In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” she had a lead female character who, at this time, was considered to be controversial. In America at this time, women were not to have a voice of their own and for the lead character to have her own voice and who defies the male dominance of the 19th century. It was uncommon for a women of the 19th century to find joy in finding out that her husband was suddenly killed. The lines “Free! Body and soul free!” (Paragraph 14) suggest that she felt trapped being with her husband and now that he’s dead she’s finally free. This is something that I’m sure many American women in this time period felt. In Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” he uses a lot of symbolism to relate to the United States at the time
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.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” represents a primitive perspective of marriage by presenting the reader with a woman that is thrilled that her husband passed away. This is conveyed through the language used to describe Louise’s emotions as she shifts between numbness and euphoria at her instant individuality. The narrator relates what she sees in simple text, but when her emotions are described, the words are bright and potent. This implies that Louise has an unaffiliated life that is numb to the outside world and her alone time is invaluable to her. The environment surrounding her is only minimally described, but the narrator describes the image in her head as an oasis. The view outside of her room is paradisiacal like her mind, but
In the story of an hour, Kate Chopin has depicted a tone amongst many wives of the late nineteenth century. Women, by this time, were very far from the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution or the “Women’s Suffrage Movement.” What this explains is that women of this era are still being undermined by society, neither unequal nor independent from that of the voice of the masculine gender. This treatment towards women was a domestic one. Many betrothed women of this timeframe were unhappy in their marriages, due to a culture that shunned the idea of a free and empowered woman. The underlying meaning that Kate Chopin wanted to convey in The Story of an Hour, is that woman of the late nineteenth century were repressed, unhappy, and imprisoned in their marriages.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” was published in 1894 in Vogue, during a time when women do not have any legal rights. They have low education level and have no opportunity to work; what they can do is stay at home and manage the family. All their lives, they rely on their husband. Women at that time do not think about why they should be treated this way; they were being silenced by society. Kate Chopin uses the character Mrs. Mallard as the representative of all women who wants freedom at that time, and she criticizes the way society treats them, yet the difference of Mrs. Mallard’s values compared to society’s makes her become egotistic and her death end up not changing people’s mind of how to treat women properly.
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.
One of the main elements of literature in a short story is the setting. The setting is the location and time where the story takes place. Knowing the location and literature era of where a story was written can change how the characters' act or react and how the reader will perceive the story. Kate Chopin uses the location of St. Louis, Missouri during the 1960s and her personal experiences with the death of her husband to share the ironic story of a married couple, Louise and Brently Mallard. The significance of the setting in The Story of an Hour determines how the reader will understand the actions and dialog of the characters, using the literature era, social norms of the 1906s and the location.
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story about an hour in time. In that hour we find out that the main character Louise Mallard’s husband has been killed in a railroad disaster. The husband Brently Mallard’s friend is the one who finds the news but realizes that Louise needs to be told with great delicacy due to her heart condition. Upon hearing the news Louise like most grieves immediately. But as she contemplates what has happen and her future she realizes she if finally free the confines of marriage. Even though she loved her husband most of the time she looks at this disaster not as a terrible tragedy but as a new lease on life. Then the unthinkable happens, her husband walks through the door. Instead of relinquishing
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour and is considered short and easier of the two to comprehend. The use of multiple emotions and literary devices to communicate such emotions plays a vital role in writing. The dominant themes of the stories are the marital role of women and the marital role of men. The words used by the authors often reflect the desire that runs through individual’s minds in search for peace and comfort. Further, they demonstrate that men and women have separate and distinct roles in a marital union.
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.
"The Story of an Hour" is about a young lady, named Mrs. Mallard. The story describes of how she is heartbroken, upon hearing of her husband's death. The buddy of Mrs. Mallard's messaged this tragic news. However, Mrs. Mallard's sister was the one who told her. What happens next is a bit unusual. Mrs. Mallard goes to her room and starts to feel something new. It is, actually, a feeling of relief. Now, Mrs Mallard thinks that she has the rest of her life just for herself.
“The Story of an Hour” is a short story by Kate Chopin. It begins with the main character Louise Mallard hearing the news of her husband Brently Mallard’s death. He died as a result of a railroad disaster. Kate Chopin mentioned in the beginning of the story that Louise was afflicted with a heart trouble. Her sister Josephine knowing about Louise’s disease tried to be extra careful telling the news of Brentley’s death.
The process of conveying meaningful messages consists of not only seeking the courage and effort to do so, but also the pursuit of attracting audiences through different and creative approaches. For Kate Chopin, the famous author of “The Awakening” and “The Story of an Hour”, her most successful approach was to provide audiences with short stories that proposed meaningful and strong messages. However, Kate Chopin’s powerful feminist images that were present throughout her writing has mostly flaunted Chopin as only a “pioneering feminist writer,” which has led to other messages Chopin incorporated in her writing into being overlooked. In Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour”, the short story describes the diverse emotions Louise Mallard undergoes after hearing of her husband’s railroad death. The protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, embodies feelings of liberation and freedom as she said, “Free! Body and Soul free!!” (Chopin) Yet, when she discovers her husband was still alive as he stood in the doorway of her house that same day, her shock overwhelms her and Louise suddenly dies of a heart attack. For the most part, this story has been taught solely from a feministic outlook, but if profoundly analyzed, Chopin’s story reveals that the story itself proposes indirect and subtle themes that reflect the social impacts that the developments of technology and time brought upon society during Chopin’s time.
Freedom is being able to have your own control or having self-rule, having more power than before. Freedom connects with “the story of an hour” because Mrs. Mallard finds unexpected freedom, no matter how transient.
Freedom is trying to escape a situation you either don't want anymore or want to get away from. I chose freedom because, “The story of an hour” is about a woman who wants to be divorced from her husband or just wants to be away from him in general. In The Beginning of the story it say, “ It was her sister Josephine who told her, In broken sentences; to near her”. And when Mrs. Mallard heard she felt relieved. In the middle of the paragraph Mrs. Mallard goes to her room and shuts the door but, she opens her window and in the story this was exactly what was written, “ There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, room armchair.” This relates to freedom because the door she closed symbolizes her past that she wants to leave behind. The
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