Clever Manka and The Story of an Hour: A Demonstration of Differences in Health, Personalities, and Relationships

Manka and Louise Both short stories are a patriarchal society that restricted the roles of women, especially in their marriage. The setting in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” takes place in a small city in the early 1900s. This story has actual characters with names, such as Louise Mallard. The main character is Louise Mallard, she is a women looking to get freedom from her husband, and she gets that chance when he dies in a railroad accident. The setting in “Clever Manka” takes place in a rural farming community is Czechoslovakia. This story has stereotypical characters, such as the Burgomaster, the farmer, and the shepherd. The main character in is Manka; she is a woman that is a very quick thinker. She shows the burgomaster how clever she is by knowing all the answers to his riddles. In “Clever Manka” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, both demonstrate differences in health, personalities, and relationships. One difference between Manka and Louise is their health. Manka is a young woman who is in good health. She has no health problems, but on the other hand Louise does. In the beginning of “The Story of an Hour”, it’s stated that “Louise had heart trouble” (Chopin 666). Knowing that Louise had heart trouble, her sister carefully told her about her husband’s death, to try to refrain from Louise having a heart attack. Another difference between Manka and Louise is their personalities. Manka is an independent woman. She has a very intelligent and confident personality. To show how clever she really was, the Burgomaster gave a riddle to her father (the shepherd) to give to Manka. It was “tell her to come see me, but she must come neither by day nor by night, neither riding nor walking, neither dressed nor undressed” (Manka, 18). Her father told her what the burgomaster said. She showed how smart she was by going to his house at dawn (Neither by day nor by night), wearing fish net (neither dressed not undressed), with one leg over a goat and one