Feminist Relationship In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

From women being portrayed as property to enabling women to take a stance on their freedoms. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin conveys the message of how the married 19th-century woman felt. Chopin provided an insight of how the females were powerless when it came to their independence, how women were joyful about the death of a husband since it was the only way out of a controlling marriage, and the amount of dread that the women endure during a marriage. Mrs. Mallard could signify most of the married women of the 19th century. Chopin’s story displays that women are human just as much as men and that they should not be treated as belongings, but rather as a human, especially in

The poem ‘The Lady of Shalott’, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was written in a period when women were seen as obedient products. They represented the house image, the inner world, having no rights. Women were supposed to be pure, virgin and reserved. When they got married, women had to give up their money and rights to their husbands. It was not enough that women stopped having any rights or money, but they also become the property of their spouse, in other words, a husband took the decision about his wife’s life and body.

Kate Chopin introduces her main character as “Mrs. Mallard” to signify her being married. However, within her marriage, she loses herself. Being married, she took her husband’s last name and became a wife. In a way it changed her personality. She was no longer her own self, she was someone else’s “property”.

This story connects to modern day issues because some women are actually being oppressed by their husband or significant other and feel a strong sense of freedom when they pass away. In this analysis there are four main literary devices that are used to illustrate the theme which are metaphors, irony, foreshadows, and similes. The theme that kate chopin used to idntfy the story line is a womens freedom. In this quote, “’Body and soul free!’”, Mrs. Mallard verbally recognizes her freedom now that her husband has died, and it is important to the story because it highlights her true feelings about her husband. Mrs. Mallard felt oppressed physically and spiritually by her husband to the point that his death has resulted in her freedom and happiness.

Not only were they expected to reside in the home but women were also tied down through marriage with the expectation of blindly following their husband without challenging their authority. Kate Chopin’s short story, “Story of an Hour”, uncovers the chilling truth of how women were perceived to have longed and enjoyed marriage during the 18th and 19th century when in actuality many felt confined, trapped and imprisoned due to what society and men wanted them to do. The story reveals that the impending pressures of having to become a good wife and mother along with patriarchal societal oppression oftentimes pressures a woman into experiencing a psychological breakdown that can result in fatal consequences. Chopin begins the story with the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, being told

Kate Chopin, in her work entitled The Story of An Hour, uses metaphors and freedom to reveal her belief that women are oppressed while Gilman, having the same view, uses symbols and verbal irony. Chopin and Gilman convey their views on the oppression of women in marriage differently. Kate Chopin, the author of The Story of An Hour, uses metaphors and a widow’s independence to show her view that marriage is oppressive. Upon hearing of her husband’s death, Louise Mallard, the main character in The Story of An Hour, recedes to her room. “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.”

Women in the eighteenth century were portrayed as servants did not have any say in anything just like the story of an hour by Kate Chopin, where even in a good marriage you could not do the things you wanted to do. In the eighteenth century, Women were portrayed as powerless humans who were beneath the men because men were powerful everything was given to them once they became men and wife. According to Hicks, Jennifer “Divorce was quite rare in the 1800s and if one was to occur, men were automatically given legal control of all property and children”, In the story of an hour Mrs. Mallard who was portrayed as weak because of her heart problems was told that her husband had died from a railroad

The difference in the concept of marriage is very apparent, hence the wives in the stories were subdued domestic caretakers, while their husbands were repressive breadwinners, each in their separate spheres. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, revolves around the life of a housewife that is unable to fulfill her wifely duties because of her nervous condition. To the readers it seems as if the story itself is the narrator’s secret journal, where she relieves her mind. She began the story as a

Instead of marrying upon reaching puberty, she stayed with her father until she was ready to get married. She also hated men in general due to their consistent drunkenness and somberness. She acquired fluency in Chinese classics while most females spent their time serving the men. Even if Murasaki decided to diverge from the

Kate Chopin’s purpose for writing “The Story of an Hour” is to demonstrate the idea that with freedom comes delight and horror. She conveys this point by using characterization. At the beginning of the story, the audience reads that Mrs. Mallards husband has passed away. She is told by her sister that her husband has passed, but unlike most people, Mrs. Mallard does not “accept its significance” due to a “paralyzed inability.” Because of the inability, she is filled with misery and “physical exhaustion”, but not for long.

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" demonstrates how an unhappy wife rejoices internally over a forbidden independence. Chopin uses a variety of symbols and imagery throughout the story to explain Mrs. Mallard's emotional and physical state. The continuous theme of oppression represents the thoughts of a young woman yearning for an escape from a society where her true thoughts are not acceptable. As a feminist writer, she aims to give women the strength to reject what society constructs as behaving like a lady but, see herself as an individual worth significance.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, there were limitations for women. Women have little to no political or legal power, because of this, women still could not vote. They also could not own property, could barely gain employment and education. Without employment and education women has no financial stability. The social limitations that Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman faced were reflected in their writings.

Kate Chopin’s Story of Irony In the Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin irony is exemplified in a few ways, such as the care her friends put into telling her the news of her husband’s death, Josephine worried about Mrs. Mallard while locked away in her room, and the “heart attack” Mrs. Mallard suffered. Her friends put care into telling her of her husband’s death because they thought the news would be devastating to her which at first it was but after some time to think she was glad he was gone. Secondly, Josephine was worried about her mother being locked away in her room by herself after hearing the news, but what Josephine did not know was that Mrs. Mallard was “drinking from the very elixir of life.” Lastly, the heart attack she suffered after seeing her husband alive and well wasn’t actually because of the joy of his return rather because the revelation and moment of life she just experienced was