It is difficult to comprehend in today’s world what marriage actually meant to the women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One might want to believe in the fairytales of passion and deep abiding love that appear so often in paperback romance novels, but in her short stories, “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour”, author Kate Chopin offers two much more realistic tales of married life. With these stories, Chopin reveals the truth: marriage was no better than slavery or indentured servitude for women. “The Storm” gives the reader no background information on why Calixta married Bobinot and not Laballiere, with whom she had had a prior passionate assignation (501), but Chopin implies that while Bobinot is a kind and loving husband and …show more content…
Neither husband is portrayed as brutal or sinister, rather the opposite. Yet, due to the oppression of women in the 19th century, both wives are unfulfilled and conflicted in their marriage. Women were not seen as sexual beings, and it did not matter whether or not they enjoyed the marriage bed. It was a man’s world, and women were there only to provide comfort and heirs.
To appreciate the full impact of what Chopin was conveying to her readers in “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour”, one must first understand that women of the time had virtually no civil rights, and upon getting married, actually lost the few rights they did enjoy. A single woman could own land, pay property taxes, and enter into legal agreements. Those rights were rescinded the moment she said, “I do”. To be a wife, was to be owned, body and soul, by a man.
It is also important to remember that the Civil War brought freedom, equality and the right to vote only to Negro men. It would be 30 more years before women began to receive the right to vote, and equal protection under the law. Women were forced to trade their freedom, their property, and their bodies for the financial support and physical protection of a husband. In many cases, marriage was no more than a business deal that favored only the
The world has always known that women were not given all of their rights. During the 19th century and even before then, most of the time women were just forced to do what they were told and what the society expected from them. Women didn’t get to make their own choices. They couldn’t fall in love, work, or be part of the society in any possible way. They were born to get old, marry, and take care of their husbands, house, and kids. Kate Chopin was one of the authors who wrote multiple stories about women and feminism. In Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” Calixta was married, but when she saw Alcee she ignored the fact that she was married and she committed adultery with him. Kate Chopin describes how Calixta is unhappy with her married life, and how she finds happiness in adultery.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of the Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are viewed from a woman’s perspective in the nineteenth century. They show the issues on how they are confined to the house. That they are to be stay at home wives and let the husband earn the household income. These stories are both written by American women and how their marriage was brought about. Their husbands were very controlling and treated them more like children instead of their wives. In the nineteenth century their behavior was considered normal at the time. In “The Story of the Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both women explore their issues on wanting to be free from the control of their husband’s.
Like in many feministic works, that struggle constantly to point out the corruptions of a patriarchal society, which subordinates women to men and subconsciously make them accept their inferior position without defending, their opinions, their interests and themselves, Kate Chopin in her short story “The Storm”, does something completely different of what was consider as acceptable in the 18th century´s literature. She creates the character of a woman who breaks the socially accepted conception of how a woman should be and act in a relationship, or in this case in a marriage, to express her sexuality. In this society women were put in an inferior position and were deprived of many privileges and rights given to men, especially in the sexual aspect; but Chopin, with her viewpoints, went ah...
During the turbulent storm in the story, Kate Chopin depicts that the marriage of Calixta and Bobinôt is going downhill. Both Bobinôt and Calixta were trapped in different locations during the storm. Bobinôt is in the general store and Calixta is at home. Not only are they in different places during the physical storm, but they are also in different places where their marriage stands. Calixta exposes the reader to see that her husband, Bobinôt, does not understand her because during the storm she is buried in the arms of another man.
All in all, Kate Chopin is able to combine two very different aspects of life and involve the relationship and symbolism of the storm to physical needs, sexual desires, and new and profound joy. By bringing these two parallel subjects together, the author is able to show the deeper meaning of one simple word, “storm,” and reveal a story that shows the attitudes and beliefs towards marriage and sex. In doing so, Chopin creates a strong point of view between these two subjects and allows for the view of regulations of sex and marriage to be shown throughout her short story, “The Storm.”
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assigns gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically, Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolve around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom for women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dreams and impose their will on their wives (149).
In Kate Chopin’s “The Storm”, she offers an intoxicating account of two souls awakened by a storm. The story was composed on July 19, 1898. At this time in history women were considered objects, their sole purpose in life was to serve their husbands. In addition, social stratification was an important aspect of society that determined who they married. Calixta’s marriage could have been a product of an arrangement, making it of unnatural origin. Chopin points out singular characteristics of the storm to shed light on the uncommon strength of a marriage when it is not determined by social norms. Consequently, Chopin brings Calixta and Alceé together to embellish their passion, in which Calixta plays an active role rather than a submissive one.
Back in the old days, women were practically enslaved in marriages. Meaning they really did not have any rights and their masters were their own husbands. Kate Chopin, author of many different short stories, wrote a few stories where the female character shows signs of her being in an enslaved marriage. Kate Chopin stories have a common theme of, women suffering from being enslaved in a marriage and denial of any type of freedom. To prove this, in Kate Chopin stories it shows, one woman cheating and dishonoring her current husband with one of her old lover is “The Storm”.
During the nineteenth century, Chopin’s era, women were not allowed to vote, attend school or even hold some jobs. A woman’s role was to get married, have children
Marriage can be seen as a subtle form of oppression, like many things which are dictated by social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour, Louise Mallard finds herself in distress due to the event of her husband’s death that makes her question who she is as a person. The author cleverly uses this event to create the right atmosphere for Mrs. Mallard to fight against her own mind. As the short story progresses, we see that Mrs. Mallard moves forward with her new life and finds peace in her decision to live for herself. This shows that marriage too is another chain that holds oneself back. Not wanting to admit this to herself, Louise
Finally, Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” is a story with a variety of conflict. The conflict of Bobinot against Calixtra shown that conflict can be about relational problems, such as one person worrying over another or failing in their duties. Alcee’s conflict with Calixtra has shown a different side of relational problems, both of them not wanting their partners to find out of their actions, and their guilt in having committed the acts. The final conflict of the story, Alcee against Clarisse, shows that deceit can be another source of conflict, shown when Alcee sent a misleading letter to Clarisse. In conclusion, this story shows that conflict can occur, even when there is no physical confrontation.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
While it has traditionally been men who have attached the "ball and chain" philosophy to marriage, Kate Chopin gave readers a woman’s view of how repressive and confining marriage can be for a woman, both spiritually and sexually. While many of her works incorporated the notion of women as repressed beings ready to erupt into a sexual a hurricane, none were as tempestuous as The Storm.
In Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" the author portrays patriarchal oppression in the institution of marriage by telling the story of one fateful hour in the life of a married woman. Analyzing the work through feminist criticism, one can see the implications of masculine discourse.
Kate Chopin, author of “The Story of an Hour” written in 1894 was the first author who emphasized strongly on femininity in her work. In the short story, Chopin writes about freedom and confinement Chopin is an atypical author who confronts feminist matter years before it was assumed. The time period that she wrote in women were advertised as a man’s property. The main idea in the short story is to illustrate that marriage confines women. In “The Story of an Hour” the author creates an intricate argument about freedom and confinement Mrs. Louise Mallard longing for freedom, but has been confined for so long freedom seems terrible. Mrs. Mallard wife of Brently Mallard instantly feels free when her husband dies. The reason she feels this way