Sorrowful Women and a Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” and Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful Woman” are similar pieces of literary work. Both stories offer a revealing glimpse of extremely unhappy marriages due to being forced into stereotypical roles. Both stories portray women, who are trapped in their marriages and trapped in their socially expected matriarchal characters. They are identified by their role as a wife and mother.

Lastly, each story had a woman character that scarified her life and freedom for marriage, and their unhappiness was solved. To compare, each protagonist was suffering from a life in which they did feel they were not their happiest. To compare, each story, the main characters were unhappy with their lives, and their unhappiness was solved due to death. In each story, death solved the problems that each protagonist had, in Chopin’s, The Story of an Hour, the main character was unhappy, when she found out her husband was dead, while grieving she realized she is now free to do with

However, the story ends with Mrs Mallard’s freedom being ripped away from her as she dies from shock upon seeing her husband walk through the door. When the doctors come to pronounce her dead, they said “she had died of heart disease, … the joy that kills”. This is foreshadowed that the beginning of the story when it is said that Mrs Mallard “was afflicted with heart trouble”. Also this use of irony suggests how the male ideology of the doctors is foolish and misplaced.

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

A life as a wife and/or a mother, is usually appreciated and is a happy life as well. A relationship between two people should consist of joy, commitment, responsibility, and most importantly love. For the two main characters in both stories ( “The Story of An Hour”, and “A Sorrowful Woman” ) this was not the case. The stories go against societies view with marriage roles and happiness.

When Kate Chopin, wrote "The Story of An Hour", she probably thought the stories setting should take place somewhere around the 1890s. During this time period it was probably normal for women to not have as much freedom as they do in todays society. In "The Story of An Hour" the woman protagonist, Mrs. Mallard who upon hearing about the news of her husbands death endures grief and sadness and she even starts crying and runs off to bedroom. Her sadness was really only a short amount of time because after a while of looking outside her window she

In well-known author, Kate Chopin’s stories, she depicts her themes and ideologies through risky scenarios to express their importance to her views as well as to many others in her time. “The Story of An Hour” describes the scene of a woman hearing the news of her husband’s death in a railroad accident. At first, Mrs. Mallard is upset and crying but then runs to her room alone where she realizes that she is now free. Throughout Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” she elicits themes that portray her own beliefs such as freedom, women’s rights, and time.

In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.

“…she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land.” (Maupassant) Throughout the course of literature, the female character portrayed as the stereotypical helpless, subservient, and troublesome figure. Often in literature as well as in life, women impersonate a trapped marriage, living out a simple housewife persona. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin in April 19, 1894. This short tale

The Story of an hour written by Kate Chopin is the best short-story because theme, characters, point of view, and style show the attitude that some women felt or may feel regarding marriage being repressive in their life and a longing for freedom. The story opens with Mrs. Mallard’s sister Josephine informing her that her husband has been killed. Because of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition Josephine and Richards, who is a friend of the family and there to help deliver the news, are concerned with how the news will affect Mrs. Mallard. When Mrs. Mallard hears the news to is over taken with grief and locks herself in her room. While in her room she imagines herself in her new life that is no longer bogged down by her duties as a wife. When

The short story “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin is about a lady named Mrs.Mallard who has a health issue that effects her life dramatically. When she is told her husband has passed away due to an accident things change. This story shows how it is difficult to deal with things within yourself which proves some people grieve differently. Mrs. Mallard has a desire to be independent which is the opposite of how society views things.

When an author uses humanistic elements in his or her writing, such as emotion, those works tend to hold more meaning to the reader. Emotion can serve as the catalyst within literature in order to give the audience something to empathize upon. This technique allows the author to make a direct connection with the reader since he or she probably has an understanding of how various emotions can effect an individual; this is a consequence of being human. The broad variety of different emotions that Kate Chopin fit into “The Story of an Hour” presents the story with a perspective that is very intelligible. While some readers may not understand what it is like to live a sheltered life due to marital convention, Chopin laid out the emotional path that the protagonist takes and simplified it into individual, coherent feelings that a woman in the late nineteenth-century might have went through under these circumstances; she did an efficient job at telling the story of shock, suspense, and surprise during this poor lady’s last hour.

In my conclusion, the description of the bitter ending of Mrs. Mallard’s death was ironic and extreme. Her death is the only place that really offer her the absolute freedom she’s been long desires. Mrs. Mallard’s repressive feeling towards her husband built a fantasy on her free mind that she thought will release her true feelings. Her self-assertion helps the readers understand that main character’s death gives a favorable satisfaction to the extremity of her

In The Story of an Hour, written by Kate Chopin , Mrs. Mallard discovers the horrific news that her husband has past away due to a rail road accident. Mrs. Mallard found out that her husband was dead from her sister, Josephine. When she found out the news her heart was broken. Just like anyone else who would receive horrific news like this she cried, however when she was in her room, looking out of her window, Mrs. Mallard came to the conclusion that she was finally a free woman.

Themes of Female Identity and Discovery In the passage, “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin presents themes of female discovery and identity by using many phrases and figurative language. The story is about a young woman with heart trouble, but when she finds out her husband died she has an unexpected reaction. Chopin uses many different techniques to present themes of female discovery and identity.