In order to deal with this unhappiness, Mrs. Ramsay reads people as a way to feel close to them. She felt, “for the most part, oddly enough, she must admit that she felt this thing called life terrible, hostile, and quick to pounce on you if you gave it a chance (Woolf 60).” Those are not the life views of a happily married woman, or, in that case, a happy women in general. Mrs. Ramsay is one of the, if not the, loneliest character in To the Lighthouse. She looks towards her connections with her kids and husband as a path to take her away from that lonely feeling. When her kids and husband are happy she is happy.
Edna Pontellier began to deal with emotions that were just too overwhelming for her; she received a letter from Robert stating “I Love You. Good-by—because I love you” (Chopin 625). Losing someone you love and having the feeling of being useless can cause you to do the unthinkable. She may have thought of the children and her husband but “they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul.” (Chopin 627). Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” is a story about a woman who seeks to find her true self-perception, but these decisions cause her to deal with consequences that can change her life in ways she can never imagine.
That is clear when Chopin made the general tone of this short story is ironical as she made the reader expects something and by the end of the story she changes their expectation. That is because readers expect Mr. Mallard to be dead but at the end of the story it is Mrs. Mallard who died instead and this is situational irony. Moreover, the reader expect that Mrs. Mallard is a fragile woman who suffers from "heart trouble" as Chopin portrayed her. “ She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.” There is a paradox here between the two contradictory words that indicate she is not the character we thought she is but a different one , after being released of this marriage that repressed her she feels as a "goddess of victory." With the development of the story Louise starts to change and show her inner feelings and thoughts that reflect Chopin ideology in the story.
The Characters in these stories can be seen as weak and fragile, which comes as a result of their marital problems. In Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” the reader is introduced to the main character only as Mrs. Mallard—as she was of one being synonymous with her husband. We also can deduct the fragility in which others see Louise, as the narrator discusses her affliction, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 25). This demonstrates the nineteenth-century view of the woman of being the weaker partner in a marriage; the other minor characters around Louise expect her fragility. In Faulkner’s story, the protagonist Emily becomes a recluse, stuck in a huge old house that seems out of place due to her Father’s control over her.
In the end, she dies by the nature of story. Chopin brings a style of writing that has irony. In the beginning of the story, Chopin's introduces you to the heart trouble that afflicts Mrs. Mallard. Her condition is significant later because this ailment drives the story. However, the notion of this heart condition can be overlooked as being meaningless.
That point, rather, is inferred through our knowledge of women's suffrage history. This may be because Chopin didn't want to outwardly take that position for fear of exile herself, for fear of going against a social machine that could make her life miserable. Through analyzing Mrs. Mallard one is approaching the theme; the theme lies within Mrs. Mallard's very existence. In the beginning, Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as a fragile woman who would have trouble excepting her husband's death: "She wept at once, with sudden wild abandonment" (SMG 467). She behaves as expected but hints at her state of being are given as you move on: "She was young, with a fair, calm ... ... middle of paper ... ...reby avoiding the entire feminist possibilities behind her theme.
After coming to terms with the news and actually being happy about having her freedom, her husband walks through the door, the shock causes her to drop dead. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” she uses a disturbing scenario to shed light on the way women were trapped in their lives during the turn of the century. In “The Story of an Hour” “The Story of an Hour” is a tragic tale of loss, the loss of a loved one and the loss of freedom which is a key point in this story. Kate Chopin weaves an intricate tale and uses a view point that most people do not when their husband is perceived dead. The thoughts of the freedom that our main character Mrs. Mallard feels as she learns the tragic news is definitely not the emotion that would be expected but for her it truly is release.
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.
Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.”(1), danced through her mind reveals the inherent oppressiveness of all marriages, which by their nature rob people of their independence. While there were other ways for females to have independence, they were often frowned upon. Louise’s weeping about Brently’s death highlight the chasm between sorrow and happiness. Louise cries or thinks about crying for about three-quarters of story, stopping only when she thinks of her new found freedom. Crying is assumingly a part of her life with Brently, but it can be assumed that crying will be absent from her life as an independent woman.
Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!" (Chopin, 2). The actuality that she finds a slight bit of happiness upon the death of a person who particularly is so close to her is completely unraveling w... ... middle of paper ... ... male companion is not only foolish but can destroy a close bond between one another.