There are many things that many people experience in life which leads them into one direction or another. Many people discover who they really are or what their purpose in life is simply by living their lives through tragedy, triumph, or just simply learning life’s lessons. In this essay, I will discuss how American writer, Kate Chopin found her destiny in becoming a feminist writer based on her life’s experiences.
Catherine (Kate) Chopin was born on February 8, 1850 in Saint Louis, Missouri. She was the second child of Thomas O’Flaherty and Eliza Faris. She was the only child who lived past age 25 out of 5 children. Her father was killed in a railroad accident in 1855 leaving her to be nurtured by only women in whom she learned from and looked up to which included her mother, grandmother, sisters, nuns from school and her friend, Kitty Garasche’. Kate faced many tragedies in her life which involved the death of not only her father, but the death of her brother, grandmother, husband, and mother. Kate was a very outgoing person. She loved music and dance, laughter and intellectual talk in which she really enjoyed and was very expressive and direct. This is what led her obstetrician, Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer to encourage her to write. This is when her journey as a writer begin.
I chose to focus my essay on one of Ms. Chopin’s short stories, “The Story of an Hour”. This story is about a dramatic life changing event that involves a married couple and the nature of their marriage which many people can relate to in a sense. The mood of this story is moving but also expresses liberty of one’s life. Mrs. Mallard is used as a persona in the story and also the main character of the story. She faces a very tragic experience when her h...
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...e you can share it with someone else. I feel that Mr. Mallard may have never found happiness within himself so therefore, Mrs. Mallard was unhappy. Mrs. Mallard allowed her husband to come before herself and allowed herself to be caught up in a loveless marriage. Although she did not have the courage to leave on her own, she did find a way out. But only if she would not have waited so long, she would have been able to have the freedom and peace that she longed for. Instead, she died. The story begins with tragedy and also ended with tragedy but as for Mrs. Mallard, she found happiness in her last moment.
References
Kate Chopin Biography.” Kate Chopin: The Awakening, The Storm, Stories, Biography. Aug. 2011. Web. 08 Aug. 2011. .
Clugston, R.W. (2010). Journey into literature. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu
Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1851, into a wealthy Catholic family in St. Louis Missouri. As a little girl, her father died a few years later in 1855 and was raised at home with her other sisters and mother, strong willed and prominent women who believed in self sufficiency. Soon, on June 9, 1870, Chopin married a man named Oscar. She graduated from St. Louis convent school. In the meanwhile, Kate was soon busy by the occupations of a being a mother and wife to the prestigious business man, Oscar whom she married. Throughout this escapade of life, Kate was forced to relocate often due to her husband’s change of business. Although, it was difficult to build upon these circumstances, Kate managed a small farm and plantation farm to keep things running. Even through these circumstances, Kate pulled through only to discover that all these locals would soon be her inspirations and se...
Wyatt, Neal "Biography of Kate Chopin" English 384: Women Writers. Ed. Ann M. Woodlief Copyright: 1998, Virginia Commonwealth University. (26 Jan. 1999) http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/katebio.htm
Kate Chopin was born February 8, 1850 in St. Louis. She was raised by a single woman; this impacted her views in the family at an early age. She began her own family at a young age; Kate had a different method compare too many women in her time. As time progressed, she developed a bad habit of dressing inappropriately. Soon she started to publish stories about the experiences and stories of her interests such as women’s individuality and miserable
She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on February 8, 1850 (KateChopin.org, n.d.). Her name Catherine O’Flaherty and she was the second child. She was both bilingual and bicultural. “ From 1855 to 1868 Kate attended the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, with one year at the Academy of the Visitation” (KateChopin.org, n.d.). Her father then died when she was only five years old. In 1855, he was killed in a railroad accident. Stated by Amber, “Her great grandmother, Madame Charlesville, took a special interest in Kate and taught her French and how to play the piano. She also taught her about the lives of the women, about how ‘women are torn between duty and desire’ (Toth 13). She also taught Kate ‘not to judge people rashly, but to face truths fearlessly’ (Toth 14). The greatest lesson she taught Kate was that a women had to be independent (Toth15).” In 1863 her great grandmother died when Kate was just 12 years old. Soon after that her half-brother died of Typhoid Fever. Kate married Oscar in 1870. ““I am going to be married,” Kate confided in her commonplace book, “married to the right man. It does not seem strange as I had thought it would–I feel perfectly calm, perfectly collected. And how surprised everyone was, for I had kept it so secret!” (KateChopin.org, n.d.).
Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" proves to be a timeless short story. Although this story was written in the nineteenth century, it is still reflective and relevant of today's society. It is still popular in many high schools and college classrooms. A critical examination of this piece of literature can be done using character analysis. This is an important tool in analyzing the meanings "between the lines" in this story. Mrs. Mallard is the main character and therefore plays the most important role in the story. This makes it necessary to examine her character in order to gain insights into the story's meaning. Several key elements relating to her personality surface in the story. These elements give insights into her feelings and her thoughts. The character analysis shows Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as insensitive, selfish and a wishful thinker.
Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis in 1851. Her mother Eliza O’Flaherty and father Thomas O’Flaherty were Slave-owning Catholics. (Wilson, Kathleen. The Story of an Hour. Ssfs. 2. Detroit, Michigan: Gale, 1997. 263. Print.) (Wilson 263) At the age of four she had lost her father in a train wreck. She was raised by her French-Creole mother and Great-Grandma. She had begun school at the age of five at Academy of Sacred Heart. After her father died she was taught at home. Later she returned to school and graduated at the age of 17. She got married at the age of twenty years to Oscar Chopin, twenty-five years old and a son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. He was also a French catholic like Kate. Chopin went as...
Like in many tragically true stories, it would seem Mrs. Mallard 's freedom came too late. Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour” begins by introducing Mrs. Mallard as a person afflicted with heart trouble. The story builds on this by having Mrs. Mallard’s sister Josephine and her husband Richard explain the situation in a very sensitive manner. Their efforts would prove to be in vain however as Mrs. Mallard then proceeds to emotionally break down. The news shocks Mrs. Mallard to her very core and has her at odds with how she should feel now that all was said and done. After coming to terms with her situation, fate delivers its final blow in a cruel and deceitful ploy towards Mrs. Mallards. And with that, Mrs. Mallard 's dies. In her hour of change Mrs. Mallard 's was delicate, thoughtful and excitable.
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.
Davis, Sara de Saussure. "Kate Chopin." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 12 pp. 59-71. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Central Lib. Fort Worth, TX. 11 Feb. 2003
Kate Chopin is an American writer of the late nineteenth century. She is known for her depictions of southern culture and of women's struggles for freedom. At this time in American history, women did not have a voice of their own and according to custom, they were to obey their father and husband. Generally, many women agreed to accept this customary way of life. Kate Chopin thought quite differently. The boldness Kate Chopin takes in portraying women in the late nineteenth century can be seen throughout The Awakening and other short stories. The following is an overview of her dramatic writing style.
Chopin, Kate. "The Storm" .The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Louisiana State University Press. 1969. Print.
Kate Chopin was born Kate O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850 to secure and socially prominent parent, Eliza O'Flaherty, of French-Creole descent, and Thomas O'Flaherty, an Irish immigrant and successful commission merchant. Kate attended the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart from 1855 until she graduated on 1868. In 1855, her father was died in a railroad accident. She lived at home with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, all of them were widows. Her great-grandmother, Victoria Verdon oversaw her education and taught her French, music, and the gossip on St. Louis women of the past. Kate O'Flaherty grew up surrounded by smart, independent, single women. Victoria's own mother had been the first woman in St. Louis to obtain legal separation from her husband. She was influenced by her upbringing among these women. This showed up later in her fiction. For example, in her first short story “Wiser than a god” she characterized a strong and independent woman. This woman had an exceptional musical talent. She preferre...
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”
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.