In the late 1800s and early 1900s, gender roles were very specific. It was a male dominant society and women were considered subordinate; therefore, it was difficult for women to break free from their existing roles. Also in this time frame, classism, or discrimination based on class, existed. Louise Mallard, the protagonist in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” and Emily Grierson, the protagonist in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” are both characters living in the post-Civil War era, struggling to free themselves from the constraints society has placed upon them. Louise Mallard and Emily Grierson both lack the freedom to control their own lives because of societal reasons. In “The Story of an Hour” and “A Rose for Emily,” Kate Chopin and William Faulkner show us that their characters, Louise Mallard and Emily Grierson, both have an experience of loss that makes them understand their oppression.
Kate Chopin creates Louise Mallard as a character in the nineteenth century who experiences conflicting emotions regarding to her marriage. In her writing, Chopin does not mention anything bad about Louise’s husband, Brently Mallard. In fact, the text suggests that Brently is a good husband to Louise and their relationship is not a problem. This is why when Mrs. Mallard receives the news that her husband is on the list of people who were killed in a train crash, she grieves. She isolates herself in her room, stares out an open window, and then involuntarily begins to feel emotions other than sadness and devastation. Feelings of joy and freedom consume her and she becomes internally conflicted. Chopin does much in the text to show that Louise is not a horrible and egotistic person for feeling happiness at the death of her husban...
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... Emily, to learn and understand the actuality of their oppression.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature.
Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th Ed. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 15-16. Print.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature.
Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th Ed. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 84-90. Print.
Jamil, S. Selina. "Emotions in The Story of an Hour." The Explicator 67.3 (2009): 215+.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
West, Ray B., Jr. "Atmosphere and Theme in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'." William
Faulkner: Four Decades of Criticism. Ed. Linda Welshimer Wagner. Michigan State University Press, 1973. 192-198. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
6. West, Ray B., Jr. "Atmosphere and Theme in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'." William Faulkner: Four Decades of Criticism. Ed. Linda Welshimer Wagner. Michigan State University Press, 1973. 192-198. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 July 2011.
Chopin, Kate. ?The Story of an Hour.? Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. 2nd ed. Ed. John Schlib and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin?s, 2003. 862-63.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Carl E. Bain, Jerome Beaty, and J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1991: 69-76.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose For Emily.” An Introduction to Fiction. 10th ed. Eds: X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New Yorkk: Pearson Longman, 2007. 29-34.
“The Story of an hour” a complex piece of literature by Kate Chopin, has various interpretations to it. This story has, one definite interpretation, which is the following: life has to go on no matter what is happened in the past. In this story, Chopin implies Ms. Mallard’s husband has been very cruel to her in her lifetime. However, she never lets her husband get in the way, finally he dies, and, she thinks she is free although she really is not.
Faulkner, William “A Rose for Emily”. Schilb, John and John Clifford “Making Literature Matters: An Anthropology for Readers and Writers”, Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 667-675
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. DiYanni Robert. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986. 38-41. Print.
Mrs. Mallard is the example of a typical housewife of the mid 1800’s. At the time, most women were not allowed to go to school and were usually anticipated to marry and do housework. During that time, the only way women could get out of a marriage was if they were to die or their husbands was to die. In that time period, the husband had control of all of the money, so it would not be wise if the wife were to leave the financial freedom that was provided by the husband. This is most likely why Mrs. Mallard never leaves her husband’s death, she is sad at first but then experiences an overwhelming sense of joy. This shows that she is not in a fulfilling marriage as his death means she will finally have own individual freedom, as well as financial freedom being the grieving widow who will inherit her husband’s wealth. In the words of Lawrence I. Berkove he states, “On the other hand, Chopin did not regard marriage as a state of pure and unbroken bliss, but on the other, she could not intelligently believe that it was desirable, healthy, or even possible for anyone to live as Louise, in the grip of her feverish delusion, wishes: to be absolutely free and to live totally and solely for oneself.” (3) Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death is Chopin’s way of expressin...
Can you hear the voices? In a story there is always more that just one voice to be heard. Can you hear them? It is only necessary to look closely and read the text, then you can hear them. In Kate Chopin’s story, “Story of an Hour,” there are four distinct voices that can be heard. You are able to hear the narrator, author, character, and yourself as you read.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose For Emily." The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 91-99. Print.
" The Story of an Hour " by Kate Chopin is about a young woman with a serious heart condition that finds out her husband is killed. She reacts very different to the news then a wife would react to their husband's death. She loves her husband but is not happy with her life. After the tragic news, she envisions her life as being fuller. She sees the severity of her heart condition, but prays that she will now live longer. This story is more about her realization of her existence and her beginning to cope with her dieing rather than being completely about her husband dieing.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Compact 4th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers, 2000. 81 - 88.
Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. Kate Chopin was a Victorian writer whose writing manifests her life experiences. She was not happy with the principles of the time, because women had fewer rights, and they were not considered equal to men. Afraid of segregation from society, people lived in a hypocritical world full of lies; moreover, Kate Chopin was not afraid of segregation, and used her writing as a weapon against oppression of the soul.
The descriptions in the story foreshadow the tragedy that ends the story. The author believed unexpected things happen often. In the case of this story, Louise Mallard believed her husband to be dead, having been told this by her sister, Josephine. However, when it is revealed that her husband had been alive the whole time, she is unhappy to see him and suffers a fatal heart attack. While she did have heart trouble, Richards and Josephine thought that the news of her husband’s death, not her seeing him again would be detrimental to her health, possibly even fatal. Chopin succeeded in getting this message across.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 3rd ed. New York: Pearson, 2010. 261-263. Print.