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how is CHOPIN's story of an hour taken metaphorically?
Literal analysis of the story of an hour by cate chopin
symbolism in story of an hour by kate chopin
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The Story of an Hour
Kate Chopin's ideas of feminism were seen in this story through Louise Mallard's reaction after the death of her husband. I will prove that the repression Louise Mallard felt was so intense she would rather die than spend another day in servitude. Also I will cite an example of how the author's feelings of repression were seen through Louise Mallard.
After Louise Mallard received the news of her husbands death from her sister and husband's friend, Richards, a new beginning was about to be embarked upon. She was upset about the news she took herself to her room where she demanded privacy. As Chopin pointed out "She would have no one follow." (138) It was at that moment she sat down to look outside her window and "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life." Symbolizing what could be the beginning of personal manumission. As Louise sat there feeling a range of emotions as she looked ahead to what could be a life to live for herself.
This story takes place in the 19th century also known as the Victorian Era. At this time women were to wait on and obey there husbands, take care of the house and rearing of the children. Women were in marriage that were arranged and love wasn't necessarily the driving factor in a marriage. As when Louise questioned the love she felt or didn't feel for her husband the author stated clearly "And yet she had loved him -sometimes. Often she had not." (139) Women were allowed to have no secret thoughts and were placed in ."...very repressive situations." (Milne 1) Also the author makes reference to the hands of Louise Mallard as ."..- powerless as her two white slender hands would have been." ...
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...women. She was a woman who I believe would have appreciated all of the freedoms as women we take for granted.
Works Citied
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers.Bedford/St Martins, 2004
Katherine Chopin. Contemporary Authors.1-16 Author Resource Page. Literature
Resource Center. Gateway Community College, New Haven, Ct.02/17/05 http://www.eid.gwcc.commnet.edu:5020/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=&OP=contains&locID=240
Milne, Andrea. The Rise of Feminism in the 1800's: A Precursor for Greater Protest. Http://project1.caryacademy.org/north12/ *
Seyersted, Per. The Complete works of Kate Chopin.Louisiana State University Press, 1998
Mallard felt restricted in her marriage and displays the need for independence. Symbolism is used to exemplify the transformation from Mrs. Mallard’s unconscious, numb existence to Louise’s new founded freedom. Chopin uses the seasons to symbolize the new life taking place within Louise. This new world appears before her through the world displayed through her bedroom window. The reader views her as motionless with her dull stare transformed into a gaze focus off yonder, symbolizing her future. The unknown feeling of freedom grew closer to Louise. Mrs. Mallard gains this “possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being.” This alludes to Mrs. Mallard’s desire for independence.
I have read Kathryn Kish Sklar book, brief History with documents of "Women's Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870" with great interest and I have learned a lot. I share her fascination with the contours of nineteenth century women's rights movements, and their search for meaningful lessons we can draw from the past about American political culture today. I find their categories of so compelling, that when reading them, I frequently lost focus about women's rights movements history and became absorbed in their accounts of civic life.
Cott, Nancy F.. 1975. “Young Women in the Second Great Awakening in New England”. Feminist Studies 3 (1/2). Feminist Studies, Inc.: 15–29. doi:10.2307/3518952.
The writings of Kate Chopin are a reflection of her upbringing and view of the world around her. Her experiences living in the South served as both a setting and character in her work. She used her writings to explore the position of women in society with emphasis of the effect of the institution of marriage. She wrote about female sexual identity and desire. Some of her stories were considered scandalous for the time period since they covered topics and subjects that were considered socially unacceptable. This paper will examine how these themes are used throughout Chopin’s short stories.
In 1940’s, women did not have a lot of rights. They were denied in the politics and still had not allowed to vote. Chopin illustrated “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart troub...
Bryfonski, Dedria, ed. Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.
Berkove claims that Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is about “heroine”, Louise Mallard, who’s not a hero. The view of her as a heroine is based on the interpretation of feminist. He argues there is no evidence to support the fact that Mrs. Mallard is repressed, nor that she had to sacrifice anything for her husband. Berkove analyzes the quote of Mrs. Mallard’s freedom and noted that when it came to love, Mrs. Mallard did not a significant amount of love towards her husband, but instead loved herself more. The wild abandonment that she experienced when realizing that she is “free” and will live “absolutely” for herself were indications that she is losing her mind because
Chopin sets the story in the springtime to represent a time of new life and rebirth, which mirrors Louise's discovery of her freedom. Louise immediately takes herself to a room where, "facing the window [sat] a comfortable, roomy armchair" (Chopin 470). The news of her husband's death leaves her feeling lost and confused, seeking answers about her future. In her husband's lifetime, she was "pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach to her soul," but once left alone to gaze out of the open window and to observe the "patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds," she recognizes freedom for the first time (Chopin 470). Initially, she fails to fully comprehend the mysterious yet promising beginning to her new life, but soon welcomes it as, "she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window" (Chopin 471). Getting a glimpse of her life with an absolute and fresh freedom gives her the strength to abandon a life of solitude and to "spread her arms out [. . .] in welcome" (Chopin 471). Just as springtime is a fresh beginning to a new year, Louise's discovery of sovereignty is a hopeful promise to a new life.
Mrs. Louise Mallard has a "weak" heart. In Louise 's case, a reader also can see the disenfranchised woman who was not able to guide her own life due to the social constraints of a male-dominated society. Louise 's reaction to her husband 's death was shocking even to herself. As she is told the news, Louise goes to her room to be alone. The fact that "she would have no one follow her" could possible symbolize the beginning of her acceptance and understanding that "she would live for herself." She wanted to be alone in order to allow her emotions to react freely to the news of her husband 's death. This clearly shows that the protagonist can’t allow herself to show her emotions in public. She’s scared of being
There are those that argue that Kate Chopin’s literary works helped launch the “modern feminist literary movement.” A common theme in Kate Chopin’s literary works is that there is opportunity for women outside of their traditional roles. A prime example of this is in Kate Chopin’s fictional short story called “The Story of An Hour.” This story was published in 1894 during a time when women were expected to be happy and fulfilled in life solely by their role as housewives. A central theme in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” and in her own life is that women can find happiness outside of repressive 19th century marriages.
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
When her husband was still with her, she had no identity, she was branded exclusively as Mrs. Mallard, Brently Mallard’s wife. Now, Louise distinguishes that she can finally be her own person and be identified by who she is, not only as someone else’s wife. As Louise departs from her room, she develops into a new person and as Mark Cunningham (2004) writes in his Literary Criticism, The Autonomous Female and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, “With Brently’s return, with the reconstitution of her marriage and previous social position, Louise once again vanishes among her husband and her relatives” (para. 3). This explicates that when Louise’s husband was with her, and when he returns, she fades into the background. In the short time Louise is deprived of her husband, she grows into her own identity and this gives way to her feminist ideas. As Louise realizes that she now does not have to live for anyone else in the years to come, Chopin (1894) writes that “There would be no powerful will bending hers” (para. 14). This demonstrates that Louise frequently felt that her husband’s opinion conflicted on hers and she rarely received the attention she deserved. Now, Louise has no one to rule above her, no one to be associated with as lesser than
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
When Louise Mallard first hears that her husband was killed in a railroad accident, "she wept at once," and "went away to her room alone" (12). As she mourns, looking out of her window on the second floor of her home, a sudden change of heart begins to come over her. She notices "the delicious breath of rain," " a peddler . . . crying his wares," "notes of a distant song," "countless sparrows . . . twittering," and "patches of blue sky," "all aquiver with the new spring life" (13). As she stares at the sky, she begins to think about her newfound independence from her husband, uttering the words "free, free, free!" (13). What makes her develop such a sudden change in attitude? Could it be that she sees rebirth in the world through her wind...
An independent woman, Louise Mallard, receives the news that her husband had lost his life in a tragic train accident. Louise cries dramatically, as many other women would. “She wept at once, with sudden wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” (Chopin, 15) Mrs. Mallard then went alone to her room. After the devastating news had the opportunity to sink in, she realizes that maybe this was a blessing in disguise. She saw beyond that catastrophic moment, placing herself in a time that was all hers. A new sense of like came upon her; she felt the real joy of freedom. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” (Chopin, 15) “Her feelings for Brently, however, suddenly seem less important than the prospect of her bright future of freedom.” (Evans, 2) Mrs. Mallard’s response to her husband’s death leads majority of us to believe that she was an “egocentric, selfish monster” (Deneau, 1). Some of us may even ponder whether she even cared for her spouse as much as we once thought.