The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin And The Jury Of Her Peers

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.

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

During the Progressive Era, many women displayed a deceitful facade when interacting amongst society. They remain respectful and dutiful to their husbands in public, as vowed through their commitment in marriage. Deep down, however, ideas of revenge towards their husbands dominated this facade. Authors Kate Chopin and Susan Glaspell produce several works throughout this era that justifyingly portray the strain between women and their male counterparts in relation to marriage and divorce. Both authors express the way gender roles were set during the Progressive Era, specifically by writing “The Story of an Hour” and “A Jury of Her Peers” to illustrate the freedom women wanted to achieve apart from their husbands, which reflects these individual’s morals, psychological and social awareness of self identity.

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.

Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” show the desire of freedom of certain women of this time by allowing the authors to live vicariously through their characters to show the shift of women’s identity and awareness to not only themselves but also to the world around them.

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.

A critical feminist view of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour focuses on female cruelty in the nineteenth century society and more specifically in marriages of the time. During that time period, women were owned by their husbands and had little to no control over their own lives, so in a sense women felt trapped inside of their marriages. The demonstration that is expressed in The Story of an Hour is the sense of freedom Louis Mallard experiences after she is aware of her husband’s death by a train accident. After Mrs. Mallard is told this expectantly tragic news, she goes off to her room alone, where one is predicted to believe she is going to grieve over her husband’s death.

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.

In the latter times, marriage was a huge thing. However, differing from today’s view, most women were seen as property. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” marriage is portrayed as a mistake for the woman. Consequently, Chopin shows this Delta region social standard when Louise experiences how it feels to be free after the death of her husband. However, she suffers fatal heartbreak after discovering he is not dead.

The point of view being used in Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour is a non-participating omniscient third-person narrator. By using this kind of narration, Chopin is not limited to just one characters point of view. Being an unidentified outsider can be very beneficial to the reader because we know something that the main character doesn’t and that can cause great anticipation, which usually increases the reader’s interest. Since Chopin decided to use this technique, it is much easier to go into great detail about what the widow, Mrs. Mallard is thinking. In this case, the author is revealing Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected happiness that came with knowing that her husband has passed.

At the beginning of Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard, suffers severe heart problems. Because of her heart condition, great care is taken when her sister decides to inform her of the tragic demise of her husband. When considering Mrs. Mallards troubled heart, her ailments are due to emotional problems she has encountered over a period of time; she is expected to be submissive, and she is not able to live for herself nor be free. Considering, she married at a young age, she has never had the opportunity to live or be free; thus, any emotional problems remained subdued.

Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” addresses many complex issues involving marriage and love and the oppression that comes with the two. In the short story Louise Mallard, the kind and strong wife of Brently Mallard, is challenged with mixed emotions upon receiving the news of her husband’s unexpected death. The breaking news of her husband’s death in a railroad accident leaves her with feelings of heartbroken grief as well as relived spirits of independence. As Louise deals with these feelings in privacy she is overcome with excitement for her future without her husband. Louise is then drained of this excitement for her fresh start with the shocking sight of her husband walking through the door.

Women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s had specific roles determined by the males who were dominant in their society. Women began to write stories which told their gender roles in that era. The authors of these stories lived in this time period and their stories reflect a lot of the traditional roles that were expected of them. The author’s purposes, were to tell about how marriage imprisoned women in this period of time. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s stories provide examples of the gender roles. Their reasoning of writing these stories was to call on women of this era to learn how to empower themselves in this society.

At the end of 19th century, American society presented an ideology of patriarchy. Feminists struggle for the equality and discrimination against female. As feminist movement started, lots of female writers were explored. One of the most famous writers is Kate Chopin. Her works mostly present a theme of women pursue freedom and equality. “The Story Of An Hour” and “The Awakening” are her representative works. In these two works, Kate Chopin reveals how women lived under the oppression of male-dominated society, especially for women who got married. They were not financially independent and their freedom and rights were deprived. Therefore female were forced to be an “angle in the home”. Both challenge the preconception that women can only be a housekeeper and marriage is the only way out.

In “The story of an hour”, Kate Chopin denounces women’s inferior household status through Mrs. Mallard’s drastic change of emotions in an hour. But people at that time, including women themselves, take it for granted as a part of social norm. Chopin’s masterful use of characterization, irony, motif and appellation points out the hidden gender inequity for women in nineteenth century. A feminism lens is especially useful for understanding this short story.