Kate Chopin 's The Story Of An Hour

In "The Story of an Hour" Chopin portrays marriage and the role and feelings of women in the 19th century as subordinate contributors to the husbands. The third word of the story is “Mrs.”, identifying the protagonist as a wife, defining her role and her life. She is also identified as weak and fragile.

In the past many decades the definition of what a marriage means changed dramatically in some areas. For the author of both stories, Kate Chopin, she wanted the reader to get something out of the story. She likes to explore all types of themes in her stories such as, racism, the roles of women, and adultery. With these themes and messages she struggled to have most of her stories published. In many of her stories she passed along these messages through the manner of a marriage. In her short stories “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree 's Baby” she showed just how different marriages could be as well as how similar they can be. Chopin portrays the lives of the main characters, Louise Mallard from “The Story of An Hour” and Desiree Aubigny

Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor discusses many topics and insights that can be found in literature. Foster explains how each are used and the purposes they serve while providing numerous examples. Many of Foster’s insights can be found in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” which was written during a time in history when women were often restricted by society and marriage. The story speaks of a woman who felt freed from the burden of marriage when she thought her husband died, only to die the moment she realized he was actually alive. Foster’s insights about weather, heart disease, and flight that are evident in “The Story of An Hour” greatly influence the story’s interpretation in several ways.

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.

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

`The Story of an Hour' was written in the nineteenth century and during this time highly restrictive gender roles forbade women to live as they saw fit. Kate Chopin presents in her story,

Mrs. Mallard is not a emotionally disturbed women, she did in fact mourn her husband's death, in The Story of an Hour (paragraph 2), "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment." She obviously did not feel happy and overwhelmed with a "monstrous joy" because her husband died . When Mrs. Mallard finished mourning the death of her husband she starts to feel a break through

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story originally published in Vogue in 1894. Chopin was writing for women throughout the United States. She wanted to draw attention to female repression in the late 19th century. At the time the battle for women’s rights, specifically women’s suffrage, was in full swing. While Chopin’s work was not directly responsible for bestowing women’s rights in the United States, she did write an attention-grabbing story that has a well-integrated, discrete declaration on the implications of the repression of women in her time; one such implication being her inability to write directly about her beliefs.

Everyone who reads a story will interpret things slightly different than the person who reads it before or after him or her. This idea plays out with most every story, book, song, and movie. These interpretations create conflict and allow people to discuss different ideas and opinions. Without this conflict of thought there is no one devoting time to debate the true meaning of a text. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tells about a woman who is informed of her husbands death, processes the emotions, and becomes content with this new status as an individual person – losing all the expectations that society expected her to live by within a marriage. This story however is written in a way that the reader has the final interpretation of the text. There are many different interpretations on not only the reason for the main character’s death, but also on the overwhelming emotions that she faces.

For our poetry presentation, I’ve chosen the poem To The Ladies by Lady Mary Chudleigh.

During the late 1800s, women were expected to be at home wives that only cooked, cleaned the house, and took care of the children. Mrs. Wright from “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell and Mrs. Mallard from “A Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin both felt miserably trapped because of this expectation of women. At this time, any woman or man who spoke against this expected code of conduct were seen as outcasts. A woman could never get a job during this time period, and any man who tried to support a woman getting a job would lose his social standing. In these two works, the authors expressed how the main character, not only wanted freedom, but also accomplished that desired freedom. Kate Chopin’s “A Story of an Hour” and Susan Glaspell “Trifles” both expressed similarities and differences in tone, symbolism, and irony.

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's role in society is ever-changing. For many year's women were subjected to strict societal norms, ideals and were defined by the male figures in their lives. Gender roles and relations still make themselves apparent in society's perpetuating inequality, whether through traditional beliefs adapted over the years or societal norms embedded into all aspects of life, including literature. As time passes, women have striven to set their own standards and are now able to stand unapologetically tall in society. Many different factors have aided in allowing women to rebel and evolve against conformity, one significant element being literature. More specifically, literature that breaks barriers for women in allowing their portrayal to defy degrading roles and literature that brings the expectations of women in society to light.

The story of an hour by Kate Chopin provides many examples of “inside” and “outside”. My first impression I get of Mrs. Mallard when she is told that her husband has been killed in a train accident was normal. Mrs. Mallard had just found out that she lost her spouse and she grieves which is normal in such a situation. But the thing that obstructed my impression of her was when she went to her room. She started to stare out the open window and came to the sudden realization that she was free. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" said Chopin.(53) After reading that line it led me to believe that Mrs. Mallard felt stuck in her marriage because after the fact she came to terms that he was gone, she started to feel a large amount joy. According to Chopin “there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought. (53) When she gazed out through her open window, she was seeing her metaphorically unattainable freedom.

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.