Christina Rossetti and Kate Chopin: Revolution in Women's Literature
During the 19th century, married women were often seen as an extension or attachment to their husbands. Women were completely controlled by the men in their lives. A married woman's inheritance and body belonged to her husband and often if a woman remained single she would be ridiculed by society. Christina Rossetti and Kate Chopin revolutionized women's literature as their works were closely related to women and choices. Christina Rosetti’s “Promises like a pie-crust” and “Goblin Market” dealt with Rossetti’s independence from being in a committed relationship to her character “Laura” in “Goblin Market” being perished away for making a decision. As Rossetti was never married, she made that groundbreaking decision and was willing to be pitied to make a stand. Much like Rosetti, Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” pertained to the character “Louise Mallard,” a woman who is already confined in her marriage as she feels free when her husband “dies”, suggesting that her husband held power over her. Both authors use a consistent theme of the patriarchal society combined with structure to illuminate the effects it has had on women. Rosetti and Chopin use their characters to establish the consequences of patriarchal marriages, thus elucidating the feeling of entrapment women faced in the early 19th century.
Christina Rosetti’s “Goblin Market” and “Promises like pie-crust” uses women to emphasize how confined they are. To begin, “Promises like pie-crust” is an address from a friend to another. That being said, the assumption can be made that since the poet is a woman, the other party is a man. The poem begins with the line “Promise me no promises,” immediately it is known that the speaker has no confidence that the promise will be kept. Rosetti states, “So will I not promise you: Keep we both our liberties.” The message of the opening stanza is therefore that the relationship that is envisaged must be conducted on the understanding that both parties are equals and that neither will expect anything from the other. Individuals must be able to keep their liberties by not committing themselves to each other. Since the speaker is a woman, the reader can infer that by committing herself to a man, she will lose the little freedom that she does obtain. Therefore, there is a sense of limitation that women faced even when it came to marriage. To continue, in the short story Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti, there is a similarity between the women and what they faced. For example, Laura and Lizzie are the primary characters within the story, both are women. Laura is tempted by the “Goblin men” to eat their fruit as they state, “come buy, come buy.” Laura is trapped by her own decision, she is enticed by the fruit but she also knows that the fruit is no good as Lizzie, her sister, told her the cautionary tale about “Jeanie,” a woman who perished away for eating the goblins' fruit. No matter the decision Laura makes, she will be looked down upon. If she accepts the fruit, a piece of her will be taken away as Rosetti states, “She clipp’d a precious golden lock.” But if she does not accept then the feeling of desire and temptation will stick with her. Laura is constricted by her own decision, whatever the decision may be, Laura will either face the consequences of eating the fruit or limit herself from eating the fruit and be left with the want. The decisions both women face in the poem and short story will keep them in a bubble no matter what.
Furthermore, much like Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” the character, Louise Mallard, is faced with the same dilemma, the feeling of confinement through her marriage. Louise Mallard is described as a woman who has “two white slender hands.” By the description of Mrs. Mallard, it can be said that she is seen as something weak or delicate, the “slender hands” reveal that she hasn’t worked or done any manual labor which suggests that she is trapped within her own home. A similarity can be seen in “Goblin Market” as both Lizzie and Laura are seen as “two flakes of new-fall’n snow.” Through this description, they are also seen as something delicate. The description of these women always leads to something that is seen as powerless which suggests that these women have the feeling of having no control over the situations that they are in, ultimately feeling trapped. Louise Mallard is also described as a woman who has a “calm face” with “lines” that “bespoke repression.” Through Mrs. Mallard's “lines” that “bespoke repression,” it can be said that she is hiding something that she does not want to speak upon because of her “calm face.” The “calm face” suggests that she is letting herself submit to her circumstances, as she feels powerless to do anything. The speaker describes that Mrs. Mallard loved her husband “sometimes” but “often she had not.” This illuminates the fact that her marriage was the reason for her “lines,” not because her husband was bad to her but because the institution of marriage and gender roles kept her trapped inside her own home. After Mrs. Mallard heard the news that her husband “dies,” she whispered to herself saying “Free! Body and soul free!” this elucidates the reason for her hiding something as mentioned before. Her hidden secret was the fact that she felt so confined in her marriage but she could not speak upon it because it was the “social norm” for women to keep quiet and deal with the situations. Similarly, in promises like a pie-crust, the speaker was opposed to the idea of committing herself to a man because the little freedom that she does have will be taken due to marriage. The speaker did not want that to happen to herself as it did to Louise Mallard. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mallard was not able to obtain that freedom that she thought she was going to have due to her husband coming back.
Although all the women in these stories faced the same predicament, being trapped, they encountered that problem in different ways. Both women in “Promises Like Pie-Crust” and “The Story of an Hour” knew that freedom was something that was or was going to be limited, but the speaker in promises like a pie-crust had agency. Rossetti had a commitment issue, but she was able to choose for herself that she does not want to commit as she states, “I should fret to break the chain. Let us be the friends we were,” this illuminates how Rossetti empowers herself through the poem as she makes that choice for herself even though the poem was published in the early 19th century. The choice she made was groundbreaking as it was abnormal for women to think or choose for themselves during that era. Rossetti was lucky enough to make that choice for herself, however, that was not the case for Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour.” Mrs. Mallard was not empowered enough to get up and make that choice for herself as she let herself submit to the circumstances as mentioned before through her “calm face.” It was not until her husband “died” that Mrs. Mallard felt some sort of liberation. This suggests that her husband had power over her while he was alive as she did not feel free until his death. Instead of taking action and doing something over her liberty Mrs. Mallard felt that “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it.” She waited until something came to her rather than going to it, suggesting that she did not have agency over her situation like Rossetti. Both women faced the same challenges but in different ways.
In addition, the support system Laura and Louise Mallard had was vastly different from the one Rossetti had. Laura had her sister, Lizzie, willing to do anything for her and save her if needed. As Laura was getting sick due to the consumption of the fruit, “Lizzie weigh’d no more,” Lizzie went through the goblin men touching and assaulting her for her own sister's life, revealing that Laura had someone to fall back on while she was falling as well. Like Laura, Louise Mallard also had that support from her family, although they did not know what she was hiding, her sister was still there to hold her as she “She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs.” The difference between the two is that Lizzie knew exactly what Laura did and what she was going through while Mrs. Mallard's sister did not know how Louise felt, but that support was there. While both women from “Goblin Market” and “The Story of an Hour” had someone to hold them up, that was not the case for Christina Rossetti. Rossetti went through her decision making on her own as she states, “So will I not promise you,” Rossetti uses “I” revealing that the choice is hers. Throughout the poem, Rossetti is independent, as the poem shows no sign of another party supporting her, which reveals how revolutionary this poem was. Being a woman and stating something out of the social norm was often seen as unusual. Even though these women went through the same problem, it can be argued that their circumstances were disparate.
Both in “Goblin Market” and “A Story of an Hour” starts with each woman acquiring what they want, but in the end, they do not win. To begin, “Goblin Market” starts with two sisters who are tempted by Goblin men with fruit, the story then reaches its climax as Laura eats the “forbidden” fruit that fulfills her desire. Laura is satisfied, however, the fruit is the result of her “wasting away.” Although Laura satisfied for a short period, the ending of the short story is what truly illuminates the meaning of the story, as both sisters are “wives With children of their own.” This reveals that even though both of the sisters suffered because of the goblin men, they are still conforming to societal expectations by marrying which limits their freedom due to the heavily influenced patriarchal society during the 19th century but still buying into the institution of marriage. Similarly in “The Story of an Hour, the climax is when Mrs. Mallard begins to feel joyful over her renewed life. Louise Mallard acquires that joy, but never truly obtains the liberties that she deserved, as her husband comes back from the false death claim, Mrs. Mallard “had died of heart disease.” She did not die because of “of joy that kills” as the doctors explained, instead she was shocked at the fact that she went through a series of emotions of not having the freedom to having the freedom and then once again having those liberties stripped away from her. Both of these stories are similar to their ending, women cannot win in a patriarchal society, as the women in “Goblin Market” still conform to society and Louise Mallard never got to experience the liberties she had so much desire for.
Although the ending of both short stories is similar, the beginning of each story is different. At the beginning of “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin does not establish any background on what Mrs. Mallard's husband was like. Louise Mallard is first introduced as “Mrs.Mallard,” the reader does not know anything about her except that her husband has died. After finding her husband has died and she gains some joy, she is no longer referred to as “Mrs. Mallard,” instead she is now “Louise,” she is now free and has her own identity. Even though the story does not reveal Mr. Mallard's background, it can be said that no matter if the marriage was true love or an arranged marriage, Louise Mallard was an appendage to Brently Mallard. For Louise, being Mrs. Brently Mallard was a burden. Many women have felt oppressed and overshadowed by their husbands. It is not necessarily something that the husband has done, it is the personality of the woman who cannot be caged. Unlike “The Story of An Hour,” Rosetti’s “Goblin Market” establishes what the goblin men do and what their intentions are. Throughout the short story, the women in the story are still referred to as their first names, they are still considered to be “pure.” Laura and Lizzie are still considered to have their own identity as they are not married, this emphasizes how Louise Mallard was considered to truly be an attachment to Brently Mallard.
To conclude, Women have been highly mistreated throughout history, whether they are married or not in a relationship; the patriarchy has always had the upper hand in demeaning women. Marriage was created by men thousands of years ago to assign ownership to a woman, luckily that view has changed over the years, but unfortunately in most cultures, women are still seen as property. Women like Christina Rossetti and Kate Chopin have helped change the perspective of how society views women through their literary works. Chopin has made her short story “The Story of an Hour” so ironic that it helps emphasize how ridiculously women were living in the 19th century as the protagonist dies right after she was beginning to live and have freedom. Being women themselves and living through the 19th century, Rossetti and Chopin are more than qualified to speak upon the issues women have faced due to the patriarchy. Today, women now have more freedom over the choices that they make, but there’s still the notion of women being expected to get married and have children. It has been a long fight for women and there is still more to come.
