Women In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

“The Story of an Hour,” written by Kate Chopin, is a short story featuring a woman with a feeble heart, and the story centers on Louise Mallard and her reactions to her husband’s “death.” Throughout “The Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard experiences various emotions that leave her wondering how she truly feels about the news of her husband’s death. Before leaving her room and after hours of genuine depression, Louise Mallard realizes that her husband’s death may have granted her something extremely valuable: independence. Chopin created the story in an era where men predominantly controlled the lives of women. In “The Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard is expelled from the chains of her husband’s control. Although they had a content, loving

Louise Mallard immediately weeps after the news of her husband Brently’s alleged death in a railroad accident, subsequently Louise stares out of her bedroom window viewing the rebirth of spring, revealing her new found independence after the loss of her spouse.

Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.

Kate Chopin is known for being criticized for empowering the subject of female sexuality and independence. In Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, it is placed in a time where men were known as being the head of the household while women were only in charge of raising the children and caring for the home. In the 1890s, women didn’t have so much power to themselves compared to today’s society where female empowerment is frequently encouraged. Chopin’s story narrates a sequence of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions that goes within the motion of the story. As she overcomes the sudden death of her husband, her emotion of grief soon turns into the sudden feeling of freedom, later on emerging into a strong independent woman.

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.

In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour,” Louise privately imagines the forbidden pleasure of independence. When Louise’s sister Josephine informs her of her husband Brently’s death, she reacts with violent grief. Once alone however, Louise realizes that she is now an independent woman and it excites her. As time passes, Louise begins to pray that this new independent lifestyle lasts forever. However, when Brently unexpectedly returns from a trip, this newfound freedom disappears and leads to Louise’s untimely death. A major theme in this short story is the idea of the forbidden joy of independence which Louise briefly experiences. Throughout several excerpts of this short story, the joy of independence possess Louise and gives

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.

“When men are oppressed it’s a tragedy. When women are oppressed, it’s a tradition”-Letty Cottin Pogrebin. In Kate Chopin The Story Of an Hour you see what a middle class women role is during this time period. Louise, a women with heart trouble has found out her husbands has died. As any wife would do she cried, but they weren’t tears of sadness but rather tears of happiness.

Chopin wrote about the pessimistic view on marriage because in that time period the view was common, and often marriage was for money/power and not for love. So while Louise did love him sometimes she didn’t actually love him, not enough for a usual marriage. She knew that he was kind, but she felt to caged by the marriage. Louise

Indistinguishably ignited in the hearts and minds of American women, the fiery debate over woman's rights engulfed nineteenth century America in its forging flames, branding an indelible mark into both American democracy and literature. Epitomizing this shift in American ideology and its impact on literature, Kate Chopin’s powerful literary work, “The Story of an Hour,” delves deeply into the issues and truths expressed in Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman.” Comparatively, these writings poignantly relate the unjust sexism of 19th century America. Firstly, contradicting the erroneous societal belief that women were helplessly dependent upon the aid of men, Sojourner Truth justly stated, “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted,

Therefore, it’s in keeping with the Victorian notion, that a woman who find’s joy of what “could be” due to a spouse’s death, must not be “of sound mind”. Apparently, a woman with unconventional ideas must also suffer from an afflicted heart, which kills her. This serves to “punish” Louise for her “selfish” thoughts and for really loving her husband (so, of course she has to die), and is consistent with Victorian views of women. Meanwhile, her heart-condition obeys the Victorian idea, mainly attributed to men, that a woman expressing counter ideas, suffers from either/both mental or physical ailments. Likewise, the story’s setting and characters mostly fit a Victorian mold: Brentley is the breadwinner, Louise doesn’t work, Josephine and Richards are both traditional Victorian figures who want to coddle the “fragile” Louise, and the doctor is the man who likely diagnosed Louise with an alleged heart condition/frailty. Although Chopin creates an atypical Victorian protagonist, she avoids going overly far in fully supporting women’s independence, through encasing her story with the constraints and judgement reserved for women in Victorian times. I simply don’t detect much of a Romantic influence, excluding Louise’s excessively dramatic emotions and

Louise starts off in the story by showing or thinking of the ways a wife would react when they find out about the death of their husband. Chopin describes Louise's’ reaction to her husband’s death by stating, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance... When the storm of grief had spent itself away she went away to her room alone,” (Chopin 1). This demonstrates that Louise stepped away from the common way a woman would have felt. She felt some grief since it is the news of a death.

Whenever Louise is delivered with the tragic news of her husbands death she breaks down and sobs; however, when she was alone to herself she could not contain her excitement of her independence but tries to “beat it back with her will.” Although she tries, she could not hold it in any longer and finally her lips start to whisper the words she was fighting back:“free.” Another way to provide evidence to prove that this story is conveying feminism is how Chopin indicates that Louise has “heart trouble.” This heart trouble is not only a physically issue, but an emotional one as well for Louise heart represented her true emotions toward her marriage. Being confined into a marriage where she does nothing besides house chores and has no say so of things, literally is a strain on her heart.

   In her book, The Faces of Eve, Judith Fryer writes, "In the last year of the nineteenth century a woman succeeded where men had failed: Kate Chopin created . . . a woman who is a person." Chopin’s short story, "The Story of an Hour," openly portrays the true feelings of a woman who feels trapped inside her marriage. In the period in which she lived, there were only two alternatives for her to achieve the much desired personal freedom—either she or her husband must die!

In the late Eighties, most of the women were not feeling happy in their marriages. This happened because women and men were not equal at this time. Men had more power, and they were treating their wives with orders that should be obeyed. Women were just looking for a very simple life that doesn’t involve any of these unjust rules. They had to deal with it because they didn’t have any other option. However, some women get the chance to live their life without these kind of rules and regulations. This is what happened in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, which is about a lady that has a heart condition, and is stressing about the fact that Mrs. Millard were not happy in her marriage, and she took the chance when her husband died to move on from the old life that involved the lack of fairness that she had to her new spring inner life.