How Did Kate Chopin Women Impact Society

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.

Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour,” emotionally illustrates the hour in which a young woman with a heart condition finds out her husband has been killed in a mining accident. In the beginning, she grieves over the loss of her husband, but she soon becomes relieved and joyous when she realizes that she is now free. However, her husband returns after having been far from the mines for the day and her heart problems return and she dies. Kate Chopin was an early feminist author and was well acquainted with death after losing many siblings as a child, her husband (who left her a large amount of debt), and her mother with whom she was very close. As a means of therapy, Chopin took up writing and her ideas about feminism and death are very clear. In “The Story of An Hour,” Chopin uses multiple symbols and an allusion to a Greek god to illustrate and support the idea that male oppression harms the souls and lives of women.

The 1800s served as a turning point for the role of women in society. Nearing the end of the century, the idea that women should not work outside the home began to be challenged, and women started to hold jobs of their own (Fischer et al., 2000). Great opportunity was given to unmarried women, as they gained independence in living apart from their families (Fischer et al., 2000). Women began to fight for their independence, opposing the idea of only being known as a housewife. Kate Chopin was among the individuals who challenged what the role of women in society was during the late 1800s. Chopin shares her perspective in her two short stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm.” In “The Story of an Hour,” the main

When first reading Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour," one may not typically be surprised at its ending, write it off as one of those creepy "back from the dead" horror stories and forget about it. There is more to this story than simply horror. The author is making a very strong, however subtle, statement towards humanity and women's rights. Through subtle symbolism, Kate Chopin shows how marriage is more like a confining role of servitude rather than a loving partnership.

Kate Chopin’s strong female influences provided her with her love for storytelling along with her curiosity, and her feelings on women’s stereotypical roles inspired her to write. Compared to others in her generation she was very forward-thinking with a lot of her views. Kate Chopin was born into the generation of change by them accepting change and questioning typical roles (“Women’s Issues in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening” 13). The changing views of that time period paired with the fact that she was raised by three strong women set the foundations for her views. As “Women’s Issues in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening” says her most notable female influence her great-grandmother who introduced her to stories creating Chopin’s love for books. Kate’s great-grandmother shared her

normally reserved for the man, in a meditation on identity and culture, consciousness, and art." (Robinson 3) "The role of woman in the society Chopin creates is of special interest and relevance. (Robinson 6)

Because of her views of women in society, Kate Chopin was heavily criticized and ridiculed for her beliefs of women’s rights and her portrayal of defying the expectations of being married and being a mother. Throughout the Awakening, Kate Chopin criticizes different societal expectations such as the concept of motherhood, the oppression of the patriarchy, and the way the individuality of women is portrayed, in order to critique society’s views on the roles of women and to evince that women cannot truly be free because of society’s expectations. Chopin portrays the concept of motherhood and criticizes it by evincing the way women were expected to behave and what their roles were in society, which was to be a mother and a wife. Chopin also analyzes the submissive behavior of women to men to critique the fact that men oppressed women and deemed them as inferior. Chopin then criticizes the aspect of how individuality in women was rarely expressed because of how society expects women to adhere to the expectation that they should depend on what society tells them to do.

American creator Kate Chopin was conceived Catherine O'Flaherty on July 12, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was one of three youngsters born to Irishman Thomas O'Flaherty and a French-American mother, Eliza Faris. She has composed two published novels and over a hundred short stories. The majority of her stories are situated in the place where she grew up of Louisiana and concentrate on the lives of ladies. The period she experienced childhood in was a contemporary society where ladies were subjected to acting in a certain way. Ladies were to get married, have youngsters, and carry on with a customary life. Chopin did not experience childhood in a conventional family unit, maybe setting the premise for her perspective of society. She was

Kate Chopin set the primary precedent of a desired woman representative promoting equal rights. Chopin’s feminist ideology shaped the basis of ¨The Story of an Hour.¨ She encountered hatred and rejection from the patriarchal society since her writings portrayed women as ¨passionate and emancipated¨ (Hicks). Unlike Louise Mallard, Chopin knew the implications of the institution of marriage; however, it did not stop her from pursuing a union with Oscar Chopin. Throughout her lifetime, she had been exposed to the essence of equality of both sexes. Fatherless at the age of four, Chopin was ¨strongly influenced by her mother and her maternal grandmother.

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

A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time, by Ann Bail Howard, discusses the nature of the female characters in Kate Chopin’s novel’s and short stories. Howard suggests that the women in Chopin’s stories are longing for independence and feel torn between the feminine duties of a married woman and the freedom associated with self-reliance. Howard’s view is correct to a point, but Chopin’s female characters can be viewed as more radically feminist than Howard realizes. Rather than simply being torn between independent and dependant versions of her personality, “The Story of an Hour’s” Mrs. Mallard actually rejoices in her newfound freedom, and, in the culmination of the story, the position of the woman

In the 1800's married women had to submit to their husbands. Woman who got married had no voice with law. This meant their husbands would have to take legal action for them. Wives did not have any rights to their own property, and they would not have right to wages they earn. But these started to change through feminist women who raised their voice against men. Even though the feminist movement started in the 1960's, there were women ahead of this time that were feminist too. In her short story, "Story of an Hour", and novel "The Awakening", Kate Chopin explores the themes of woman rebellion against their husbands, and woman becoming independent from their husbands. Even though Kate Chopin was born

The unique style of Kate Chopin’s writing has influenced and paved the way for many female authors. Although not verbally, Kate Chopin aired political and social issues affecting women and challenging the validity of such restrictions through fiction. Kate Chopin, a feminist in her time, prevailed against the notion that a woman’s purpose was to only be a housewife and nothing more. Kate Chopin fortified the importance of women empowerment, self-expression, self-assertion, and female sexuality through creativity in her literary work.

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.

Kate Chopin's short story, "The Story of an Hour" is largely about the forms of repression that women were forced to endure during the epoch in which the story was written (1894) and during much of the time that preceded it. During this time period, women quite frequently had to subjugate themselves to the will of their husbands, or to some other man who had a significant amount of control over their lives. Chopin chooses to address this phenomenon in an indirect manner with this particular short story, although she does so in a thematic manner which, of course, is the ""¦idea that lies behind the story. Every story narrows a broad underlying idea, shapes it in a unique way, and makes the underlying idea concrete" (Clugston 2010, 7.1) The theme that "The Story of an Hour" is based upon is the notion of the liberation of women from the overbearing influence of men. Chopin chooses to illustrate this theme quite dramatically through literary devices of symbolism and metaphor.