Freedom In Kate Chopin's Short Stories

Why most women’s desires had to be repressed in the patriarchal social order? Were

they happy in their marriages without a minimal freedom? The desire of one individual

cannot be suppressed and cannot be controlled by others. However, women in the past

society were usually being repressed their desires and even they were suffering from lack of

freedom in the patriarchal social. In the Kate Chopin’s stories, the author focuses on

woman’s desire against patriarchal rules and the rediscovery of female desires. “The Story

of an Hour” and “The Storm” by Kate Chopin is the representative stories and these stories

are about the struggling between reality and inside desires of female. The two different

protagonists were married and
This

paradoxical action is the most important evidence of the short story because this action

causes the rising action and falling action of the story. In addition, the contradictory action

causes the climax, which the moment she found the liberty from her husband’s death and

also falling action which drives into her death. There are plenty descriptions about the series

of emotions of Louise Mallard, who suffers from heart problems.

The word “heart trouble” has symbolic meaning in the story. The heart trouble has a

meaning of physical disease as well as emotional trouble. This physical trouble, heart

trouble, takes charge of the beginning and the end of the story. At the beginning of the story,

the heart trouble seems a medical sense, but the physical diseases become a factor of

psychological diseases. The final phrase “When the doctors came they said she had died of

heart disease-of joy that kills” (76) is ironic because she felt both extreme pleasure and

radical disappointment from the moment of her husband’s return from death. She was at a

crossroads between welcoming her husband and losing her freedom. The heart problem is
However, his death also represented as a freedom of his wife who

loved him the most. His death is ironic and paradoxical in the story. In addition, the

husband’s death implies how much Louise Mallard suffered from the lack of freedom

through their marriage.

“The Storm” by Kate Chopin refers sense of freedom of each character. Calixta leave

alone at home sewing roughly because Bobinot and Bibi are shopping at Friedheimer’s

store. And that time the storm is coming and Alcee asks for seeking shelter from the storm

while Bobinot and Bibi decide to wait inside the store until the storm passes. When the

storm is coming, Calixta commits adultery with her ex-lover, Alcee. After the storm,

Boninot and Bibi come back home and Calixta acts like nothing had happened. “The Storm”

is not only the title of this story, but also this is the physical and emotional symbolisms

which control the overall mood of the story. The actual meaning of the storm is strong wind

including heavy rain as a physical symbol. On the other hand, the storm is a sexual passion

between Calixta and Alcee as an emotional symbol. The sexual passion makes her break

down the morality of Calixta as a woman who repressed her liberty and