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The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is a short story that particularly focuses on the feminine genders side of such marriage struggles. Caged in a patriarchal society, women have been rightfully fighting for a life worth living.
In this story, it takes an accident, particularly her husbands death, for Mrs. Mallard to realize her self-worth. The story abounds in symbols and ironies as readers are presented with the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, who symbolizes womens situation with respect to their role in society. Mrs. Mallards husband represents the patriarchal mindset of culture and society.
It is, in a sense ironic, that Mrs. Mallards sense of awakening, her birth was made possible by the death of her husband. In the same way, that her newfound freedom is cut short by her demise.
One consistent element in Chopins stories is the idea of a foreshadowing of things to come like people destroying themselves. One would ask how this particular short story carries such a particular theme. Writers are known to apply aspects of their life into their writings and works. Subsequently, an understanding into the mind of the author might reveal thematic elements of the short story into view. A further discussion regarding the life of Chopin initiated by the lecturer follows. Opinions and reactions on such personage might be solicited from the class.
Some literary critics may view such process as insignificant, citing that any analysis of such works in literature must concentrate mainly on the working body rather than any external consideration outside the work. But in our case, an authors biography is part of the short story itself. The mention of Mrs. Mallards health condition at the very onset of the short story paves the way for the consistency of the storys ending. The simplicity of the setting indicates less the material sense of the story. For everything is much a personal sensing and contradiction of the main protagonist.
In fact, this particular part of the story is significant. She writes, She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. Sensory images flood her being and all of a sudden the vision of the window means a lot to her. These nostalgic sensory images are the onset of Mrs. Mallards sense of liberation. The vision through the open windows means a fresh and alternate perspective into her life. The closing of the door and the opening of the window was very much symbolic of Mrs. Mallards closing of one aspect of her life, her marriage, and the advent of life of new possibilities.
In a sense, it was a certain kind of freedom of socially imposed prison of some sort.
In my opinion, Brently treated her wife fairly as dictated by the social norms of the time. Mrs. Mallards utterance of those words was not an implication of an unhealthy and brutal marriage but was more a declaration of Mrs. Mallard newfound sense of independence, a sort of unbinding from the social chains of familial duty. Mrs. Mallard, at the knowledge of the news, begins to feel a previously unknown sense of freedom and relief. She fights her own sense of awakening. As she imagines life without her husband, she embraces visions of the future. She realizes that whether or not she had loved him was less important than this possession of self-assertion she now feels. The happiness Louise gains by this recognition of selfhood. The doctors statement, which could have very much been spoken by Josephine and Brently, was more a literary device, suspending basic personal truths to a realm of speculative opinions and outlooks.
Marriage for women at those times was more of a one-sided arrangement in favor of the male species. Although one might argue that, at present, this is less prevalent.
But the fact remains that gender bias is still incorporated into society in such subtle ways. This is very much how Mrs. Mallard felt towards her marriage.
Her happiness was much subordinated by her sense of duty. Duty was highly regarded in the Victorian view of morality. The symbolic travel is Mrs. Mallards personal journey of liberation paved by a sense of foreboding and a tinge of sweet joy.
In much the same way, The Story of an Hour tells of Mrs. Mallard as she learns of the death of her husband from people who even exercise great caution not to tell the bad news to her right on since Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husbands death. It is the next few scenes that give us an inkling as to how she really views this death because she retreats to her room and instead of grieving, ponders on her life now that she had all the freedom in the world.
Even the train wreck is replete with vignettes from her own story. Kate has her own share of train wrecks in life. The deaths of her loved ones within a short period of time prove disastrous for her and derail her life. Her fathers death derails their family life as she is thrown into the custody of her grandmother. Meeting her husband provides temporary relief but tragedy knocks at her door once more as she copes with the sudden death of her husband. Her mother and grandmothers death seem to wreak havoc on her whole being this time. How could she support her six children with no money to spend on their needs? However, she is encouraged by a family physician, Dr. Kolbenheyer, to write stories and as if venting her emotional traumas in them, she writes them in the stories she weaves, ever so craftily drawing out from her lifes insights. For Chopins character, Mrs. Mallard, the train wreck her husband figures it signifies not so much as a tragedy but as the beginning of freedom for her. Chopin points out that Mrs. Mallard actually disdained her husband as she pens, And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! The character was portrayed in an understated state of joy amidst the apparently bad news of her husbands death.
Moreover, Kate Chopins personal freedom comes to her as she writes of her insights about her life after she loses her husband. She is now no longer encumbered by marriage and family matters and her feminist perspectives come out in her writings. We see how the author weaves the ideals of feminism that have survived through the years in her writing The Story of an Hour. This was the backdrop of Kates writings. Her story talks about yearnings for personal freedom, choices in life, possibilities of a wide magnitude open to women who had real personal freedom. Her freedom comes only after the deaths of her husband and mother. In the same manner, Mrs. Mallard experiences the idea of personal freedom now that she is free as she becomes attuned for the first time to scenes and sounds outside her window, She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. Everything seemed to spring forth with life. As Mrs. Mallard looks out that window, she is overwhelmed by the freedom that beckons her.
Reading Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour inspires driven women to write many literary pieces on the issues at that time. Therefore, it is not surprising that this literary piece of work touches a nerve in a country dominated by males. Change is highly valued by women today who feel that they are incorporating the best of the modern world into their lives. Open to ideas and innovation, women are receptive to those who can explain how the change will benefit them, just like Louise in Kate Chopins work. They now walk a narrow bridge between the past and the future. They will reject visions of the future that only repeats the past. Indeed, the theme, the setting and the characters, and some events of this story may well derive more from her own set of personal experiences translated poignantly in a short yet memorable story.
Meanwhile, Hazel , by Shields captures the emotions of a woman who takes a job at showcasing household gadgets. This is frowned upon by her family and friends and she is regarded as not really serious with that job. But she proves to all that she is able to be successful in her job and becomes the most- prized saleswoman. Hazel went on to pursue her dreams and life was kind to her as she became successful in the process, showing to all how she is capable of putting up her own business and succeeding in the process. In the end, though, Hazel comes to the realization that
Everything is an accident . She realizes that her life has been an accident, and by that, she has blundered into the heart of it.
Mrs. Maillard and Hazel are both prisoners in their own homes, relegated to take on menial tasks. Yet, Hazel is portrayed as the more expressive one. She continues her task even if she hears a lot of criticisms. Mrs. Maillard is the sacrificing one who does take her plight as her destiny and only rejoices when she is informed of the accident of her husband.
The issue of feminism, or to be more specific, the fragmentations in feminism in the stories are evident as we see the main protagonists in the story as independent women who make their own niche in society. We see how it was difficult for them to disentangle themselves from embedded power structures of gender and class. There are also notions where some white feminists themselves perpetuate a similar kind of oppression they ostensibly claim to attempt to overcome, only this time the discrimination is leveled against black women and working-class women. This bias in the feminist movementas demonstrated with the way feminist discourse generally addresses the concerns of white, middle-class womenreflects differences in power and privilege among women which serve as significant obstacles to their common goal of social transformation (Apple, 1979).
Although we may be a long way to completely removing the shackles of oppression that make victims out of womenthankfully, there are many people who remain vigilant about these issues. Job limitations for Hazel remain constricted as social boundaries are maintained. There may be conscious attempts to improve their own inferior status in society that is not too effective (Apple, 1979).
Men and women play different roles in this theater stage called life.
Men are believed to be the breadwinners, while women are supposed to stay at home and take care of their children, and the men when they come home from work. Men are more physical especially when verbalizing their emotions, while women are more emotional and more vocal about what they feel. Nowadays, the roles of men and women are interchangeable, interdependent, and independent all at the same time. People have learned that they should not let society define who they are and what they should become. Though there is still apparent gender discrimination, equality between the two sexes has now advanced since the olden days. Women are indeed, equally able to accomplish so much more if given the chance to fully develop their capabilities without the hindrance of conventional gender-based prejudices.
The protagonists in the stories of Shields and Chopin encounter inequalities in their lives and many of them are reinforced by the social structures and organizations in which they live. Though a great number of women have already proven that they have achieved equality in education there is still a larger group that incessantly encounter roadblocks to quality education. Even if their abilities put them on par with their male colleagues, women remain the lower earner. Occupational segregation and vertical segregation continue to hold women back; the former form of discrimination keeps higher-earning employment from women, while the second prevents women from reaching top management positions. Indeed, a large part of the world is still submerged in gender inequality, poverty, and the marginalization and oppression of women.
It would take sincere, dramatic, and all-encompassing change to transform the pervasive unequal culture.
References
Apple, M. (1979) Ideology and Curriculum.London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. 13.
Henry, Sherrye. The Deep Divide, Why American Women Resist Equality. The Macmillan Publishing Co: New York. 1994.
Shields, Carol. The Orange Fish. Web.
Wyatt, Neal. Biography of Kate Chopin Web.
The Norton Introduction to Literature (eight edition) Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour
Real Life: Katherine Chopin. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17
Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Web.
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