Kate Chopin View On Feminism

Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote novels as well as short stories. Her work was extraordinary and some of her greatest work was based on the feminist movement. Kate Chopin became known throughout the world as one of the most influential writers during the feminist movement. She has attracted great attention from scholars along with students, and her work has been translated into many different languages.

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

During the feminist movement many female authors began to write novels about female emancipation. In these novels, the protagonist experiences enlightenment where she discovers that she is living an incomplete life that society has oppressed her into. Before the movement, society forced women into roles that were inferior to men and they were thought of as men’s property. Harold bloom states, “The direction of The Awakening follows what is becoming a pattern in literature by and about women…toward greater self-knowledge that leads in turn to a revelation of the disparity between that self-knowledge and nature of the world” (Bloom, Kate Chopin 43). Moreover, Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal challenge more than a social struggle, which contradicts her literary works. According to Harold Bloom, “Chopin’s novel was not intended to make a broad social statement but rather that it indicates that Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal matter”(Bloom, Bloom’s Notes 58). In the past, the novel was banned because of its connection to the feminist movement.

     Kate Chopin was one of the greatest and earliest feminist writers in history, whose works have inspired some and drawn much criticism from others. Chopin, through her writings, had shown her struggle for freedom and individuality.

In the life and writings of Kate Chopin and Mary E. Freeman, how can you see the obvious cry for women to have an equal status in a man’s world?

Have you ever wondered what the lifestyles of Nineteenth Century women were like? Were they independent, career women or were they typical housewives that cooked, clean, watched the children, and catered to their husbands. Did the women of this era express themselves freely or did they just do what society expected of them? Kate Chopin was a female author who wrote several stories and two novels about women. One of her renowned works of art is The Awakening. This novel created great controversy and received negative criticism from literary critics due to Chopin's portrayal of women by Edna throughout the book.

I believe there are many points in the story that can be considered to be very relevant to the time it was written, expressing ideas of the approaching feminist movement and building up an awareness of what was happening to women and the forthcoming feminist movement. Many of the ideas that are expressed in the story concern both the women’s movement and an individual woman searching for her identity. Chopin demonstrates

Feminist American author, Kate Chopin, is known for her stories with strong and daring female lead stories. Her common themes display women, femininity, marriage, liberation, oppression, and perseverance. The Louisiana based novelist famous works started the feminist movement. Chopin’s stories The Story of an Hour and The Storm have many similarities and differences as do the majority of her work. The main characters, Calixta and Mrs. Mallard, both portray an odd attitude towards marriage.

    Kate Chopin was an extraordinary writer of the nineteenth century. Despite failure to receive positive critical response, she became one of the most powerful and controversial writers of her time. She dared to write her thoughts on topics considered radical: the institution of marriage and women's desire for social, economic, and political equality. With a focus on the reality of relationships between men and women, she draws stunning and intelligent characters in a rich and bold writing style that was not accepted because it was so far ahead of its time. She risked her reputation by creating female heroines as independent women who wish to receive sexual and emotional fulfillment,

“Love and passion, marriage and independence, freedom and restraint.” These are the themes that are represented and worked with throughout Kate Chopin’s works. Kate Chopin, who was born on February 8, 1851, in St. Louis, was an American acclaimed writer of short stories and novels. She was also a poet, essayist, and a memoirist. Chopin grew up around many women; intellectual women that is. Chopin said herself that she was neither a feminist nor a suffragist; she was simply a woman who took other women intensely seriously. Chopin believed women had the ability to be strong, individual, and free-spirited. She herself reached out, in

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

Kate Chopin was a feminist in times when feminism itself only began capturing minds all over the world. She wrote a short story that can now be a hymn for this fashionable movement. She imagines a world without men, instead of openly blaming them for her unhappiness. This is a world of freedom, bright future, unclouded skies and open windows. And “she saw … a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome” (Chopin 2). This is certainly a point of view that was highly accused back then, but it can be accepted even with a bit of a humour nowadays.

In the early 19th century the men of society were dominant, they were considered the caregivers and are responsible for the actions of their women. When a woman would get into trouble they would be sent to their husband or father to be punished. Kate Chopin unlike many women did not have a male figure in her life. As an author she still had to prove herself to society that she was a good writer. Most female writers of that century wrote under a male name so they could be published, Kate Chopin wanted to be known for her work. Mrs. Mallard searches for freedom within her life. She feels trapped in her marriage, and her husband's death is her ticket to freedom. Kate Chopin shows Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom through the use of irony.

I have decided to focus on the works of one of the most controversial and influential authors to emerge during the realism and naturalism movement, Kate Chopin. Chopin was a feminist writer who frequently focused on the difficulties of being a woman in that time