Kate Chopin's Emotions In The Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening explores the effects societal conventions had on women by narrating a tale of how a woman’s pursuit of independence, her sexual identity, and self-expression leads to her solitude and eventual death. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women weren’t expected to be anything else besides a pious wife and mother. They endured male dominance, a lack of independence, and the nonexistence of their sexual freedom. Due to this sad reality, Chopin decided to write a book that confronted these ideas by portraying an unromantic marriage with a woman who challenges the expectations of females during that time. During the beginning of the novel, Edna lived passively within the cult of domesticity. She did what she was expected to do; however, the more she questioned her life, the more she realized her own desires and identity. “At a very

Marriage has been portrayed as many things throughout the years. In the short stories, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell both portray marriage, and how it does not always bring happiness. Each story was written by a married woman in the 1800s, this could reveal and interrupt how the lives of a married woman were in their time period. In each story, the main character is woman being overpowered by her husband, then when they find out they could be ‘free’ a sudden sigh of relief comes to mind. Only to be either be mislead or to feel trapped again. The authors Kate Chopin and Susan

Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.

In the late nineteenth century, the dominant attitude was that a woman’s proper habitation was in their home. Women’s purpose in life should be to rear and embolden her family. Chopin designated this awareness in The Awakening, “a mother woman.” The nature of woman’s status in nineteenth century America was noteworthy only in relation to a

The catch phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” perfectly describes marriages in the 19th century. As outsiders often saw them, both parties were happy and deeply content, but from the inside, they were filled with resentment and oppression of women by dominating husbands. In Kate Chopin’s, “Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard, a wife and sister, is introduced to the reader briefly as a woman afflicted with heart trouble before she is cautiously told of her husband’s death. In the period of one hour, Mrs. Mallard’s world is turned upside down by the news of her husband’s death followed by the far more devastating realization he is alive. Mrs. Mallard experiences a whirlwind of emotions throughout the hour that highlights the oppression

Many stories back then consisted of women being dominated over their husbands just because they are female and are considered the ones responsible to maintain the housework. The men who were considered dominant in this era, had the ability to control everything in terms of what the woman could and could not do. Along with that, it was expected that women were to be submissive to their husbands, or male figures in charge of their lives at the time. But in these three different stories, the outcomes of the woman all result in a significant impact to their lives in rather negative ways. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, The Story of an Hour, and Desiree’s Baby both by Kate Chopin, the reader experiences the reinforced and subvert gender norms present in the women with male figures who are dominant and have control over their lives.

Women's struggle for equality in the 1800’s was a long and hard-fought battle. Women were the continual victims of discrimination in this era of time. The ideal woman was submissive; her job was to be a meek, obedient, loving wife who was totally subservient to the men around her. Mrs. Mallard is a woman who has been held the standard of an eighteenth-century wife with little to no freedom. In the short story, “Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin the woman gets set free from her husband, she realizes how she has been locked up from the free world.

Richard was too late. “…She had died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” (Chopin, 58) In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin tells a story of women confined in a repressive marriage and uses a literary element called foreshadowing to add suspense or tension in the story and hints about things that will occur later in the story. Literary devices include imagery, foreshadowing, plot, setting, and point of view. The combination of these literary devices allows authors to effectively convey what message will be in the story. The literary device called Foreshadowing plays a significant role in the short story as well as other literary devices such as imagery and symbolism which combine and create a unique way of how the story unfolds.

Often fact and fiction intermix in stories because writer’s base their stories of real life experiences and feelings. Kate Chopin largely based her stories off of her own life. Kate Chopin spent her childhood years in an alternative and matriarchal Louisiana town with a family that was unconventional. She challenged her nineteenth century sexist society and used her own life to put strength and feminism into her stories like “The Storm”, “Desiree’s Baby” and of course “The Story of an Hour”. She lived with her mother, grandmother and great grandmother who were all widows. She was one of three sisters but the other two died very young. Her father Thomas O’Flaherty was killed in a train wreck in 1855. She was married by June 1870 to Oscar Chopin but in 1882 he died unexpectedly from a fever. Then 15 years later her mother dies as well (According to Jasdomin Rolento, Pace University, May 5, 2008). She had been around death for a large sum of her life and this largely impacted her stories like “The Story of an Hour”, “The Storm” and “Desiree’s Baby”.

Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote two novels that got published and at least a hundred short stories. In Kate’s short story The Story of the Hour she uses some of her traumatic event that happened in her lifespan in the short story even though it the story is fictional. A lot of her fictions were set in Louisiana and her best-known works focused on the lives of sensitive intelligent women. One-third of Mrs. Chopin’s stories are children’s stories. A lot of Mrs. Chopin’s novels were forgotten after she died in 1904 but according to Kate Chopin Biography, several of her short stories appeared in an anthology within five years after her death, others were reprinted, and slowly people came back to read her stories.

As we go through life, we are confronted with various challenges that we have to deal with. Whether it be a near-death experience or simply getting a speeding ticket, these things are thrown at us as we live our daily lives. They also cause us trauma in one way or another; either by giving us serious anxiety, or by causing us to rethink our lives. either way we experience some form of trauma. The most important outcome of these type of situations is that we learn from them. We are able to take those experiences and learn from their causes and consequences, thus allowing us to adapt later in our lives. The things that we experience in these events, teach us how to adapt in life and how to live the remainder of our live a little wiser and more

Though America has gotten very far into the movement of women’s rights and there have been many changes towards freedom that an individual has, these cages that Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” present still somewhat exists in the modern society. Though individuals have

Death can create sadness. Death can create suffering. Death can create freedom. In the short story "The Story of an Hour", Kate Chopin uses the death of a spouse to show the effects of an oppressive relationship. An oppressive relationship is when one spouse establishes a pattern of unhealthy control. Although it is not always the intention of the partner to become oppressive, as stated by Kate Chopin," a kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime." (2) It is still controlling and constraining. The demanding and oppressive force of a partner takes away a person’s independence and ability to think for themselves.

Throughout Kate Chopin’s story “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard finds herself with a forbidden feeling of happiness, as she discovers the rumor of her husband's death. She may have felt some sort of depression, but she later transfers that very same sadness into joy. Puzzled by this very sense of freedom, Mrs. Mallard isn’t quite sure whether she should feel guilty, or in any other negative form. As a result, Mrs. Mallard’s sense of freedom portrays her true thoughts and emotions of a suppressive marriage. In relation, Kate Chopin argues that marriage could sometimes feel like an imprisonment.

In the 19th century, a woman possessing freedom, independence, and an identity separate from her husband were not at all conceivable concepts. The life of a woman after marriage starts to harden into routine and their personalities develop into specific roles: wife, mother, maid, cook, and so on. On the contrary, men were and were not familiar with the craving and desire women had for this position/situation. Through the rich use of symbolism, Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” portrays a woman’s lack of and yearn for freedom and individuality through the narration of the story’s main protagonist, Louise Mallard. Specifically, the “open square” (Chopin 119) or window that Louise spends much of the story sitting in front of after her husband’s