kate chopin
Kate Chopin woke people up to the feelings and minds of women writers in the nineteenth century by crossing forbidden borders of the Victorian Era. Author and feminist Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri. The American writer wrote the short story "The Story of an Hour" in 1894 (Toth 5). Chopin lived during the Victorian Era and was a first hand witness to the suppression women faced in the late nineteenth century. Unlike most women at that time, Chopin was far from a conformist (Petry 8). She showed increasing concern for women and she responded with scandalous writings dealing explicitly with love, sex, and marriage (Thomas 19). "The Story of an Hour" revolves around what goes through a person's head when informed that a close family member has died, in this case the husband. Upon hearing of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard was faced with conflicting emotions that she does not quite understand. In this famous short story, Kate's refusal to be silenced is all too evident. Her well- thought out stories reflect her own life as well as her interest in female independence, male dominance, and issues of selfhood, during a time period in which it was unexpected and not always embraced with open arm
Chopin was a writer who was not afraid to write about the world as it really was, despite the criticism she received while doing it. Her writings do more than just tell a story. Her childhood helped mold her into the self-assertive female that she became as an adult writer (Toth 98). The reactions to her stories gives an impression of how the way of life must have been in the nineteenth century. "The Story of an Hour" tells a lot about the situation women were in a century ago. This short story was written at a time where it was common sense and tradition that women were inferior to men in status and opportunities (Petry 135). The reactions to her stories have changed over the past 100 years. Looking back on the critics changing views from outrage to admiration, it is easy Chopin uses irony in the story to show the unequal role women had in relationships at the time the story was written. The ironic tone in the story is employed by Chopin to present a socially unaccepted concept in order for readers to be more accepting. A contrast between what you think would actually happen during those times and what actually happens is being presented. As Mrs. Mallard is looking out her window the weather is not as one might expect it is not dark and gloomy but she sees, "Patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds" (Chopin 397). She is expected to mourn her husband death but in contrast she is thinking about a bright new life without her husband. "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills"(Chopin 397). At first you may think that she died because of the extreme joy that her husband was actually still alive. But her love for her husband does not compare to the joy she feels upon the discovery of her newfound freedom. Having grown up around independent women, Chopin soon became very independent herself, although this did not stop her from marriage. She married Oscar Chopin in 1870 when she was 20 years old. She moved to New Orleans, where Oscar was originally from to set up their home, they did not move into his house but they bought a house of their own. Moving away from what she called home for 20 years would be a big step for Chopin, she now has to make her own decisions and learn of a whole new world miles away from what she calls home. Moving to Louisiana had caused Chopin to grow up fast resulting in her great independence. Oscar's family viewed her independence with suspicion, Chopin being as independent as she was would take walks around the block by herself, this to them was very strange and enough to cause suspicion by her new in-laws. (Toth 67) Her marriage to Oscar was a happy one: "Kate was devoted to Oscar and thought him perfect" (Toth 54) Her love for independence had once again resulted in others not accepting of the person that she was. Due to the fact that Chopin wrote about women without bias, many editors were less understanding and were not eager to always accept her writings. Even though Chopin's ideas were controversial, slowly over the decades people began to accept them. (Howard 6). The editor of a popular magazine, Atlantic Monthly made a comment when responding to a story that Chopin had sent to him, "certain facts of life which are not usually talked of before young people and young ladies" (Petry 7). Rejection was not new to Chopin, due to the fact that her stories told of life and how it really was, not what people wanted to hear. Chopin would not change any of her works just to suit an editor (Petry 7). Love, passion, and independence are themes in most of her writings (Howard 6). At the time of her writings Victorian women had no right to vote and very little independence. Women were expected to accept their position at home and be satisfied with that. Many of her works challenge those exact ideas and in turn many critics were outraged (Toth 112). A female writer who wrote of a women wanting independence would no
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Approximate Word count = 2899
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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