The Hours Theme

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman written in the 1890s both reflect gender roles of this time, specifically women’s roles. In these stories both of the women are oppressed by their marriages, and by the end of the stories both wish to be rid of their husbands. Also, in both of these stories these women experience mental illnesses, mainly depression. These illnesses were looked at as something minor during this time, was it because psychologists were uneducated, or because as women their mental stability did not really matter? These stories connect so well because of their work to bring to the surface the reality of gender roles in the 1800s. Even though these stories were fictional their ideas were very real. By comparing how men and women were treated during this time, and how they are treated more equally now, it shows that with time American has come a long way.

When the French settled into Canada 400 years ago independently of the British, the first stages of French/Francophone identity was formed. Over time this unique identity began to emerge and become something different from the rest of Canada. Language, history, and the geography of their land continues to evolve and separate the Francophones from Canada as their land and way of life is special to our nation. The dual nature of the French/English faultline in Canada manifested early on in history when New France was threatened by British occupation, ultimately leading to Confederation; we can continue to see this in modern times through referendums which deal with French culture and separation. Quebec is also unique geographically, containing mild to arctic climate zones and 4 geophysical regions; this is very diverse for a single province in Canada. These regions in Quebec allows for a diverse economic industry, including: hydroelectric production, agriculture, forest and mining industries. The economic production through Quebec’s varying geography and their individual French culture and history is what makes Quebec a unique region in Canada.

It is considerably easier to identify the queerness of the novel’s characters and author than its political purpose. Michael Cunningham, the novel’s author, is a gay male and openly acknowledges that his sexual orientation influences his work – as can be seen by the fact that many of his novels involve gay characters and gay experiences. In particular, The Hours features three women who each have same-sex experiences – Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa Vaughn.

If a stranger was to walk up to the average college student and ask a simple question such as: “What was the most mentally and emotionally challenging time in your life”, some might answer, making it through freshmen year of college, a tour in Iraq, helping my parents pay rent, or the lucky few may reply: “Waking up this morning”. In reality, we as human beings, no matter our walks of life, have all experienced challenges that we have had to face with raw emotion and gut. In Elie Wiesels’, Night, a no holding back account of Wiesel’s own experience of his life and journey through a Nazi concentration camp in World War II. Wiesel’s account of the horrors he witnessed and endured during his time in the concentration camp lets us know that

Soon, excitement wears off, and reality sets in. For many generations, even into the early twentieth century, women all over the world fall as victims into the deep, never-ending hole of domestic violence. In “The Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard accepts her fate as being submissive and obedient to her husband even though her life as the “perfect wife” is nothing less than torturous. In “A Jury of Her Peers,” the self-confidence and self-esteem of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are continuously diminished publicly by their husbands. Mr. Peters puts down the very act of Mrs. Minnie’s household duties when he states, “Well, can you beat the women!

The central value connecting Mrs Dalloway and The Hours is an affirmation of life. Although suicides feature in both Stephen Daldry’s film and Virginia Woolf’s novel both texts echo Woolf’s words from her 1922 diary: ‘I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.’ Both Woolf’s modernist 1925 novel and Daldry’s 2002 postmodernist film focus on women whose rich inner lives are juxtaposed with their outer lives constrained by the contexts in which they live. The characters are placed in their respective context, to reflect on, or respond to, the consequences of war and AIDS, the difficulties of personal relationships, class, gender and sexuality.

For many generations, our society has had a recurring flaw, of which being the tendency to rely on the basis of societal norms so often that it gradually forms into a system of oppression. Women are obliged to become submissive housewives and caretakers. They are obliged to follow these popular beliefs to be deemed norma l and those who contradict these very beliefs are considered selfish and peculiar. However, in the novel The Hours by Michael Cunningham, he exhibits how the societal mold placed on Laura Brown caused her to become a persevering and resilient woman and break out of her barriers.

Throughout history, women have struggled to be seen as equals and have had to fight for their freedom from the roles society placed upon them. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both use their literary works to show the challenges women went through, and how they battled for the freedoms they desperately wanted. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman that goes to a summer home to rest and get well under the supervision of her husband who is also a physician. Her husband decided it would be best if she sat in a room alone and did nothing. In the end, she becomes insane and finally finds her freedom. “The Story of An Hour” is about, Mrs. Mallard, a woman who has just found out her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard

Kate Chopin’s short story ,”The Story of an Hour” is written in the early 1900’s when women were expected to abide by men. In the story, the narrator Mrs. Mallard was informed by her sister Josephine, that her husband had been in a terrible accident and that he was dead. Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble but when she’s alone she expresses her relief instead of mourning her husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room for an hour and contemplates what her new life would be like without restrictions. In the end, Mrs. Mallard dies because she has been updated about the accident and finds out her husband actually lived. The short story,”The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins, is written in a time of distress for women in America.

The men and women of The Hours view death as an escape from an ordinary lifestyle which lacks anything truly extraordinary or exhilarating. Laura Brown considers death as an alternative to the constraints of her role as a mother and a wife. Both Richard Brown and Virginia Woolf ultimately commit suicide in order to escape their illnesses and their failures to live up to society's expectations. Though Laura does not end her life, she does die symbolically to her family.

In "Man of The Hours", an interview published in People magazine, Michael Cunningham describes The Hours as "essentially an optimistic book that deals with the terrible things that happen to people"(105). More precisely, the book is about three women living in different eras and addresses several issues, among them homosexuality, suicide, and feminism.

The Starry Night (1889) painted by Vincent van Gogh is one of his famous painting in the world. Van Gogh was known as an Impressionist artist and many people heard that he was “crazy” and suffered with mental health issues throughout his life; he even cut his ear after his fight with his friend during winter in 1888, a year before his painting Starry Night, and not long after he died in 1890. (Shabi, K.) Thinking that Vincent van Gogh was insane affected his work in a bad way. Even the other artist and critics did not appreciated and saw Van Gogh’s Starry Night as a sloppy art with the evidence of him being crazy. (Shabi, K.) He used many composition such as: contrast, proportion, movement, and balance.

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 comparative study of texts and their appropriations reflect the context and values of their times, demonstrating how context plays a significant role. Virginia Woolf’s novel modernists Mrs Dalloway (1925) and Steven Daldry’s post modernists film The Hours (2002), an extrapolation, explore the rapid change of social and philosophical paradigms of the 20th century, focusing on women whose rich inner lives are juxtaposed with their outer lives. They place the characters in their respective context, to respond to, the horrors of the consequences of war and AIDS and the vagaries and difficulties of relationships, sexuality and mental illness. Through their differing intertextual perspectives the film and novel represent similar values, within different contextual concerns.

The Hours is a movie that won the most awards in 2002.The movie is mainly about relationships, love, and death. This movie follows a single day in the lives of three women in different time periods between 1941 to 2001.The clothes that all three of these women wore were from different time periods. It is apparent from this movie that throughout history women were faced with trials and tribulations. Through each of their lives they battled with their own identity and the roles that they should play in society. In fact, this movie is mostly based on three women and their reflection on the novel Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia Woolf is the author of the novel Mrs. Dalloway, accordingly Laura Brown, reads