“She was drinking in the very elixir of life” and for the first time Louise truly live, breathed, and existed in a society dominated by men, and in a her own world controlled by her husband. Louise Mallard is the central character to Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” and is offered to the reader as a reflection of the role of women in the late 18th century. Much of Kate Chopin’s work, like “The Story of an Hour”, explores gender related issues including marriage, divorce, and female sexuality (Chopin i) .
Kate Chopin was a woman of the late 1800s. She was well acquainted with the societal conventions that forced her to be subservient to her husband and fill the only roles a woman possible could, a wife and mother. Kate, as a child was sent away to the Academy of the Sacred Heart, by her father. It was only after his death, that she returned home to be surrounded and educated by her great grandmother and mother. Kate did not begin her writing career until after the death of her husband. She was married at 19 became a wife, and produced several children. The freedom gained from her husband death, allowed Kate Chopin to write and published at the age of 39. At the time of her death she had written 95 short stories, 2 novels, 1 play, and 8 literature reviews (Toth xiii). Kate’s life parallels that of Louise, and I believe that Chopin used this short fiction as a personal confessional. She felt joy at her husband death, not for his loss, but for her newly gained freedom.
It is important to remember that Kate Chopin wrote in the wake of the transcendental movement in America. Literature was moving away from the deep thinkers like Thoreau and Emerson toward something more exciting and real. Realism in the early 1900s was about public interest and entertainment. Literature during this time told tales of hardships and successes in the frontier (Harris 6). Kate Chopin had a different approach to realism. Instead of exploring the unfamiliar external landscape of the great American west she examined the individual internal unknown. She delved into the reality of marriage, interpersonal relationships between women and men and the maltreatment of women in a patriarchy society. The bulk of her work was considered daring, shocking, vulgar and disgusting by the general public. In Chopin’s last novel, Awakenings, the plot revolved around suicide, sex, and the idea that marriage was not necessary or healthy for women. Awakenings created so much outrage and criticism, Chopin was publicly called depraved and licentious. She never published another full length story (Green 31). Writing about female discourse, addressing female roles in a male society, and offering again and again the female perspective on marriage, was not an easy task. Kate Chopin did it well with gracious and eloquent writing.
“The Story of an Hour” is a neatly packaged product of her feminist investigation. Through humor, wit, and skillfully used literary elements Chopin breathes life into the story of a woman completely controlled by her husband who experiences momentary freedom by sheer luck of a train accident. Chopin uses several symbols to evoke the feeling of rebirth, renewal, and autonomy. Just after Louise is told about the death of her husband, she enters her bedroom and finds “the open window.” Through it she can see “new spring life” on the street below, and realizes that now she too can be part of that life, on her own terms. The open window symbolizes her clear passage to exist fully in the world without her husband standing in her way. Louise hears and sees the “countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves”. Birds are a traditional icon of freedom (Woodlief). Chopin specific word choice, in the sentences following Louise briefly mourning her husband include – “monstrous joy“, “victory“, “Free! Body and soul free!”. All of which are not the usual emotions one would expect after hearing of the loss of a loved one. In the late 18th century a woman’s role was solely to care for her husband and children, never simply for herself. If a woman had no husband, she did not exist. Kate Chopin parallels this real life irony to the condition of Louise in the short story. Chopin is a master story teller and employs the use of irony seamlessly. In “The Story of an Hour” two forms of irony can be found – situation and dramatic irony.
Situational irony occurs when the reader expects for Louise to be full of grief about her husbands death. Yet, Louise responds “What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!”. She is ecstatic not over her husband death but because she was in a marriage that required her to be subservient to her husband, to live only for him, and to bend to his will. Dramatic irony occurs when there is contrast between what the audience knows about a character and what the people within the story know about a character. After Louise dies, doctors came and “said she had died of heart disease–of a joy that kills.” The characters in the story believe that Louise died because of the sudden joy she felt at knowing her husband was still alive. The audience knows she died because she could not withstand another day of domination by her husband and the world – at freedom being ripped from her grasp.
Kate Chopin uses irony to produce an ongoing theme of appearance versus reality, much like Shakespeare used in his plays. She uses irony because it’s funny. It adds a lightness to a very serious subject and it allows the reader to feel involved and therefore invested in the story. Kate Chopin, as an author, knew that if she had a good hook, the reader would stay around long enough to get the lesson she was trying to express.
The wordplay of pronouns and formal names is amazing in “The Story of an Hour.” Chopin begins the story but using Louise formal name, Mrs. Mallard. Louise is depicted by her married name or by the pronoun “she” until after her husband death and her realization that she would now “live for herself“. It is at this time, that Mrs. Mallard becomes Louise, and she addressed by Josephine, “”Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door–you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise?”. After, Mr. Mallard reappears, Louise again becomes the possession of her husband and is denoted as “she” once again.
While Chopin does not literally express the setting of her short fiction, there are several indicators that do. Early in the story Mrs. Mallard has been told her husband was killed in a train disaster. The personal automobile was developed in 1886. Therefore, the story predates the use of automobile on a daily basis, leaving the train as the major mode of transportation for professionals traveling to and from the city for work. Also, Richard learned and reassured himself of Brently’s death in the train accident by reading telegrams sent to the newspaper. Making the telegram the quickest form of communication used during this time. Common use of both the telegraph, and the train dates the setting of the story to the 1890s.
The single most dynamic quality of this short fiction is the size of it. “The Story of an Hour” is extremely concise – just over 1000 words. Chopin offers her readers a single snapshot of a typical women’s life in 1894. She did this succinctly but not at the expense of her eloquent and graceful writing. In this brief work she describes the societal situation, emotional prison, and sacrifice of women. An entire century of women’s history condensed into a single story. In my opinion this is Kate Chopin’s best piece of writing. What I enjoyed least about the story is that very little occurs before the announcement of Mr. Mallards death. I would have liked some back story about the Mallard marriage, and maybe a bit more of internal dialogue of the other characters especially Josephine in regards to her own feelings about his death. Perhaps Josephine too wished to be free and was envious of Louise ‘good fortune’. I would have also included what Louise was going to do with her life, after her husband died. Would she like Kate, write and travel? What did Louise long for most, and was she capable of achieving that.
When “The Story of an Hour” was first published it did not publicly appeal to anyone – at least to no one who would admit it. Literature with taboo subjects were read for the purposes of critique and public disproval. However, somewhere along the line Kate Chopin inspired other female authors to continue to write . Today, I think this story appeals to wide range of people and ages. People who feel that they are being controlled and are struggling to find their own path in the world – for high school students it maybe the constraints of their own peers, for college students the control and approval of their parents, for adults who are involved in relationships were they do not feel fulfilled – and anyone who has a lost a person they loved and felt a moment of joy for their own new beginning.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening, and Other Stories. Ed. Pamela Knights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Questia. 22 Jan. 2006 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35531679>.
Green, Suzanne Disheroon, and David J. Caudle. “Kate Chopin’s Life and Literary Career.” Kate Chopin An Annotated Bibliography of Critical Works. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. 1-11. Questia. 22 Jan. 2006 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=71919887>.
Harris, Sharon M. Rebecca Harding Davis and American Realism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. Questia. 22 Jan. 2006 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8938381>.
Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Questia. 22 Jan. 2006 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22818294>.
Woodlief, Ann. “The Story of an Hour.” Web Texts. Virginia Commonwealth University. 22 Jan. 2006 <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/storyofhour.html>.
