Kate Chopin: The Story of An Hour
The Story of an Hour was written by Kate Chopin in 1894 and in this is one of the Kate Chopin essays in which the story is reviewd. The Story of an Hour was written by Kate Chopin in 1894. The short story focuses on a female character and her reactions to the few but important events that occur throughout the story.
The story takes place in the house of the protagonist, Louise, who we get introduced as soon as the story starts. Not just her but in the very first sentence, the audience is introduced to Louise’s heart disease, even before knowing her name. Again, in the first paragraph of the story, she is given the news by her sister that her husband had died in a train accident. Following that news, Louise gets into a small shock and starts sobbing in her room, sitting on a cushioned chair. However, not long after, she realises something crucial for her life. She gets up, moves towards the window, and realises that she can be free now that her husband is dead. She gets relieved and feels happy, however, her happiness does not last for long. A few moments later, her ‘dead’ husband walks through the door and Louise dies on the spot because of her weak heart, which doctors explain by saying “...she had died of heart disease –of joy that kills.”
The main lens of the story is feminism. Kate Chopin is considered to be one of the first feminists in the early history who was not afraid to speak up, despite the societal rules of her time. As can be seen from the original text of the story, she takes the voice away from the males and gives to females. No males are speaking a word in the story, which is her way of giving a voice to the females, even if it is just in a story. Not only that but also in the plot of the story, the main character gets happy after her husband has died, which is, under any condition, very strange. However, it brutally shows how desperate she was to be free. Louise was not happy because her husband had just died, she was happy because she has realised that, for the first time in her life, she could be free. She even says: “And yet she had loved him –sometimes.” She had feelings for him, but even that did not stop her from being happy, which shows how oppressed she was, and not just her, but women from all around the country, or even the world. It is narrated in the story by saying “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!”. She shows the audience that even love does not get in the way of experiencing your freedom without the pressure of a man, just by yourself, and just for yourself.
When we investigate the author of the story, we can see parallels between Kate Chopin’s life and the short story. Kate Chopin lost her father at a young age in a train accident, which very similar to Louise’s husband in the story. Although it can be perceived that the story reflects her own emotions about the story, there is a good chance that it also refers to her mother’s emotions when she lost her husband. Moreover, the fact that she lost her father at a young age means that she was raised by her single mom. Supporting that, she was not only raised by her single mother, but she was also raised by a collection of strong single women in her household. Therefore, we can conclude that her feminist values have been deeply affected by the way that she was raised independently of any men. Besides, Kate Chopin also lost her husband in an accident and raised her children on her own. This shows that it is not just a reflection of her mother’s feelings, but her own feelings as well. In the short story, Louise says: 'Free! Body and soul free!” after the shock of the news that her husband is dead, which might be the thoughts that she and her mother had after their losses of their husbands.
Kate Chopin changed her name in order to publish her work. However, unlike the authors that are female, she did not change her name into a male name. Instead, she shortened her name from Catherin to Kate, which is still a very feminine name. This was unusual at her time, considering we still have authors that are changing their names into more gender-neutral names or masculine names such as J.K. Rowling, due to the stigma around authors that are female. This shows how she did not care about the societal views, or the desire to oppress women because she refused to be a part of it. As seen in her story, freedom is very important to her. The character, Louise Mallard, describes the freedom that she obtained as “...drinking in a very elixir of life…” which is essentially a narration of the feeling that the author experiences on freedom. This is not the only a mirror of her feelings but also a mirror of the oppression that women in society, especially in their time of period, experiences. Therefore, by her investigating her short stories, this one in particular, and the fact that she did not change her name in a masculine manner shows that Kate Chopin did not want to partake in the segregation of authors that are female, and she did not stay silent.
Overall, the author and the story are deeply connected to the feminist lens both directly and indirectly with not-so-subtle connections. Kate Chopin describes her emotions and her life experiences through her work. She takes the voice from men and gives it to women. Not only that, but she emphasises the importance of freedom to women and the oppression that they have to experience their whole life. In this particular story, the character gets to experience the feeling of being free for a very brief moment and then dies the moment that it is taken from her, which is terrifying but at the same time, is an incredible way of criticizing the society and their effects on women.
Work Cited
- “Biography, Kate Chopin, The Awakening, The Storm, Stories.” KateChopin.org, 2 Dec. 2019
- Wyatt, Neal. “Biography of Kate Chopin.” Biography of Kate Chopin, 1995
- Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Vogue, 1894. Print.
