The Story of an Hour by American author Kate Chopin is a feminist literary classic. The story, which was first published in 1894, depicts Louise Mallard’s conflicted reaction to learning of her husband’s death. From there on, the protagonist experiences complex and contradictory feelings on the matter, most of which are conditioned by the gender and marital inequalities of her time. They address the tension that existed in the lives of many women: between affection that they might have felt for their husbands and the inherent subordinate position that threated this affection.
Chopin manages to make every phrase essential by utilizing an almost poetic writing style, despite the fact that such a short story allows no room for background information. She used repetition to emphasize key ideas, such as when she uses the word open throughout the novel to underscore her protagonist’s, Louise’s newfound independence. She also has Louise repeat the word free several times, which is one of the few times Louise speaks out in the novel and demonstrates how much she values her newfound independence. This sense of unusual and previously unexpected freedom becomes the key theme as the consequences of the inciting incident unfold.
Louise realizes that she is now a self-sufficient lady, which energizes and delights her. In spite of the fact that these are her private thoughts, she tries to suppress the ecstasy she feels at first through the force of determination and shame. When she finally acknowledges the joy, she feels possessed by it and has no choice but to surrender to it as the word “free” escapes her lips (Chopin and Seyersted 70). This kind of delight has no place in Louise’s life, and the rest of society will never embrace or comprehend it. Louise has had a taste of this forbidden fruit as a result of extraordinary circumstances, and her ideas are, in turn, excessive. Her new independence is at the core of her existence, and she sees her life as completely hers. And hence, when in the end, the news turns out to be false, the shock overwhelms the heroine, who proceeds to commit suicide. Here lies the main irony of the story: the heartbreak from losing a briefly held freedom is worse than not knowing it at all.
Chopin implies that matrimony, even when, are repressive by nature. Even though Louise openly confesses that her husband was kind and kind, she rejoices when she assumes he has died. Louise knows she’ll cry during Brently’s burial, despite her lack of malice in her reaction. Despite their love for one other, Louise sees Brently’s death as a liberation from oppression. She never specifies how Brently oppressed her, instead of implying that marriage, in general, suffocates both men and women. She even implies that she oppressed Brently in the same way that he oppressed her. Louise’s epiphany, in which these thoughts run through her head, illustrates the repressive nature of all marriages, which by the very nature rob people of their freedom and personhood. This statement makes sense for feminist prose of the time, when the rights of women within their families were limited, and their roles restricted. The complicated limbo of feelings in which Louise is thus trapped is symbolically conveyed through her heart disease. The heroine’s heart problem is both a medical and a metaphorical ailment that expresses her ambivalence toward her marriage and dissatisfaction with her constraints.
Work Cited
Chopin, K., & Seyersted, P. The complete works of Kate Chopin., 68-74, 2006, Louisiana State University Press.