In both The Story of an Hour and Hills Like White Elephants, the authors Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway describe women and the desire to express themselves and be free and how men influence their decision making. Women strive for a sense of freedom and independence and have the yearning to convey themselves freely. In Kate Chopin’s and Ernest Hemmingway’s stories, the authors suggest the two female main characters in their stories feel suppressed for liberty. Louise Mallard in The Story of an Hour is sick and very lonely. She is
Social, intellectual, and economic restrictions of the late nineteenth century left women without sovereignty. Women typically suffered under the rule of fathers and brothers before marriage and in subservience to their husbands after marriage. Women had few property rights, no voting rights, and no educational rights. Women essentially remained children throughout their lives. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” center around two such women.
Comparative Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God The beginning of the twentieth century in the United States was a difficult time full of oppression for most women, They're Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston along with Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, and Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper all highlight female individualism and liberation from male oppression.
Society explicitly molds a façade of conformity which aids in the direct manipulation and social castration of the individual, those with free spirits defiantly choosing not to fall victim to societal convention. Consequently, history is tainted with the continuous oppression of particular groups, a prominent one being women. The role of women in society has been purposefully dictated in order to maintain this false sense of societal uniformity. Furthermore, women have been subjugated to submissive roles in which any deviation from these predetermined standards labels an individual as an outlier. Specifically, in Kate Chopin’s
Women had always been abased in the history of the United States. The mindset of its society held was projected in a manner that coerces a female to internalize her train of thought. With the adulation of men, the women become puppets of their surroundings. They are expected to live a militaristic life in which they submit to every command addressed to them. Harsh and brutal as it may be, they are to adhere to every order directed to them.
In Kate Chopin 's novel The Awakening and the short story “The Story of An Hour” feminist beliefs overshadow the value in moral and societal expectations during the turn of the century. Due to Louise Mallard and Edna Pontellier Victorian life style they both see separating from their husband as the beginning of their freedom. Being free from that culture allows them to invest in their personal interest instead of being limited to what 's expected of them. Chopin 's sacrifices her own dignity for the ideal of society’s expectations. Chopin 's sad, mysterious tone seems to support how in their era, there was a significant lack of women 's rights and freedom of expression.
Women have suffered oppression since the dawn of time, and still suffer oppression to date in various regions of the world. In “The Story of an Hour,” the main character suffers the typical oppression for women of that era by needing men to take care of her because she was ill. She is so oppressed that when she hears that her husband has died, she celebrates her new freedom rather than mourn his death. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, has a similar situation of oppression, as the main character is confined to her bed due to an illness that is classified as ‘nervousness’ (pg. 3). While Alina in “The Pram” is not oppressed due to her illness, she is seen as lower than the average person due to her job and the woman in charge of her oppresses her in a masculine way by expressing dominance over Alina (pg. 159).
From the very beginning of time, society has never properly treated both genders as equals. It has been noted and observed that men have always been inherently gifted in being both powerful and dominant. As opposed to the women who are in possession of no such traits except to always be submissive and dutiful. In relations to gender inequality, oppression is a mechanism used by the men to assert total supremacy and jurisdiction over their inferiors in hopes of stunting these woman of reaching their fullest potential and it is only the most powerful women who exudes confidence and euphoria in hopes of establishing fairness. Margaret Atwood was one such author to terminate these outdated imposed treatments.
During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.
In the narrator’s society – one that is focused largely on the strength and capability of men – women are seen as inferior, hopeless even; the protagonist of this story, a nameless girl, faces a tremendous amount of adversity throughout her entire life as she struggles against the inherent limitations that her world has placed on her. The protagonist's father who works as a fox farmer has created a patriarchal male dominated world for the foxes and, much like the daughter, they were entrapped in an area with limited freedom. Men are praised for their work by being presented with ``heroic`` calendars to hang on each side of the kitchen door; society chose for women to inhabit the kitchen however males are also proving to be dominant in the
After reading “The Story of an Hour”, “Desiree’s Baby” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin, I believe the woman who achieved the most autonomy was Mrs. Sommers. Autonomy is defined as a self-governing community free from an external control or influence (Dictionary.com). In regards to the autonomy of an individual, autonomy is independence or freedom, as of the will or one 's actions (Dictionary.com). In these stories, I believe Choin allowed only one woman to experience true autonomy and that was Mrs. Sommers. Mrs. Sommers was the only woman who actually got to spend time thinking of herself and spending money on whatever she wanted.
In "A Respectable Woman," Kate Chopin digs in to examine the psychology of Mrs. Baroda, a rich woman with a loving husband who encounters temptation in the person of Gouvernail, a well-mannered, humble visitor to the Baroda’s plantation. Mrs. Baroda is tempted early in the story with the view of a change from a noiseless, more conventional life, Mrs. Baroda does not immediately identifies what she really wants and finally struggles with the self-inflicted restrictions of her personality as "a respectable woman." Nonetheless, just as the narrative suggests that she has found the power to overcome her emotions, Mrs. Baroda spoke to her husband and proposes a sweetly unclear statement that revives the question of her intention to act upon her emotions. She tells him, "I have overcome everything!
Many people continue to believe that a woman’s role in the world is to perform her womanly duties such as the cooking, cleaning, having and raising children, and attending to their husband’s sexual desires. Many believe that a women’s place in society absolutely does not hold real higher power or presence in the world. Although many are stubborn to stereotype women in this way to see them as the weaker sex. In the pieces studied in both fiction and non-fiction literature the women in the works have shown much admiration. These unforgettable stories have shown how powerful women can truly be overcoming their hardships they’ve encountered through their lives on their own.
Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1850,St. Louis, MO. Kate Chopin is famously known for writing “The Story of an Hour”. Her story has a lot of meaning to it, If you read it carefully. Her story is on pointed out to be on the feminist side of things, because of what happens throughout the story.
Feminism is equality between women and men. “Women traditionally had been regarded as inferior to men physically and intellectually.” (Feminism 1) In “The Story of an Hour”, KAte Chopin illustrates the concepts of feminism in the nineteenth century, some of which still exist in modern society. Women in the nineteenth century were really not in control to anything.
