Feminist Themes in Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour - Essay Example

Constraining Women by Breaking s Short stories are often mistaken as meaningless because of their length, which, as Edgar Allen Poe once said, is designed to be read in one sitting (Sucur, 2005). However, closer inspection of good short stories usually reveals a much deeper meaning within the text that commonly reveals some important commentary upon the major issues of the time. This is accomplished through a careful use of perspective and imagery, enabling the author to ‘paint a picture’ of life in that moment. By focusing on key elements of the environment in which the characters move and through special attention given to just how the story is to be told, authors can open the story to a variety of interpretations illustrating the complexities of life. A close examination of Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” illustrates how the written word can be a powerful representation of the weight of social constraints on women during this period in time. In this very short story, Chopin makes the case that women living within the social constraints of her time period were effectively dehumanized. The story begins by detailing the special care that was taken in trying to inform Mrs. Louise Mallard of the death of her husband because of her weak heart. “It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing” (Chopin). The story she receives is that her husband was killed in a recent railroad accident, information that had been confirmed by a close family friend. Her reaction to the news is remarked as somewhat surprising, but takes on greater significance later in the story. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (Chopin). From this point, much of the physical action of the story stops as Louise retires to her room alone and sits in a chair looking out the window. As she reflects upon the news she has just received, Louise begins to see the remainder of her life in ways that might have been highly unexpected at the time the story was written. Far from feeling her life was now over because her husband is dead, Louise begins to see her life as just now beginning because she will finally have a chance to make some of her own decisions. Although her life has been turned upside down, Chopin demonstrates through Louise’s thoughts that her world had already been upside down and only now, with the death of her husband, was it righting itself. The tragedy at the end is brought about not for the reasons assumed by her sister and other characters in the story, but rather by the shock of the slamming door as Louise realized her husband wasn’t dead. Her actual death thus stands as a metaphor for the spiritual death women living in these conditions experienced. Louise finds her freedom in her sudden interest in the world outside her window. It was a world she rarely considered because of her necessarily being constrained within the Victorian concepts that the woman should remain in the home. “Woman, in the cult of True Womanhood … was the hostage in the home” (Welter 1966 p. 21). That her marriage was a relatively enforced concession to the social requirements of the time is evidenced in her thoughts as she considers the loss of her husband. “And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter?” (Chopin, 1897: 3). Although the constraints placed upon her have served to make her feel empty inside and have had a severely detrimental effect on her heart, Louise has fallen victim to the theological conviction that her ability to adhere to the moral and ethical codes of her community was essential for the preservation of society. “She would be another, better Eve, working in cooperation with the Redeemer, bringing the world back from its revolt and sin. The world would be reclaimed for God through her suffering” (Welter, 1966: 152). The horror of her emptiness is expressed in her nearly emotionless assessment of what she’s lost in losing her husband. When she learns of her husband’s death, Louise immediately breaks down in grief as she is expected to do proving that she has convinced herself to remain completely in line, body and soul, with the cultural expectations of her time. As she sits at the window, Chopin attempts to show how the life of the constrained wife in the home has affected this woman, who, until this point, one has had the tendency to think of as older, perhaps because of the weak heart. Chopin describes her as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin). Although a woman might have been interested in some other activity in life, Louise, as did many other women in this time period, attempted to bury these abnormal thoughts by throwing herself into the ‘proper’ social definition. “Many [women] accepted the promise of domestic happiness and the circumscribed authority that supposedly inhered in piety, purity and submissiveness” (Roberts, 2002: 150). She has become so far constrained within the social cage of her home and the world around her that the very concept of being alone induced a moment of complete lifelessness. “Now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought” (Chopin). She feels a change coming toward her and she actually fears it because of what it represents. “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving hard to beat it back with all her will – as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been” (Chopin). As she looks out her window, though, all the natural signs of spring outside begin to reveal to her what it might mean to be free and she loses her fear of it as she becomes capable of naming it. As Louise recognizes the “subtle and elusive” something “creeping out of the sky” as freedom, Chopin shows her beginning to come to life in a way that has never before been recognized as a part of her spirit. “The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin) as she whispered the word ‘free’ over and over again. Although she had abandoned herself body and soul to the conventions of her time, Louise couldn’t help the underlying human need for self-expression and self-determination that would enable her to live her life fully. Hewitt (2002) suggests women “were not passively awaiting their liberator, but were instead cultivating the seeds of destruction that the cult of true womanhood itself had sown,” which is an idea expressed in Louise’s quick acceptance of her new status as a widow, free to do as she pleased without any of the constraints of father, husband or poverty to keep her from choosing her own actions in a day. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (Chopin). As her liberation is presented, Chopin takes away some of the social shock of this reaction by acknowledging what the common perception might be: “She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death” (Chopin). However, this momentary sadness is not enough to overcome the tremendous feeling of being alive Louise is experiencing for perhaps the first time in her life. Having accepted that she is free as a the birds, Chopin shows Louise fully coming to life through the activities of the ‘weak’ heart that is now suddenly pushing warm blood strongly through her previously constricted veins. “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin). However, the realization that her husband is still alive and healthy, thus placing her back within the confined role of the housewife, is more than her system can bear. Having tasted what it meant to be free, if only for a moment, the sight of her husband walking in the front door alive and well immediately conjured up the memory of her nearly lifeless status before the news arrived that he was dead. Louise’s physical death thus stands in as a symbol of the spiritual death most women experienced through their social atmosphere. Rather than returning again to that seeming death, Louise’s body determined that she would be free or die. Having the former snatched away from her just as she found it, her body couldn’t return to the state of half-existence it had been in and died in the process of walking down the stairs. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” (1897). Printed in Mercury Reader. Melanie Rubens. Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2007. Hewitt, Nancy. “Taking the True Woman Hostage.” Journal of Women’s History. Vol. 14, N. 1. 2002, pp. 156-62. Roberts, Mary Louise. “True Woman Revisited.” Journal of Women’s History. Vol. 14, N. 1. Spring 2002, pp. 150-55. Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” American Quarterly. Vol. 18, N. 2, P. 1. 1966, pp. 151-74. Read More