Marriage is the Key to a “Happy” Life As you live through the years, people learn about different time periods and the ways that they are different and similar to modern times. A common era that most people know something about is the Victorian Era. It was the time of crazy torture techniques, rib crushing corsets, and specific gender roles. During this era, many individuals did what they did simply because it was how to fit in. Women grew up learning how to be a wife because that is what society told them they had to do to be desirable to a man. Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” reveals many of those stereotypes from the Victorian Era. The three main things that are portrayed as important in the social environment are the …show more content…
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” does not hit on this as hard, but it can be implied that society’s expectations of men played a role in the story. Men were taught to be providers and protectors to their families. Society expected them to be masculine, emotionless, and have some material success to show they were a respectable man. “If they were not married, it depicted that they were not fully masculine because they did not have a family to support” (Victorian Ideals). The article states many things that men were supposed to do to be seen as respectable by not only other men, but by society as a whole. Men needed to have a family and a wife; in order to get a wife, they had to have some financial success to be desirable to women and to gain their respect. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard is depicted as meek and fragile which is what women were supposed to be because men were expected to be the opposite. In one of the college responses to this story a student stated “I do not think this marriage is arranged, instead that she has been coerced by her society to marry despite what she may want to do in her heart and soul” (Student 1). This statement could go both ways, society expected everyone to marry, not just heavily on women. If a man did not marry it showed that he was less respectable and less successful than a man who married. It would make sense …show more content…
Those expectations are shown through the emotions of the main character, Louise, and her rollercoaster of thoughts concerning her husband’s death in the story. Originally, she is upset that he has passed, but as she looks outside and sees how bright and new the spring is she stumbles upon the realization that his death is positive. She is finally free of society’s harsh standards concerning women and them having to be married because widows were not forced to remarry. In the end, Louise dies from a heart condition in a medical and metaphorical sense. She did indeed have a heart condition that was noted in the beginning of the story, but she was also dead with grief that her husband was alive and that her moment of freedom had been snatched from her clutches once
Throughout history, women have had to continuously fight for their rights and equality in society. Women have fought to separate themselves from their controlling husbands, fought to become independently accepted and have fought to create their own destiny. Within their short stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin address this search for freedom and independence. Chopin’s publication of “The Story of an Hour” in 1894 was not far behind Gilman’s publication of “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892. During this time period, women were starting to fight for more social rights and social equality. Both stories analyze the social standards of this time and the oppression of women by men.
For a very long time, men always had a higher status than women. In marriages during the beginning of the 1900s, men were dominant over their wives. They were the providers and the leaders of their families.(Bernstein, 2011) For women, their main goal in life was to get married to a man that could provide for them financially. Women did not attend college or have careers, so having a man asking for their hand in marriage was a need and a privilege. Originally, marriage contracts stated that any property that the woman owned automatically became his once they were married. (Bernstein, 2011) Even though marriage contracts were changed so that women could own their own property and they gained the right to vote in 1920, women were still looked down upon. (Bernstein, 2011) Until the 1980s, rape within marriages was legal because technically it was the wife’s job to have sex with her husband. (Bernstein, 2011) Women literally only seen as something for men to marry so they had someone provide them with children and to take care of them
In society, there has always been a gap between men and women. Women are generally expected to be homebodies, and seen as inferior to their husbands. The man is always correct, as he is more educated, and a woman must respect the man as they provide for the woman’s life. During the Victorian Era, women were very accommodating to fit the “house wife” stereotype. Women were to be a representation of love, purity and family; abandoning this stereotype would be seen as churlish living and a depredation of family status. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henry Isben’s play A Doll's House depict women in the Victorian Era who were very much menial to their husbands. Nora Helmer, the protagonist in A Doll’s House and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” both prove that living in complete inferiority to others is unhealthy as one must live for them self. However, attempts to obtain such desired freedom during the Victorian Era only end in complications.
The same holds true for the women in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These stories delve into the life of two different, but similar nineteenth century women. Through the women 's differing relationships with their husbands and the suppression presented by their husbands, internal conflicts emerge. The two leading females experience repression from their husbands in their daily routines. Throughout her life, Mrs. Louise Mallard, from “The Story of an Hour,” had continually bent her will to that of her husband’s. In the past, she had no choice in what she did, so she found her husband’s death liberating. However, her joy did not last
Women were confronted by many social obligation in the late nineteenth century. Women were living lives that reflected their social rank. They were expected to be economically dependent and legally inferior. No matter what class women were in, men were seen as the ones who go to work and make the money. That way, the women would have to be dependent since they were not able to go to work and make a good salary. No matter what class a woman was in, she could own property in her own name. When a woman became married she " lost control of any property she owned, inherited, or earned" ( Kagan et al. 569). A woman's legal identity was given to her husband.
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
But in reality, a male narrator gives a certain sense of understanding to the male audience and society’s understand of the male and females roles and responsibilities in a marriage. Just as men were expected to cut the grass, take out the trash, pay the bills and maintain the household as a whole, women were expected to cook, clean, nurture the children, and be a loving and submissive wife to their husband. The only stipulation required for this exchange of power was to establish a mutual love. In the Victorian age love was all it took for a man to take or alter a woman’s livelihood and
“Men weren't really the enemy - they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.” (quotegarden) As changes in industry and lifestyle swept the nation in the mid-nineteenth century, questions regarding women’s place in society started to arise. This prompted many women to reevaluate their positions in their own lives. At the time, women were dominantly domestic figures, residing in the house to matronly care for children and tend to household duties not to be bothered with by the husband. It is important to note that men in this century were raised and cultivated to have a certain view of women, so they are not actually malicious as some might view them, they are simply products of their environment. It just so happened that women drew the metaphorical “short stick”. Socially and politically, women were not independent. The only voice they had was through their husbands, and relationships and ideas shared with other women at this time were thought to be nothing more than domestic chatter, not to be taken seriously. The only exception to this widely accepted rule was, of course, a widow. She was not tied to a husband or father, or any male for that matter, so she had more freedom over not only her estate but her personal life as well. This is the situation Louise Mallard finds herself in in Kate Chopin’s short story, The Story of an Hour. Chopin illustrates the woman’s newfound feelings of pure freedom that come with the death of her husband and helps readers to understand the oppression felt by women during this time period using Mrs. Mallard’s view on her marriage and her intense emotions, along with the inner conflict she feels. ...
Stereotypes of the Bennet Sisters Women are supposed to be shy, passive and submissive. Men are expected to be tough, aggressive, dominant and self-confident (Gender Stereotypes). In Pride and Prejudice, a book by Jane Austen, there is a married couple with five daughters and each of those daughters has their own way of showing a different stereotype within themselves. In this paper I’ll be showing that each sister shows a different type of affiliation that is influenced by the way society is set up in the book. In the book, the Bennet sisters are still unmarried and their mother is wanting them to get married as soon as possible.
Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour is a great story that conveys an important message about life and how difficult it can be for women, particularly in previous centuries. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when this story was written, women were quite often mistreated and had to live restricted lives that lacked opportunity. Generally, women weren?t liberated during the 19th century. Traditionally, women did all the hard work in the house and had no opportunities to make their own living or pursue their own personal dreams. Kate Chopin does an outstanding job of portraying a woman living in these times. The Story of an Hour is a good depiction of the unspoken repression that women faced in the past. Kate Chopin's major theme of the repression of women is expressed by use of internal conflict, foreshadowing, symbolism, and dramatic irony.
Marriage can be seen as a subtle form of oppression, like many things which are dictated by social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour, Louise Mallard finds herself in distress due to the event of her husband’s death that makes her question who she is as a person. The author cleverly uses this event to create the right atmosphere for Mrs. Mallard to fight against her own mind. As the short story progresses, we see that Mrs. Mallard moves forward with her new life and finds peace in her decision to live for herself. This shows that marriage too is another chain that holds oneself back. Not wanting to admit this to herself, Louise
The main claim that is being targeted in Kate Chopin's fictional short story ,''The Story of an Hour'', is that women are being repressed at this time, there are several instances throughout the story that allude to women being stuck in limited lives with little to look forward to. The story makes it clear that women were being handled differently from the first sentence, Mrs. Mallard was being told about her husbands death in soft pieces and by another woman, her sister Josephine, showing that women were not seen as strong as male counterparts. The story points out that even though her husband is gone, there is a sense of optimism when it comes to Mrs. Mallards future, ''She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands
In 1894, when Kate Chopin sat down and wrote "The Story of an Hour", woman had a very set place in society. A woman was meant to get married, and take care of their husband and children. For a woman like Chopin to put words on paper showing that a woman can realize her self-worth without a man by her side was a rarity. The short story has become persuasive propaganda for female equity (Women and Language). Chopin shows how a married woman reacts to losing her husband through an unexpected accident and feeling abandoned, realizing that she can still go on without him because she has self-worth and does not need her husband to be happy. The women of the past faced a completely different set of challenges than those of today. The unity of marriage did not always have a happy outcome for women. The act of putting on a wedding band and saying "I do" could have been considered a life sentence of settling for less than what was truly desired. The realization that freedom from an emotionless marriage is finally within reach and then it being suddenly yanked away would cause anyone to hurt, especially someone with a heart condition.
Marriage back in the 19th century was mainly for financial reasons. Love is the last thing even thought about before getting married. This is because women were dependent on a husband to provide for them since they could not go out and get themselves a job. One prime example of this is through Charlotte and when the narrator states, “Marriage had always been her object; it was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune.” (Austen 149). Charlotte is not innately wealthy, so she needs a husband. Furthermore, this proves how one sided gender is, and how it leans more towards the benefits of men. If Charlotte were a man she would not need to worry about getting married. The man she marries is, naturally, a wealthy man with no particular reason to marry other than the fact that it is the normal thing for him to do. The narrator emphasizes this by saying, “Mr. Collins to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband.” (149). Contrarily to women, men had no real purpose in getting married. This made married women almost lucky. The only way a women could get married is if...
Over the centuries, women’s duties or roles in the home and in the work force have arguably changed for the better. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen teaches the reader about reputation and loves in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries by showing how Elizabeth shows up in a muddy dress, declines a marriage proposal and how women have changed over time. Anything a woman does is reflected on her future and how other people look at her. When Elizabeth shows up to the Bingley’s in a muddy dress they categorize her as being low class and unfashionable. Charles Bingley, a rich attractive man, and his sister had a reputation to protect by not letting their brother marry a ‘low class girl’. Reputation even today and back in the nineteenth century is still very important aspect in culture. In the twenty-first century, women have attempted to make their lives easier by wanting to be more equal with the men in their society. Women are wanting to be the apart of the ‘bread winnings’ efforts within a family. Since evolving from the culture of the nineteenth century, women have lost a lot of family and home making traditions but women have gained equality with more rights such as voting, working, and overall equal rights. In the twenty-first century world, most women are seen for losing their morals for and manners for others. As for example in the novel when Mr. Darcy is talking badly about Elizabeth she over hears what he and his friend, Mr. Bingley, are saying about her but she does not stand up for herself.