Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Throughout the late 19th century women questioned the oppressive and stifling patriarchal society of the time and demanded augmented rights and freedom. In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin contemplates the existence and effects of societal biases towards women and the negative attributes of marriage as an institution. In particular, Chopin employs the downstairs of the home in the beginning of the story to characterize society's notion of women as weak and at the end of the story to assert the effects of negative societal preconceptions on women. However, when Louise goes upstairs, she accepts her independence and realizes the oppressive nature of marriage. Throughout “The Story of An Hour” Chopin claims that society as a whole characterizes
For instance, Chopin asserts that Richard “hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend” and told Mrs. Mallard in “veiled hints” and “great care was taken to break [it] to her as gently as possible (Chopin 243). By informing her in an exceedingly gentle manner, to an extent that it becomes patronizing, and entrusting a “tender” and “careful” friend to tell her the news, Richard and Josephine assume that Mrs. Mallard cannot cope with difficult situations because she is a woman. While some may argue that she has a heart trouble which explains why great care was taken to tell her, this does not hold value because the doctors, whom were wrong about her dying from the joy of seeing her husband, misdiagnosed her heart trouble as depression as a result an oppressive and unhappy marriage. Therefore, by belittling Mrs. Mallard when telling her about her husband's death, Chopin asserts that society as a whole assumes that women are weak and incapable of handling death or
Mallard goes upstairs and becomes frightened about her new independence and what lies ahead. When Mrs. Mallard retreats to her own room and looks outside of her window and sees the “new spring life,” a symbol for her freedom from her husband and control over her own life, she realizes that something is coming to her and she is terrified of it and “was striving to beat it back with her will” (Chopin 243). At this moment the notion of freedom from her husband and her marriage grasps her, but she fights it back because she initially believes the commonly held societal view of women, which claims that women cannot succeed alone because they are weak,. It is important to note that Mrs. Mallard overcame this fear and openly embraced her new-found independent life as a result of her strong and independent character. Yet, the fact that a female who desires and fully commits to her independence even questions her ability to succeed shows the prevalence of the notion of women as frail and dependant, to an extent in which females seeking independence succumb to believing it as well. Therefore, by questioning her independence, Mrs. Mallard demonstrates the extent to which society believes that women are weak and incapable of achieving their own independence or enduring without support from others because she initially believed it as