Feminist Criticism In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is specifically suited for a Feminist criticism because Mrs. Mallard’s problem highlights the disparity in how the women are written and how they are treated in opposition to their male counterparts, revealing a decided diversity between genders. It shows the cultural norms within a patriarchal society are based on biological happenstance instead of intellectual capacity. The way Mrs. Mallard and her supporters behave and how they are depicted demonstrates the diversity and cultural competence outcome which promotes the need for fair and inclusive interactions.
Mrs. Mallard is described as having a weak heart, this supports the foundation of the story that she is fragile, perhaps dying. It appears that
Her comfortable chair is placed near the open window where she routinely comes to observe the world beyond her pane. The chair welcomes the shape of her body like a well-worn glove. She lets down her façade. The physical exhaustion of her mind, body, and soul is from the oppression that she has felt from her husband and their marriage. Sitting there, Louise mentally makes the transition from “our” house to “her” house (Perkins). Outside, the trees aquiver mirroring her physical response to the realization that she is no longer repressed, everything is new, bright, and beautiful. She can see and hear the world calling for her in the peddler’s cries, the distant song, and the sparrows. The bluer sky and whimsical clouds pull her farther out of her house. She is not held back anymore, there are no more restrictions. She collects herself, occasionally sobbing, the emotion working itself out, crying for the years that she has spent in her husband’s marriage and for the years that she now has regained to live for herself. Now she is seen as a single person separate from her husband. She is described as a self-possessed woman, instead of a new widow. It is acknowledged that she has a strength about her earned from overcoming hardship and that she is capable of intelligent thought. She is more than just the vulnerable widow of a dead