How Does Kate Chopin Use Figurative Language In The Story Of An Hour

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Recommended: Kate Chopin's "the story of an hour": a feminist interpretation

Women are put under the pressure of the unequal society, and the stereotype that they are always the supporters rather than the main financial provider for the family. The story of an hour explores one woman's desire to be free from the social norm and live for herself only. Beginning in the 1960s, Kate Chopin introduced to the reading public a new fictional theme, the theme of self-assertion. Chopin was recognized for her depiction of women who experience the power of passion that often brings them into conflict with society. In “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard is in a sense awakened after hearing the death of her husband. Louise fancies about the freedom and the life she could just live for herself but nobody else. However, the story …show more content…

By using figurative language, Chopin gives the readers a hint regard of the inequality where men hold all the power. During her awakening, Louise fancies of all the “years to come that would belong to her absolutely” where she doesn’t have to live with her husband, her family but for herself (Chopin 90). By using figurative language, Chopin emphasizes that Louise has been devoting to her husband all her life as the society expects a wife to be. Louise has no choice but to satisfy her husband needs both physically and mentally. Therefore, Louise is shocked and overwhelmed with joy where she realizes that she is no longer under control of her husband or the “powerful” which “bending her in that blind persistence” (Chopin 90). Chopin portrays the inequality between men and women as the blind persistence where men are allowed to treat their wives as an asset or a “private will” (Chopin 90). Be treating as an asset, Louise is unsure of her love for her husband, and “often she had not” loved him (Chopin 91). Chopin portrays love as something useless in their marriage, which is an ownership and a claim of Brently to Louise’s freedom. According to Scott D. Emmert, in his article “Naturalism and the Short Story Form: Kate Chopin’s: The Story of an Hour”, Chopin offers “a criticism of marriage itself, as an institution that traps women”. He emphasizes that women often don’t have a choice but to worship their husbands back in time. Therefore, Louise is happy that she is free from the social norm. She could be unique and independent despite her gender. However, Louise has to face reality when she sees Brently, and death is the only way out of their marriage. In the sexist society where gender decides the right and power of an individual, men are often more powerful to treat women as their assets in that time period without being

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