Four Styles Of Criticism In Kate Chopin's Short Story

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There are several ways to interpret and analyze this short story and each of the four styles of criticism discussed can be covered quite easily. Strong feminist themes appear throughout the story but the other themes of mortality and yearning for freedom and the need for a sense of self play their part toward examining the formalist aspect. This story-like any good tragedy-is bitter sweet and can bring a character to the greatest heights before fate takes it away and bring that person down to the lowest point. Chopin’s life and the culture around her had a definite influence on her writing and the way the narrative of this story was structured, using the naturalist format and limited perspective to portray what would be the last hour of a young, frail woman’s …show more content…

Otherwise, it all takes place inside two room in a large house. Rather than deter from the story, the choice to do so gives it the claustrophobic feel it needs. Chopin uses a sparse structure in writing this story. Each paragraph is short with some of them-even the beginning-only being one sentence long. It creates a fast, restrictive pace that focuses only on this event to give an almost sense of real time as the whole plot takes place in such a short time span. Using a narrative style called naturalism, she focuses on the realistic aspects of married life and adds touches of nature in her prose as symbols when describing the physical state of Louise, the main character and narrator (“the delicious breath of rain was in the air” (Chopin 352)). This is most important when it comes to her emotional state as naturalistic characters are “often be interpreted therefore as symbols of human frailty” (Emmert). This is evident in her heart condition, which plays an important factor to the

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