Women 's Marital Oppression By Kate Chopin

“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

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.

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

In “Story of an hour” Kate Chopin talked about marriage in a way that is not normally discussed. Mrs. mallard showed exhilaration for her husband’s death because she finally will be free yet when she found out that Brently was still alive the thought of having to suffer was too much for her and she died. The disappointment for him being alive is what killed her. The talk of marriage oppression during this time- period was not exclusive or talked about during that era.

It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long" (Chopin). Accordingly, there will be no more persistence on the way she lives and the way she acts. All her dreams are coming true, she sees her husband is a restriction upon her life, but as soon as she realizes that he won’t be a burden anymore, she is delighted. Society’s view in women was quite delicate, they were expected to do housework and be on their two feet at all times. The role of a house women includes cleaning, cooking, respecting your husband, taking care of your children. Chopin, like many other women’s in the late 18th liked knowing that someday women will have the privilege of doing anything they desire. Mrs. Mallard felt oppressed in her marriage, but for the very first time ever, she feels the probability of constructing her own existence and identifying prospects for her own

“The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin about how she portrays marriage in the late 19th century. Josephine the main character sister is the one who breaks the news to Louise Mallard about her husband death. Like most women who find out about their husbands death usually go through stages of grief over a matter of time but in this story Louise went through all of them in a matter of an hour. Finally, feeling a sense of freedom, walks in her husband, Brently Mallard. In “The Story of an Hour” Chopin uses point of view, imagery, and irony to show how marriage can make a woman feel so trapped that the only escape or hope is death.

Ashley Fouquet Dr. Bellah English 1302-010 3/10/2015 Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”: Marriage That Kills Marriage is a strange, complicated, chaotic, and wonderful partnership that we choose to partake in. Marriage and the roles within a marriage, husband and wife, have changed drastically within the last fifty years; therefore they have taken a one hundred and eighty degree turn from marriages in the nineteenth century. Upon learning that her husband did not, in fact, die in a train wreck, Louise Mallard has a sudden heart attack. Having had a glimpse at the possibility of a life of her own, her husband’s survival ironically caused her death. “The Story of an Hour” is a late nineteenth century feministic shout-out, and a twisted look into the minds of the oppressed women in the late eighteen hundreds.

The short story, “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin depicts on the dramatizing news that the protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is notified with. Chopin uses a wide amount of different rhetorical devices such as Symbolism, Imagery, and Allegory to help the reader fully understand the reading and see what Chopin is trying to set the story as. Throughout the story, Chopin sets a certain tone that lasts from beginning to end. The narrator 's portrayal of Mrs. Mallard shows someone who brushes off the ideas of love and even the finest of marriages for the magnificent thought of unadulterated lack of restrictions.

In “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Louise Mallard goes from being a stereotypical woman, to something much more. Mrs. Mallard is depicted as a weak woman, as most are thought to be, in the beginning of the story, but as the plot progresses, she begins to develop into someone who is stronger than originally perceived. The story shows a great possibility that Louise’s husband objectified her, and she had become so used to it, that when the thought of freedom emerged, even at the cost of his death, she was filled with joy.

While science may tell us that marriage can bring a person happiness, Kate Chopin’s “The story of an Hour” though causes reader’s to question this long held onto stance. In “The Story of an Hour” a young wife, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is told by her husbands friend that her husband has died in an accident. Initially Louise is consumed with sorrow for her late husband and decides to go to her room by herself. After staring out the window and having feelings of independence overtake her, Mrs. Mallard leaves her room to go back downstairs only to see the man she was just told a short time ago was dead walk through the door. Upon seeing him Mrs. Mallard drops dead. Chopin uses the character Louise Mallard to introduce the thought that women could be

“The Story of an Hour” has the main character Mrs. Mallard show thoughts and emotions that can support and go against the feminist theory. While the women in general are oppressed by the brutal masculinity, the women in the story feels freedom after her husband’s death. She is showing the discrimination on gender leads the unhappy relationship even with the loving husband and wife. In the short story, Chopin reveals an innate problem woman faced in marital relationships in nineteenth century.

Kate Chopin’s famous play, “The Story of an Hour, is an American based writer/author tells the story of an estrange marriage between Mr. and Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Louise Mallard receive the horrible news of her husband’s death. This may have been a tragic event to some, yet it was a day of redemption and new life to Louise. Mrs. Louise Mallard is the main character of the story. Mrs. Mallard’s character, is described as a liberal of what is abnormal in her time. She began to plan a future without her husband. She began to envision, which was forbidden for a woman to develop self-influenced identity. Mrs. Mallard’s inner soul was crying to be released from the bondage Mr. Mallard has bestowed upon her. The character was symbolized as a reborn

One can image the struggles women went through during the nineteenth-century having no better option than to be married, widowed, or worse. As a result, Kate Chopin’s theme in “The Story of an hour” in the book Backpack Literature: An Introduction of Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing might have expressed one of many aspects that women struggled with during that time in an alternating, omniscient point of view. To put it lightly, marriage being one of those struggles in the story makes us think if marriage is not for everyone. Through the author’s diction, it will be clear that Mrs. Louise Mallard being the main character struggles with the antagonist, which is the institution of marriage, and she has a realization that she might have

Kate Chopin, born in 1850, was one of the prominent feminist writers of the twentieth century. Her works focus predominantly on life, love, marriage, social issues and women. Her husband’s unexpected death was a tragic event in her life. However it led her to a great realization. Based on her own experience, Kate Chopin wrote a short story “The Story of an Hour” on April 19, 1894. Kate Chopin told the story of Mrs. Mallard reacting to the news of husband’s death. The story addressed women issues in marriage. Through Louise Mallard, Kate Chopin addressed women issues in marriage and gave readers a close view of what women’s lives were like during a time where it was the norm for women to submit to their husbands.

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.