Gender Roles In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, feminism is defined as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism is a major part of the short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, which is a story that portrays women’s lack of freedom in the1800s. Women had no rights, and had to cater to all of their husband’s needs. The main character in “The Story of an Hour” is a woman who suffers from heart trouble, named Mrs. Mallard. When Mrs. Mallard was told about her husband’s death, she was initially emotional, but because of her husband’s death she reaped freedom and became swept away with joy. The story is ironic because Mrs. Mallard learns her husband was not dead, and instead of exulting

Kate Chopin is known for being criticized for empowering the subject of female sexuality and independence. In Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, it is placed in a time where men were known as being the head of the household while women were only in charge of raising the children and caring for the home. In the 1890s, women didn’t have so much power to themselves compared to today’s society where female empowerment is frequently encouraged. Chopin’s story narrates a sequence of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions that goes within the motion of the story. As she overcomes the sudden death of her husband, her emotion of grief soon turns into the sudden feeling of freedom, later on emerging into a strong independent woman.

Slavery was abolished in the year 1864 when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This was the end of the possibility of human beings owning one another in the United States. Unfortunately this mentality remained in some shape and form, as women were often only considered an extension of their husbands. In 1919 women were granted the right to vote, and in 1960 women decided they wanted to be treated as equals. They subsequently initiated a civil rights movement to fight for workplace equality. Although women became equal to men in the eyes of the law, socially they still struggle for equality to this day. Still in this day and age women face some of the same discriminatory practices that were common place in the nineteenth century. Kate Chopin demonstrates the profound societal weight put on a wife when her faint hearted character’s husband is thought dead. Mrs. Mallard first feels grief for the loss of her husband’s life, then she feels the sweetness of freedom that is now bestowed upon her with the death of her husband. Chopin displays the injustices of society in her short story The Story of An Hour using diction, syntax, and figurative language.

When the notorious topic of women’s role in society comes to mind writers like Kate Chopin and Mary Wilkins Freeman break the norms of how women in America were imagined to be through different cultures and regions. In both Kate Chopin’s and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s time period women are portrayed as an ample servant to their husbands. Together the texts show how the controlled understanding of the nineteenth century society, had on women. At that time of these writers, people were restrictive about the viewpoint of women’s place in society. Women could not really do much without their Husband or another male figure in their life , they really didn’t have a voice of their own. In the stories A New England Nun , Desiree’s Baby, The Story of an Hour, and The Storm, Mary and Kate have represented how this situation of the society affected women and their viewpoints about life and marriage.

The short stories, “The Story of An Hour”, by Kate Chopin and “The Jury of Her Peers”, by Susan Glaspell compare two married women who live under the shadow of their husbands. Both of these stories were written in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries during the time when women were treated unequally. Women had limited rights. For example, they could not vote, voice their opinion or work outside the home. Glaspell and Chopin were considered feminist writers who focus their writing on the struggle of women during the time when the Women’s Suffrage Movement was beginning; these short stories reflect women’s struggles under the control of men. Married women were responsible for taking care of the household, children and wifely duties while the husbands were responsible for consistently managing the title of “the breadwinner.” Married women were expected to be discreet and obedient to their husbands, which meant that the wives could not express their opinions because of society’s expectations of women. In the short stories, “The Story of An Hour”, by Kate Chopin and “The Jury of Her Peers”, by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Wright share a prominent similarity concerning the loss of their individual identity during marriage and realize that the death of their husbands allow them to regain their self-identity.-

In "The story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the complex character, Mrs. Mallard, In a most unusual manner. THe reader is led to believe that her husband has been killed in a railway accident. The other characters in the story are worried about how to break the news to her; they know whe suffers from a heart condition, and they fear for her health. On the surface, the story appears to be about how Mrs. Mallard deals with the news of the death of her husband. On a deeper level, however, the story is about the feeling of intense joy that Mrs. Mallard experiences when she realizes that she is free from the influences of her husband and the consequences of

Something that characterizes these stories is the rich language and unique word choices Kate Chopin has made. In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin uses phrases that seem to contradict to describe Mrs. Mallard’s inner turmoil as she comes

Kate Chopin's `The Story of an Hour' is a short yet complex piece describing the feelings of Mrs Mallard. This story is overflowing with symbolism and imagery. The most prominent theme here is the longing for freedom. Chopin focuses on unfolding the emotional state of Mrs Mallard which can be separated into three stages: quickly moving to grief, through a sense of newfound freedom, and finally into the despair of the loss of that freedom.

Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” show the desire of freedom of certain women of this time by allowing the authors to live vicariously through their characters to show the shift of women’s identity and awareness to not only themselves but also to the world around them.

Reaction to the Character of Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

“…she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land.” (Maupassant) Throughout the course of literature, the female character portrayed as the stereotypical helpless, subservient, and troublesome figure. Often in literature as well as in life, women impersonate a trapped marriage, living out a simple housewife persona. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin in April 19, 1894. This short tale

Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour is a great story that conveys an important message about life and how difficult it can be for women, particularly in previous centuries. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when this story was written, women were quite often mistreated and had to live restricted lives that lacked opportunity. Generally, women weren?t liberated during the 19th century. Traditionally, women did all the hard work in the house and had no opportunities to make their own living or pursue their own personal dreams. Kate Chopin does an outstanding job of portraying a woman living in these times. The Story of an Hour is a good depiction of the unspoken repression that women faced in the past. Kate Chopin's major theme of the

Patriarchal Society and the Erasure of the Feminine Self in The Story of an Hour

Women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s had specific roles determined by the males who were dominant in their society. Women began to write stories which told their gender roles in that era. The authors of these stories lived in this time period and their stories reflect a lot of the traditional roles that were expected of them. The author’s purposes, were to tell about how marriage imprisoned women in this period of time. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s stories provide examples of the gender roles. Their reasoning of writing these stories was to call on women of this era to learn how to empower themselves in this society.

At the end of 19th century, American society presented an ideology of patriarchy. Feminists struggle for the equality and discrimination against female. As feminist movement started, lots of female writers were explored. One of the most famous writers is Kate Chopin. Her works mostly present a theme of women pursue freedom and equality. “The Story Of An Hour” and “The Awakening” are her representative works. In these two works, Kate Chopin reveals how women lived under the oppression of male-dominated society, especially for women who got married. They were not financially independent and their freedom and rights were deprived. Therefore female were forced to be an “angle in the home”. Both challenge the preconception that women can only be a housekeeper and marriage is the only way out.