of the history of women’s cultural oppression” (Feminist Writers).

Kate Chopin is the author of many short-stories and novels. Her short story, “The Story of an Hour,” is about a woman named Mrs. Louise Mallard with a fragile heart that suddenly and unexpectedly loses her husband in a train accident. Throughout the story, Mrs. Mallard learns to embrace the accident because for her it meant she finally obtained freedom from her demanding life that she has been wanting to break away from. Freedom and independence is one of the themes of “The Story of an Hour” and appears in the story when Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband is in a train accident, when she secludes herself from everyone in her room, and when she learns that her husband is actually alive.

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a story of the feeling of losing someone with a different twist. Mrs. Mallard, a woman who has heart trouble, receives the news that her husband died in a “railroad disaster”, by her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend, a newspaper worker, named Richard (Chopin 307). She begins to let it occur to her that her husband is dead and accept the thought of it. Chopin uses the theme of closure to express the feelings of Mrs. Mallard in coping with the thought of the death of her husband. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin uses the theme of closure to tell the story because it explains to the readers the feelings that Mrs. Mallard has when she receives the news that her husband is dead; the story starts with the feeling of grief, then closure, and then the over joy that Mrs. Mallard is feeling.

T he Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin displayed that the marriage between her husband and her must have been very controlling. She says in the short story after hearing that her husband died that she was free, free, free, after the sobbing of course. This hints towards the readers that he judged her and kind of controlled the decision that she had made in everyday life. She felt renewed after his death; little did she know he was actually still alive.

The struggle between being free and being confined has been an issue men and women have faced during the 1900s. During this time period women were confine to marriage as were the men but the way they were confined was different. Both were obligated to get married or else they were looked down upon in society. Women had to be pretty, “in shape” and their only job was to take care of the household and husband. They did not have a say on what happened in the house or how things were to be done that was the husband’s job. The man was obligated to get married, take care of his wife and household (money wise). The men were typically more free then the women. But true freedom is being able to live for yourself and do what you wanted to how you wanted to do it. Neither were truly free. During this time period, many writers and poets would using poems and stories to discuss these issues. Writer Henrik Ibsen and poet Kate Chopin are perfect examples of people who used their writing to express their opinion on the issue. In Ibsen’s story, A Doll’s House, his main idea was that women are never free not even if they leave their homes. Chopin’s story, The Story of an Hour, main focus was how the only way for women to be free is to become a widow. Both had the main idea that women are confined to a marriage that is really about the husband not both parties.

In "The Story of an Hour", Mrs Mallard, who has a heart attack is the

The representation of marriage and gender parts portrayed in the America short stories the Necklace by Guy De Maupassan The Short story of a Hour by Kate Chopin are short stories which uncover many viewpoints seen in the human intuitive convictions. These stories demonstrate how the male characters assume the primary part in marriage as the dominant ones and their partners, the females taking up the weaker parts. The women in these stories are portrayed as unsteady person who are inclined to fantasy, feeble and precarious consequently they are general human creatures who are incapable. By analyzing the significant themes, style and contents in these two stories particularly on the female psyche, one has the capacity see what matters which exists between the genders parts particularly inside the connection of marriage. The major artistic hypothesis which can bests elucidate this idea is the one on psychoanalysis. With the point of accomplishing the right psychoanalysis of the significant characters in these stories, the originals of the mental methodology will first be talked about and the personal significance it has on these two short story authors.

In the story “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, we read about a woman named Louise Mallard, who is informed her husband was in a train wreck. At the end of the story we are told she died of joy when she sees her husband standing well and alive at the door. However, one can make their own assumptions as to what really caused Louise to pass. The moment Louise heard of her husband’s death, she became overwhelmed with emotions which led her to crying into her sister’s arms. She later went into her room, where she would find herself consuming her mind with all kinds of feelings. Another thing that we read in the story is how Louise begins to consider his death a sense of freedom. A prime example of Louise realizing she is gaining freedom was when

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is an example of a strained romantic relationship and the quest for identity. Mrs. Mallard has a romantic yet strained love with her presumbably dead husband. It is strained because she, "had loved him--sometimes." but,"often, she had not". This is because she felt his assertion and domanice was used to control and trap her. In assuming that she was free from this, she began to see herself in the future having "all sorts of days that would be her own" and her new identity that would come with it.

Chopin’s story was written in the 19th century, which was a time period where women did not have any rights or power. Women were expected to stay home and take care of the house and kids, while the men went out and worked to bring a paycheck home. It was a time period where women were seen as care takers and not as free thinkers. The outcome of that resulted in a lot of women being expected to become stay at home wives and mothers. Marriages were rarely ever because of love, like they are now. Rather, it was used as an opportunity for families to maximize their wealth and link up family

Freedom is a key factor of our lives that everyone strives for. It creates a sense of peace within our minds and allows us to expand our horizons. Freedom is not only a physical attribute but an eternal one. To achieve freedom within ourselves is a long and treacherous path that each human must go through. The goodness in one's heart is needed to accept your life's journey. Through perseverance, kindness and self-knowledge the pursuit of goodness becomes the key to personal freedom.

“Free! Body and soul free!”(paragraph 14) says Louise, a character in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. Louise continues to repeat this phrase as she believes that her husband is now dead. She is a free woman who may now partake in whatever her heart desires. Usually when a woman becomes a widow she is filled with grief and sadness. Yet, Louise demonstrates otherwise. She is hit with a great amount of freedom rather than the common loneliness a widow experiences. In death, a person’s mind, body, and soul is set free; similar to what Mrs. Mallard briefly experiences. Later on in the story, when Mrs. Mallard sees that her husband is still alive, she is so shocked that she dies from this discovery. In the short story, “The Story

Kate Chopin’s short story titled “The Story of an Hour” shows us in a number ways that life without freedom is no life at all. In the story, a nineteenth century women named Mrs. Mallard finds out about her husband’s death. She has heart disease so Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, tries to break the bad news to her as calmly as possible. After hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard’s unpredictable reaction shocks us the readers as well as the characters in the story. Instead of feeling the sorrow of her husband’s death, she feels the joy of freedom from him as well. Freedom is something that we as humans take for granted, and this story shows the importance of it through Mrs. Mallard’s eyes.