Nineteenth Century Gender Roles Exposed in The Necklace and The Story of an Hour

In the early 1900s, men treated women as a piece of property. Once a woman married, the husband owned the woman’s land and money. Most men thought women were so fragile that they could not run their own lives. Women may not have liked it but they were forced to live this way The men were the head of the household and made all the decisions. The representation of "The Necklace" and "The story of an hour" represents gender roles as defined by the nineteenth century society guidelines .

The "The Story of an Hour was set in the late nineteenth century in the home of Louise Mallard.(Kate Chopin).It was written on April 19, 1894,by Kate Chopin. The theme "Many also focus on women revolt against conformity, often against gender conformity or against social norms that limit omen's possibilities in life." (Emmert, Scott )

The story was first titled "The Dream of an Hour and appeared in Vogue in 1894,but in 1964 the title was changed to "The story of an Hour " because the play was acted out in an hour.( Emily Toth)

"In 1975 Susan Cahill called the story "one of feminism's sacred texts," Kate Chopin's sensitivity to what it sometimes feels like to be a woman is prominent. ( Emily Toth) "Chopin's often-celebrated yearning for freedom is also on display here—as is her sense of ambiguity and her complex way of seeing life and typical of her to note that it is both "men and women" who "believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature." ( Emily Toth)"Kate Chopin was an artist, a writer of fiction, and like many artists--in the nineteenth century and today--she considered that her primary responsibility to people was showing them the truth about life as she understood it,her goal was not to change the ...

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Toth, Emily. "Kate Chopin 'The Story of an Hour': Questions and answers about 'The Story of an Hour.'" KateChopin.org. Kate Chopin International Society, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 1 Jan. 2011.

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Tragedy and Comedy of Life

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The Necklace and Other Tales, 2003 (contains The Necklace, Butterball, The Tellier House, On the Water, Mademoiselle Fifi, The Mask, The Inn, A Day in the Country, The Hand, The Jewels, The Model, The Entity=The Horla; tr. by Joachim Neugroschel)