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Story Of An Hour Comparative Analysis Essay

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Story Of An Hour Comparative Analysis Essay
Wang 1

Jiawei Wang

ENGL 110BD

Professor Keller

WA#3
Final Draft
5/4/2016

Comparative Analysis of ?The Storm? and ?The Story of an Hour?
Kate Chopin, as a writer, is well known for her literature work about the limited perception that the nineteenth-century society had on the female gender. During that time, people were very restrictive about the views of a woman?s place in the society. Furthermore, women of that era did not have voice of their own. They were made to believe that their role in the society was to serve their husbands. In the stories, The Storm and The Story of an Hour, Chopin portrays how this restrictive perspective of women affected them and their views about life and marriage. The settings of the two stories are drastically
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The character understands her world very well. According to the story, the woman feels that losing her strongest familial tie is bad, but the opportunity to move away from the bondage of personal relationship and marriage, provided after the demise of her husband, makes the whole situation better. In particular, during this era when Chopin was writing the book, American wives were legally bound to their husband status and power. When a woman became windowed, they did not bear the responsibility of following and finding a husband. Furthermore, windowed women gained legal recognition after their husband?s death and, consequently, had more control over their lives. Nonetheless, although the writer does not cite the contemporary situation of women in the story, the protagonist exclamations of ?free! Body and Soul!? are strongly suggestive of the historical context ("The Story of An Hour" 1). The writer depicts the sorrow of women in marriage and the feeling of oppression by men in marriage. The feeling of celebration and happiness in Mrs. Mallard, after learning the demise of her husband, demonstrates how women felt about marriage. The happiness of independence gained after becoming widowed outweighs the sadness of being left by their

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