The Story of an Hour

A detailed Summary of The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin lived in the height of the Victorian Era and bore witness to the suppression women experienced in the late 19th century. Females were molded into an ideal form from birth, with direction as how to speak, act, dress, and marry. Women lacked education, employable skills, and rights in any form. In an age where women were physically suppressed by being confined to staying at home, it is not surprising that society imposed standards that stifled them mentally. Every aspect of their life was controlled by a male authority figure starting with their father at birth and persisting through early womanhood into marriage where it was the husband who possessed control. Chopin was far from a conformist to these ideologies; she showed increasing concern for women in Victorian age America and responded with scandalous writings dealing explicitly with love, sex and marriage. In The Story of an Hour, her refusal to be suppressed by society is all too evident. Chopin presents a character named Mrs. Mallard. The story doesn't mention the first name of Mrs. Mallard to start out. This interesting conscious strategy by the author creates the imagery of Mrs. Mallard lacking her own personal identity. She is in fact, a typical,

http://www.connect.net/georgen/maslow.htm

Mrs. Mallard sees patches of blue sky through the clouds; strongly symbolizing good things to come and the path ahead of her is clearing up from her stormy past. Instead of grief encompassing her, she is overcome with joy. This is not because she is an evil woman, nor that her husband was a bad man. In fact she did say that "she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death" (Chopin 244), meaning she would morn the loss of her husband. This joy comes from the feeling of freedom she is experiencing for the first time in her life. Hope replaces the despair that was to fill the years to come.

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Approximate Word count = 969
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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