Story Of An Hour Feminist Analysis

In Kate Chopin’s short story ‘The Story of an Hour’, she picks at feminist issues through the symbolism she uses. Over and over again Chopin shows how Louise Mallard’s husband has made her feel entrapped in her life. Written in throws of the women’s suffrage movement, Chopin took some of the ideas spread by the movement and symbolises it in her writing to show more people the oppression women faced.
In the beginning of the story, Chopin refers to Louise as Mrs. Mallard, giving her the appearance of a basic housewife who hides behind her husband; waiting on him hand and foot. When in reality she is much more than that, but is simply being held back by her husband’s plans for her, and society’s view on how women should act and how they should

be treated. The story shows how Louise slowly becomes her own person, no longer hiding behind her husband or his name. Chopin by the end of the story, refers to her as Louise not Mrs. Mallard.
Louise also responds more when she is referred to as Louise instead of Mrs.

Mallard, that is because she doesn’t feel like is being referred to as a housewife, but as a human being with real ideas and feeling, “ ‘Louise, open the door! I beg.’ [Louise responded], ‘Go away. I will not make myself ill’(Chopin 222). When referred to as Mrs. Mallard she does not ever respond with any sort of movement or the slightest noise.
Louise shows her suffrage just based on the way she reacted to finding out about her husband’s death. At first she has the normal reaction of when you have lost a loved one, sobbing, and inability to function, but as she thought about it more her attitude changed. “[Louise] said it over and over under her breath: ‘Free, free, free!” (222). Louise at first seemed almost scared that someone would hear her, but she soon realized that it didn’t matter if people heard what she wanted to say, because she had rights and she can say what she wants when she wants.
When Mr. Mallard walks in the door and Louise just dies, it shows how oppressed, and trapped she felt in her place in her own home. Her husband caused her so much stress that it literally killed her. Louise had felt free and like herself when she thought Mr. Mallard was dead, but when it turned out he wasn’t actually dead she was right back to where she had started and her body knew that was not where they wanted to be so her heart, who had stopped loving her husband years before, stopped working all

together.
Kate Chopin was able to bring an incredibly influential movement into her writing without even directly going out and saying it. Chopin was able to show a more controversial side of a situation through weaving it into her writing so more people could understand where she is coming from. Kate Chopin was able to show the life of a want to be Suffragette through a story about the death of marriage.