Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

Published in late 1894 and widely accepted and read as a social commentary on the repressive nature of a patriarchal society, Kate Chopin’s “The Story Of An Hour “ was one of the first female –authored stories written to show a woman’s point of view. However, Jeremy Foote in his article “Speed that Kills; The Role of Technology in Kate Chopin’s THE STORY OF AN HOUR”, insist that critics, caught up in the powerful feminist images, have overlooked another theme. He argues that instead of only reading the story from a purely feminist perspective, it should also be read as a protomodernist text. Foote builds a strong case contending that technology and the societal changes that technology brings about play an important role in Chopin’s story.
Foote details the development of these nineteenth century technologies and how they went from “novel to quotidian” and altered the world in Chopin’s lifetime. Prior to the development of railroads, travel was slow and dangerous.
Time is an important theme in the story. It’s only natural that the new technologies and the changes they brought to daily life are also an important part of the story. Trains ushered many societal changes into existence starting with the rise of the commuter. The convenience of trains allowed people to travel faster and farther, and “time that in previous generations had been spent with family was now spent apart, as family members sped away from one another” (Foote). Foote suggest that people need time to experience and analyze emotions because the body and soul cannot keep up with such a fast pace schedule. This is why, according to Foote, when Louise is forced to deal with the “great questions of life – death and love and self actualization” in such a short period of time, the result is her caused not by her emotions but by the speed at which the emotions