Oppression In The Story Of An Hour

In life, everyone has experienced the loss of someone they loved, and the way the greave can show their true motivations. In Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” Louise Mallard is left without a husband but her form of grief is different than mosts.

Everyone has lost a loved one or has seen and experienced a situation in which another person has lost their loved one. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, published in 1894, details that moment in a woman's life when her world is shattered and the process of self-consciousness begins. Louise Mallard, wife of Richard Mallard, a successful businessman. Louise Mallard is a woman ahead of her time, by the standards of the 1890’s she should be happy. Her husband loves her; she herself acknowledges that he “had never looked save with love upon her.”(Chopin, p.477) In the 1890’s women depended on their husbands financially. There was an unspoken rule that the man was the powerful one, the wife would conform to the

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.

Although there is an element of tragedy to her death, we could also interpret her death—as an end to her repressed life. What she failed to achieve in her life, she did so in her death. She is now free and no longer subject to the repressive will of her husband. But could this be interpreted as some act of courage on her part? To the contrary, she chose a way out that

Traditionally, women have been known as the less dominant sex. They have been stereotyped as being only housewives and bearers of the children. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Kate Chopin‘s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, focus on a woman’s dilemma near the turn of the 19th century. Contradicting the “normal” or sad assumption of death, “The Story of an Hour” illustrates the significance of death representing freedom. The Story narrates about an hour of Louise Mallard’s life, as she tries to understand, and deal with her feelings of her husbands death.

Louise Mallard represents a self-image of a fragile woman, who’s strength, passion or any kind of emotions she has remained deeply hidden behind layers of suppression. If she ever breaks free of confinement, she will find no other society willing to take her in and Mrs. Mallard will have gained freedom just to find out that she has no future ahead. She is only freed when her husband passes away. This overwhelming joy she feels hearing the news

The story, “The Story of an Hour,” written by Kate Chopin who, according to the editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, was born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis in 1851, effectively shows how much women yearn for freedom through the description of a woman’s dramatic psychological change in one hour, as well as the usage of symbolism and irony. The story begins with the mention of Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble” (74), which has a dual meaning. Evidently, it tells readers that she not only literally has heart condition, but also suffers from her unsatisfied marriage, being that she doesn’t love her husband from her heart. When she learns that her husband is reported dead, “she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild

The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, is a wonderful short story filled with many different peculiar twists and turns. Written in 1894, the author tells a tale of a woman who learns of her husband’s death, but comes to find joy in it. Many of the things Kate Chopin writes about in this story symbolize something more than just the surface meaning. Through this short story, told in less than one thousand one hundred words, Kate Chopin illustrates deeper meanings through many different forms of symbolism such as the open window in the bedroom, Mrs. Louise Mallard’s heart trouble, and Chopin’s physical description of Mrs. Mallard.

What is oppression? Oppression is a socio-political system designed to purposely restrict, shape, manipulate people of certain class or genders only for illogical reasons or for the advantage of another class, race or gender. . Marlyn Frye states "a woman in an oppressive society is somehow like a bird in a cage. Women are oppressed in many ways from issues of sexuality to harassment in the workplace. They are in one simple example neither sexually active nor nonsexual active women are in the right. A sexually active woman will be thought of as a whore or a slut. A nonsexual active woman will be thought of as someone who cannot keep a man or a lesbian. Even though women out do the population of men in the United States, women are considered a minority due to the fact most of the higher positions are held by men. Women of color are treated worst compared to white women because of their race and color.

“When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-- of the joy that kills.” At the end of Kate Chopin’s short fiction“ The Story of an Hour”, the wife dies from a shock at the sight of her husband, who reported dead in a train disaster, unexpectedly return home. Throughout the story, there are many clues as to the true reason that causes Louise's death, the loss of freedom. Chopin uses irony to reflect a sharp illustration of women’s inferior position in the early century. At the same time, herself as a feminist of the nineteenth century represents women’s desire to gain autonomy and independence.

Louise being so happy for her husband being dead is not something you would expect a new “widow” to feel or act. She is happy in her new freedom and imagines what life will now be like. I believe that Mrs. Mallard got what was coming to her; she should not have planned out her life prematurely. Kate Chopin does this intentionally to convey to the reader how this woman is so oppressed at this time that she would find joy in the death of her husband. Louise is quick to think about starting her new life with little to no mourning for her husband’s death.

“She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.” Mrs.Mallard was imaging how well her life would be without her husband, she was “free! Body and soul free!” When Louise finds out her husband is still alive, she “descended down the

Throughout history, women have been identified as pale reflections of men or as their opposite, characterized through perceived differences from men and subordinated because of them. From the emotional stereotype, housewife status, lower pay in the workforce, to sexual abuse and more, women have suffered it all. However, Kate Chopin used a prevailing theme to symbolize the core of what women have been deprived of most, a personal right of self-assertion. In the short story “The Story of An Hour” the theme of self- assertion is expressed through Mrs. Mallard’s struggle for her selfhood in a patriarchal society, her feeling of confinement in her marriage and the death of her husband.

“The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin, depicts an emotionally imprisoned widow that finds freedom in her husband’s death through the use of imagery that describes the present, her future, and grief. Louise learns of her husband’s death from her sister. As she isolates herself from her family, she sees “the delicious breath of rain was in the air”. “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.”

The doctor attributed her death to “a joy that kills” (5). However, the reader knows she died as a result of her freedom being wrenched away. The themes and characters of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” are reflections of her upbringing and life in 19th century America, as well as the beginning of the women’s rights movement.