It only takes one event, one person, and one burden to change someones life. The gender equality battle includes successes and failures, mainly resulting with the male figure dominating the competition. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story revolving around the feminist criticism lens. Louise Mallard is a woman with heart problems who reacts to the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. It was easy for Mrs. Mallard to grief and cry over her husband’s death, however, it allowed her to reflect on the life she had with him—a life filled with Mr. Mallard establishing his dominance through abuse. This reflection period allowed Mrs. Mallard free herself from the life she had with her husband. Once she discovered that her husband was still alive, she passed away as the event was overwhelming for her. Mrs. Mallard feared her husband in a way that affected her perception in life—that men are the dominating figure. Through the feminist criticism …show more content…
The Story of an Hour exemplifies the fear Mrs. Mallard had for her husband. In paragraph 10, Mrs. Mallard sits by herself grieving over her husband’s death, then chants the words “free, free, free”. When saying these words under her breath, she is impling her freedom from her husband’s control, no longer needing to feel bounded to him. In that context, she views her husband in fear as she ’escapes the box’ she has been living in for years. The freedom being implied in this scene shows that men are the dominant figure in life while women are marginalized. A female stating her freedom after the death of her man does not signify a positive moment in life, but more of a questionable moment to “why would Mrs. Mallard be overjoyed after her husbands death?” Men are the dominant group while women are the marginalized group because Mr. Mallard’s hurt towards her wife had a negative impact, allowing her to fear her
The Story of an Hour is a short story of Ms. Mallard, a woman with a heart condition who receives short term good news. Chopin uses contrast between independence, marriage, and gender to show how hidden emotions can effect a woman’s actions in the time period where women did not have much power or right to speak what came to their mind.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, is about a woman, named Louise Mallard, in the late 1800s who is told that her husband, Brently, has died in a railroad accident. Initially, Louise is surprised, distressed, and drowned in sorrow. After mourning the loss, the woman realizes that she is finally free and independent, and that the only person she has to live for is herself. She becomes overwhelmed with joy about her new discovery of freedom, and dreams of all of the wonderful events in life that lie ahead of her. Louise’s sister finally convinces her to leave her room and come back into reality. While Louise is walking down her steps, her husband surprisingly enters through the door because he was actually not killed in the accident. At the same moment, Louise collapses and dies, supposedly from “heart disease-of joy that kills” (Chopin 706).
Back then, women had a no say in things and were not allowed to work. The men made all of the money, so marrying the only option for women. Divorce was not an option because with no money and no job, running away would prove to be pointless. Therefore, when her husband dies, she can finally break away from the role she is forced to play which is that of the perfect wife, and can stop holding herself back. In fact, after a brief moment of sorrow she is overjoyed with the sense of freedom and just as she is going to open the door and leave forever, Mr. Mallard opens the door very much alive.
In conclusion, “The story of an hour” is a clear depiction that women status in the society determines the choices they make about their lives. In this work, Chopin depicts a woman as a lesser being without identity or voices of their own. They are expected to remain in oppressive marriages and submit to their husbands without question.
Kate Chopin wrote a short piece called “The Story of an Hour” about a woman’s dynamic emotional shift who believes she has just learned her husband has died. The theme of Chopin’s piece is essentially a longing for more freedom for women.
She would not have grieved over someone she did not love. Even in the heat of her passion, she thinks about her lost love. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked safe with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. Her love may not have been the greatest love of all time, but it was still love. Marriage was not kind to Mrs. Mallard, her life was dull and not worth living, her face showed the years of repression.
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. Mrs. Mallard's medical diagnosis is an example of the male-dominated society in which she lives. They are able to tell her that she indeed has a heart condition, but are unable to treat her effectively, portraying how ineffectual male patriarchy is in the life of this woman in particular. Mrs. Mallard is expected to fulfill the stereotypical role of "the angel in the house.
Xuding Wang writes in her essay, Feminine Self-Assertion in “The Story of an Hour”, a strong defense for Kate Chopin’s classic work, “The Story of an Hour”. Wang provides powerful proof that one of the pioneering feminist writers had a genuine desire to push the issue of feminine inequality. Even decades later, Xuding Wang fights for the same ground as Kate Chopin before her. She focuses on critic Lawrence I. Berkove, who challenges that Louise Mallard is delusional with her personal feelings of freedom once she discovers the news that her husband has passed away. The story opens with the line “Knowing Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin). [1] Chopin uses allegory to describe
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”
Kate Chopin's story, "The Story of an Hour", focuses on an 1890's young woman, Louise Mallard. She experienced a profound emotional change after she hears her husband's "death" and her life ends with her tragic discovery that he is actually alive. In this story, the author uses various techniques-settings, symbolism and irony- to demonstrate and develop the theme: Freedom is more important than love.
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 short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin it seems like Mrs. Mallard loves her husband's as she was hurt and was crying when she heard the news of her husband's death (Chopin 13). But at the same time the narrator also states that “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!” which means that she is getting freedom from Brently which she wants to get rid of and she is all alone and independent after that (Chopin 13). She was happy and was also ready for her new independent life. Kate Chopin also states that “And yet she had loved him- sometimes.
“The Story of an Hour” expresses the difficulties of being a women in the late 1800’s in South America due to the issues of gender inequalities. This story, written by Kate Chopin, who was a married woman in late 1800’s, provides the perspective of a young married women who has limited freedom and is largely controlled by her husband. Throughout this story gender norms are clearly displayed in different ways. One clear example is when Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist, is expected to act a specific way when she hears the news of her dead husband, yet she feels the extreme opposite. The narrator then does a great job of expressing the reality of how Mrs. Mallard is truly feeling and uses that as a way to express the control as a conflict. The outcome
The main theme in “The Story of an Hour” is a woman’s freedom from oppression. Mrs. Mallard does not react accordingly to the news of her husband’s death; in the third paragraph it states, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment.” After her initial wave of shock and sadness has passed, however, she becomes elated with the thought of finally being free of her husband. Originally, she is described as being “pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body” and having lines that “bespoke repression”; in an attempt to be a perfect wife to a man whom she did not even love, Mrs. Mallard has been masking her true self. Once she realizes that she has finally gained the freedom that she has been longing for, Mrs. Mallard begins to