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Kate chopin biography and the effect of it on her writing
Kate chopin biography and the effect of it on her writing
Kate chopin biography and the effect of it on her writing
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“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time. Through their imagination, a person can only achieve independence …show more content…
Not attempting to hide, Mrs. Mallard knows that she will weep at her husbands funeral, however she can’t help this sudden feeling of seeing, “beyond [the] bitter moment [of] procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin, 16). In an unloving marriage of this time, women were trapped in their roles until they were freed by the death of their husbands. Although Mrs. Mallard claims that her husband was kind and loving, she can’t help the sudden spark of joy of her new freedom. This is her view on the release of her oppression from her roles of being a dutiful wife to her husband. Altogether, Mrs. Mallard claims that, “there would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (Chopin, 16). This is the most important of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, as she never officially states a specific way when her husband oppressed her. However, the audience can clearly suggest that this is a hint towards marriage in general that it suffocates both men and women. Marriage is an equal partnership in which compromise and communication become the dominant ideals to make the marriage better. It is suggested that Mrs. Mallard also oppressed her husband just as much as he did to her when she sinks into the armchair and is, “pressed down by a physical exhaustion …show more content…
Mallard through the acts of forbidden joy and the oppression of marriages contributes to the understanding of the work and the time that it was written. The story opens with the reader knowing that Mrs. Mallard was, “afflicted with heart trouble” (Chopin, 15), suggesting a more symbolic notion that she is ambivalent towards her marriage and expresses her unhappiness towards he lack of freedom. Mrs. Mallard ultimately throughout the story questions the meaning of love and rejects it as meaningless. It is arguable to say that Chopin was influenced by women’s roles and other writings at the time, which contributed to her understanding of the meaning of love and courtship. This understanding could be said that it was altered and became more dejected. When Mrs. Mallard dies in the end of the story, it is ironic that she was to die of “heart disease.” This particular death proves that Chopin’s claims of the loss of joy and the return to oppression would kill a woman in this time since independence was a right to be given through the death of their husbands. Another symbolic figure that Chopin uses is the use of the open window, which Mrs. Mallard sees, “blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” (Chopin, 15). The window is Mrs. Mallard’s salvation, ultimately concluding that Chopin doesn’t see any other way for women to be free of their prison during this time. This window acts as a barrier between life and death itself. Once Mrs. Mallard turns away
It is difficult to comprehend in today’s world what marriage actually meant to the women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One might want to believe in the fairytales of passion and deep abiding love that appear so often in paperback romance novels, but in her short stories, “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour”, author Kate Chopin offers two much more realistic tales of married life. With these stories, Chopin reveals the truth: marriage was no better than slavery or indentured servitude for women.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assign gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolves around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom of women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dream and impose their will on their wives (149).
Much of what Howard has to say about Chopin’s protagonists is appropriate. Her criticism operates from the standpoint that “marriage, said Chopin’s world, was the goal of every woman’s life; service to her husband and her children her duties, passionlessness and submission her assumed virtues, selflessness her daily practice, and self sacrifice her pleasure” (1). Mrs. Mallard definitely lives in a world where these gender values abound. Chopin, for example, describes Mrs. Mallard’s face as one “ whose lines bespoke repression” (439). This is obviously a direct reference to the submission Mrs. Mallard has had to yield up to the patriarchy thus far. She has always had a “powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (440). Her husband’s will is describ...
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, it talks about marriage and a woman’s life in the 1800’s. This story illustrates the stifling nature of a woman’s role during this time through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death. When Mrs. Mallard obtains news that her husband is dead, she is hurt after a brief moment and then she is delighted with the thought of freedom. This story shows how life was in the mid 1800’s and how women were treated around that time.
In Kate Chopin’s unraveling story The Story of an Hour, shows Mr. Mallard’s marriage behind closed doors and in the public. Mrs. Mallard has just found out that her husband has passed away in an accident, and her sister fears that it’s something that she will not be able to handle with her failing heart. After she finds out she find out from her sister, Josephine, Mrs. Mallard weeps a little but behind closed doors she ponders the idea. She comes up with the idea that she can be free and happy again. Mrs. Mallard get excited about the fact that she can now live her life as her own, but then something shocking happens. Her husband walks through the door, and she is beyond shocked, so shocked that her heart actually gives out. The doctor said it was “… of the joy that kills” (Chopin 58). In this story Chopin exhibits symbolism, the spring that represents her new life and her new found happiness, the armchair represents a place of rest and letting go of her old life, and the heart trouble that represents her the emotions of her marriage and the freedom being ripped away when Mr. Mallard returns, to show how Mrs. Mallard had been oppressed and unhappy in her marriage
Chopin shows that some social pressures and responsibilities can in fact hold one back from their own potential as was Mrs. Mallard. Marriage was introduced as one of these social expectations, and Mrs. Mallard’s internal conflict shows the reader that sometimes it is hard to question these normalities. By creating such an internal visual of Mrs. Mallard, Chopin provides a tale of the true importance of seeing past socialistic deception, and choosing to find happiness beyond
Chopin reflects her rejection of the “postures of femininity” through her character’s descriptions. She describes her as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression.” Describing her as young and calm are what men looked for in a wife in the 19th century. They wanted a submissive woman to tend to their needs as Chopin’s description suggests. Furthermore, Chopin says of her character Mrs. Mallard, “she would live for herself.” Her character believes she will now be free of her marriage, and won’t be “repressed” as aforementioned any longer by her husband. Wives had a natural servitude towards their husbands as husbands worked and went about their lives. All in all, Chopin displays her character as having a joyous moment after the death of her husband because she is let go of being forced into her “femininity.”
In “The Story of An Hour” by Chopin, she illustrates the role of woman in marriage and in the society during her time. It demonstrates the issue of male dominance. There are some similarities and differences in the role of women in marriage and in the community in the 1940’s compared to the way women are treated today. And these are seen in the rights of women and in the responsibilities of family and marriage. We read “A Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin.
“The Story of the Hour” by Kate Chopin portrays an opposing perspective of marriage by presenting the reader with a woman who is somewhat untroubled by her husbands death. The main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard encounters the sense of freedom rather than sorrow after she got knowledge of her husbands death. After she learns that her husband, Brently, is still alive, it caused her to have a heart attack and die. Even though “The Story of the Hour” was published in the eighteen hundreds, the views of marriage in the story could coincide with this era as well.
...Mallard’s death up to the reader’s own interpretation, but it seems that she is trying to secretly prove that women do not have to be dependent upon men. Chopin demonstrates throughout the literary work that women can possess joy without having a man by their side, which contradicts the beliefs of the 1800’s society. Chopin’s use of an ambiguous death and irony successfully create an entertaining story that courageously takes a stand for women’s freedom.
In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the main character of the story, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is oppressed by her husband. Chopin’s works focus mainly on feminism, the relationships between classes, and the relationships between men and women, specifically between husband and wife in “The Story of an Hour” (“The Story of an Hour” 264). Mrs. Louise Mallard lives under her husband for her whole marriage. Mrs. Mallard gets news through her two best friends that Mr. Mallard was in a railroad accident and did not survive. Mrs. Mallard was hit with waves of guilt, agony, sorrow, fear, and grief. Mr. Mallard later comes back home, as he was mistakenly not involved in the accident. Throughout “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin demonstrates how the repression
... This woman suffers a tremendous amount from the commitment of her marriage, and the death of her husband does not affect her for long. A marriage such as this seems so unbelievable, yet a reader can see the realistic elements incorporated into the story. This begs the question of how undesirable marriage was during Chopin’s life. The unhappiness felt by Mrs. Mallard seems to be very extreme, but Chopin creates a beautiful story that reflects upon the idea of marriage as an undesired relationship and bond to some women in the nineteenth century.
In Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" the author portrays patriarchal oppression in the institution of marriage by telling the story of one fateful hour in the life of a married woman. Analyzing the work through feminist criticism, one can see the implications of masculine discourse.
Kate Chopin, author of “The Story of an Hour” written in 1894 was the first author who emphasized strongly on femininity in her work. In the short story, Chopin writes about freedom and confinement Chopin is an atypical author who confronts feminist matter years before it was assumed. The time period that she wrote in women were advertised as a man’s property. The main idea in the short story is to illustrate that marriage confines women. In “The Story of an Hour” the author creates an intricate argument about freedom and confinement Mrs. Louise Mallard longing for freedom, but has been confined for so long freedom seems terrible. Mrs. Mallard wife of Brently Mallard instantly feels free when her husband dies. The reason she feels this way
My belief on marriage is a sacred vow taken by two people which joins them in union. Most people carry the belief that marriage should occur only when two people are in love; although this belief is common it is not always the case and people marry for a variety of reasons. In the short story "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin suggests that in the case of Mrs. Mallard and Mr. Mallard, love was not a deciding factor for their reason to get married. Though the response of three readers, one being myself, we will explore the character of Mrs. Mallard and the idea of love in her marriage. Kate Chopin has given little detail about the Mallards and therefore left much to the imagination of the reader. Although there are similarities in details between readers such as: point of view, setting, and character, each reader brings new perspective and ideas. This type of analysis of the text allows a richer and more knowledgeable outlook; not only by enhancing ones own ideas by introducing new ones.