Kate Chopin wrote stories of women in different states of independence from the men in their lives. She felt strongly about feminism and wanted women to be liberated from the dependence of men. By looking at Chopin’s stories we can see how the characters longed to be strong and independent women. In “The Story of an Hour”, when Mrs. Mallard hears of her husbands death she feels liberated and is described as:
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!’ The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. (Woodlief, online)
Just from this short quote, one can see the independence she wanted the women in her stories to feel without having a man in their lives.
Kate Chopin was born in 1850, Kate O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri to Eliza and Thomas O'Flaherty. She was the third of five children, but her sisters died in infancy and her brothers, from her father’s first marriage, died in their early twenties. She was the only child in her family to live past the age of twenty-five. In 1867, Chopin started to keep a journal of poems, essays, sketches, criticism and more. From 1869-1870 Chopin attended debutante parties, learned to smoke, and wrote her first story, "Emancipation: A Life Fable," which is a short story about freedom and restriction. In 1870, at the age of twenty, she married Oscar Chopin, who was twenty-five, and the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. (Wyatt, online)
From 1871-1878 Chopin had five sons, Jean, Oscar Charles, George, Frederick, and Felix. ...
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"SparkNotes: The Story of an Hour: Important Quotations Explained." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .
"The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin, Characters, Setting." Kate Chopin: The Awakening, The Storm, Stories, Biography. The Kate Chopin International Society, 1 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. .
Woodlief, Ann. "The Story of an Hour" Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 12
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Wyatt, Neal. "Biography of Kate Chopin." Virginia Commonwealth University.
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It is rather ironic that she writes that her husband's death in Mrs. Mallard's case gives a sense of new found freedom and that the path that led to a `freedom for Kate' led Kate to write about a certain type of freedom for Mrs. Mallard. In a sense this seems a genesis of what is the path of a woman pursuing feminism without knowing what it is. We can see this when Mrs. Mallard is alone and looking out the window in her room and the text speaks to us.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Approaching Literature: Reading + Writing + Thinking, Third Edition. Ed. Schakel, Peter J, and Jack Ridl. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 233-234. Print.
Kate Chopin was one of the most influential nineteenth century American fiction writers. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on either one of three dates: February 8, 1851, February 8, 1850, or July 12, 1850, depending on the source. She once said that she was born in 1851, but her baptismal certificate states February 8, 1850 as her birthday (Inge, 2). There is also an indiscretion regarding the spelling of her name. Her full name is Katherine O’Flaherty Chopin, but one source spells her first name with a ‘C’ (Katherine, 1). Her father, Thomas O’Flaherty, was an Irish immigrant who became a successful merchant in St. Louis. Her mother, Eliza Faris O’Flaherty, came from a wealthy aristocratic Creole family (Inge, 2). Kate Chopin was a student at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis. Here she learned the Catholic teachings and great intellectual discipline. She graduated from this French school in 1868 (Inge, 2). On June 9th in 1870, she married Oscar Chopin. Together the couple had six children: Jean (1871), Oscar (1873), George (1874), Frederick (1876), Felix (1878), and Lelia (1879) (Inge, 3).
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Eds. Elizabeth M. Schaaf, Katherine A. Retan, and Joanne Diaz. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1997. 12-14. Print.
Kate Chopin made use of every aspect of setting in "The Story of an Hour." Her use of setting permitted the reader to piece together an entire life story of the characters from a two page short story using his own interpretation of the veiled hints she left through description. Each of the different elements of setting, including time, location, social context, and environment, convey all the information that Ms. Chopin chose not to explicitly write. Analyzation of each element leads to a clearer picture of Mrs. Mallard's circumstances and actions, and a fuller understanding of the story itself.
As the title puts it, “The Story of an Hour” takes place in the span of an hour. The title of the story also shows the possibility of occurrences within a single hour. This story is mostly centered around one woman, Louis Mallard. In conventional circumstances, death brings sorrow, grief, seclusion, guilt, regrets, along with other feeling depending on the cause of death. In “The Story of an Hour”, sorrow and grief are a product of the recent happenings, however, these feelings are coupled with joy and independence. Kate Chopin uses this story to convey death as a joyful circumstance whereas conventionally it is portrayed as sorrowful.
Kate Chopin is a phenomenal writer, with two published novels and over one hundred short stories, not only does her writing style keep the reader intrigued, but also the setting, dialect, and history behind her work tell a story all its own. Chopin uses contrast in her writing "The Story of an Hour" through the hints about the quality of Mr. And Mrs. Mallard 's marriage, Mrs. Mallards emotions toward her husband 's death, and Mrs. Mallards death to emphasize her theme of gender roles in a time when women had no rights.
Kate Chopin’s story, "The Story of an Hour," may seem to be about Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected and ironic reactions to the news of her husband’s untimely death due to a railroad disaster. At least that’s what I thought when I read the story. It seemed to me that she led a normal life with a normal marriage. She had a stable home life with a kind, loving husband who cared for her. She seemed to love him, sometimes. She had some kind of "heart trouble" (Chopin 25) that didn’t really affect her physically, until the very end. I thought Mrs. Mallard would have been saddened and filled with grief for an adequate period of time after her spouse died, but her grief passed quickly, and she embraced a new life that she seemed to be content with. Therefore I believe there is good evidence that Mrs. Mallard was an ungrateful woman who did not appreciate her husband or his love for her. That evidence is found in her selfish behavior after the death of her husband, Brently Mallard.
Before the beginning of the women's rights movements in the late 19th century patriarchy, or a society dominated by males, was the norm in America. Men used sex and marriage to objectify and suppress women in order to maintain a society controlled strictly by males. The foundation of patriarchy was rooted deeply in the marital roles of men and women, one dominant, and the other submissive. Sex and marriage served as a mechanisms to shape the images of men and women in society. The system of patriarchy fed into itself to keep it going generation after generation.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." Perrine's Literature: Structure Sound & Sense. 11th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2010. 541. Print.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 4th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: St. Martins, 1997. 12-15.
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
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin expresses many themes through her writing. The main themes of this short story are the joy independence brings, the oppression of marriage in nineteenth century America, and how fast life can change.
Kate Chopin is able to illuminate her stories with clever language and meaning. As well as an immense criticism as to how society oppresses the individual in the glorified institution of marriage. Through language, she is able to introduce the thought of deeper meanings. “The Story of an Hour” being a prime example of the individual that has a need for freedom for herself. Through symbolism and straightforward comments, the freedom that Mrs. Louisa Mallard is notable just as her marriage is oppressive.
Since Kate Chopin has used different types of literary devices, it is good to know the definition to those word to better understand “The Story of An Hour”. This story uses a lot of irony throughout the whole passage as well as imagery and symbolism. Each literary device has been set within its own meaning in the story. Using these literary devices that Kate Chopin used, it was what helped make the story into a great one. it makes it be more descriptive in the way the reader views things while reading it.