The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin - Book Report/Review Example

The Story of an Hour: Marriage as a Form of Oppression. The Story of an Hour, like most of Kate Chopin’s short stories, centers round a woman’s attitude towards marriage, love and independence. As always in Chopin’s work, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, differs from the stereotypical heroine of sentimental fiction. Chopin, whose own childhood was spent in a family whose women exhibited great strength of character, treasured above all a woman’s achievement in “the winning of a self, the keeping of it” (Howard. Web page). This was a controversial stand in 1894, the year in which Chopin wrote The Story of an Hour. The patriarchal society of the nineteenth century embraced ‘The Cult of True Womanhood’ in its’ magazines and social and religious literature. According to the dictates of this cult, the proper role of a woman was to practice the so-called “virtues” of piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity (Welter. Web page). A woman had no identity of her own, apart from that of her husband. Marriage was the ultimate goal of a woman’s life and fulfillment was to be found in her role as the ideal wife and mother. The feminist movement was in its’ nascent stages and centered round the demand for legal, educational and political rights. Even before these could be resolved, Chopin’s stories delved into the private needs of a woman, which society denied the very existence of. In this repressive society, Louise Mallard, Chopin’s heroine in The Story of an Hour, is definitely a woman with a difference. On hearing of her husband’s death, she is filled, not with sorrow, but with the hope of dawning freedom. She exults, “Free, free, free!” (Chopin, para. 10). Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to the news of her husband’s death reveals how marriage for women in the nineteenth century was a definite impediment to personal growth and freedom. Louise Mallard has evidently adhered to the ‘Cult of True Womanhood,’ which did not recognize a woman’s need for freedom or personal growth. She has accepted the ‘feminine virtue’ of submission to her husband in her marriage, following the accepted precept that “True feminine genius is ever timid, doubtful and clingingly dependent, a perpetual childhood” (Grace Greenwood, qtd. in Welter). She has conformed to the suggestion that women should “become as little children” (The Young Woman’s Guide to the Harmonious Development of a Christian Character, qtd. in Welter). Thus, we find that Mrs. Mallard, after hearing of her husband’s death, locks herself into her room, sinks into an armchair and sobs “as a child who has cried itself to sleep” (Chopin, para. 7). Again, Mrs. Mallard has been conditioned to accept society’s estimation of domesticity as a virtue to be prized by ‘true womanhood’: “There is composure at home; there is something sedative in the duties which home involves” (Mrs. Sandford, qtd in Welter). The ‘Cult of True Womanhood’, extolled patience, self-possession and a gentle, pliable nature and abhorred intellectual pursuits. All these characteristics are seen in Chopin’s portrayal of Mrs. Mallard. As she sits in her room, there is “a dull stare in her eyes.” Her demeanor indicated “a suspension of intelligent thought” (Chopin, para. 8). Mrs. Mallard has been ‘sedated’ by domesticity. Mrs. Mallard’s personal growth and freedom have also been repressed in a more insidious manner by the convenient convention that women were physically weaker and more delicate than men. Women were physically smaller, had less physical stamina, had a hyperactive nervous system and were afflicted by their periodic monthly ‘illness’ (Lavender. Web page). This estimation of women as the weaker sex was opportunistically used as a justification to protect a woman by confining her to the safety of her home. Mrs. Mallard is treated as an invalid who does not possess the fortitude to face life. She is a fragile object to be preserved from the rough and tumble of the world. “Great care is taken to break to her as carefully as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin, Para. 1). Richards “hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend” (Chopin, Para. 2). This subtle form of repression ensures that the contours of Mrs. Mallard’s world are defined by men. Richard’s chivalry in making “a quick motion to screen him (Mr. Mallard) from the view of his wife” (Chopin, Para. ) is a manifestation of nineteenth society’s repressive tactic of holding the woman as “the hostage in the home” (Welters) and isolating her from the world on the pretext of screening her from the unpleasant realities of life. Likewise, the male doctors have diagnosed her with heart trouble. Again, it is they who unequivocally declare that “she had died of heart disease – of the joy that kills” (Chopin, Para. 20). The irony of this declaration is so far from the truth that it is almost comic. Chopin reinforces the image of feminine repression by portraying Brently Mallard as a caricature of the stereotypical man of the world, engrossed in his occupation, returning home with fortitude after a day’s noble toil: “a little travel stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella” (Chopin, Para. 19). Mrs. Mallard’s personal growth has been stifled to such an extent that she has been made an agent of her own repression. This irrefutable fact is supported by Chopin’s description of Mrs. Mallard’s face, “whose lines bespoke repression” (Chopin, Para. 8). “The clouds that had met and piled one above the other” are symbolic of male society crushing her freedom, which now peeps out tantalizingly as patches of blue, after her husband’s death. As Louise Mallard senses the approach of freedom, her first impulse is fear: “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully” (Chopin, Para. 9). She has been so conditioned to her submissive, domesticated role, that she herself attempts to suppress her freedom, “to beat it back with her will” (Chopin, Para. 10). Mrs. Mallard is considered so helpless, that she even, supposedly, poses a threat to herself. Josephine pleads, “You will make yourself ill” (Chopin, Para. 15). The most convincing proof that Mrs. Mallard’s marriage was an instrument of suppression of her personal growth and freedom, lies in the unstinting joy with which she embraces its’ end and the prospect of her widowhood. “She opened and spread her arms out ---in welcome” (Chopin, Para. 11). Widowhood to her is liberation. Her dull, staring eyes become “keen and bright” (Chopin, Para. 10). The exhaustion which had earlier permeated her body and soul is washed away and “Her pulse beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin, Para. 10). The evocative imagery of the view from the open window – of budding trees, the smell of life-giving rain, music and the twittering birds – is a triumphant declaration of the birth of Louise Mallard’s freedom. Freedom from the restricting confines of marriage is the “very elixir of life” (Chopin, Para. 16) to Mrs. Mallard. She who had wished for death: “It was only yesterday that she had thought with a shudder that life might be long,” now prays that her life be long so that she can savor her freedom from her husband’s “powerful will bending hers” (Chopin, Para. 12). Louise Mallard’s marriage ensured the stifling of her personal growth and freedom. Marriage had made her forfeit her right to her own life. She had lived for her husband. The years of her married life had belonged to him. He had bent her will to his own. Her marriage had deprived her of the basic right of every person: the right to live for oneself. The end of her marriage marks the defeat of the forces of oppression. With widowhood, Louise becomes “A Goddess of Victory” (Chopin, Para. 18). With the death of her husband, she has triumphed over her subjugation. Her husband can no longer impose his will on her. She is finally free to express “the strongest impulse of her being --- self assertion” (Chopin, Para. 13). Her death is the ultimate proof of the fact that her marriage entailed the crushing of her freedom and individuality – Louise Mallard would rather be dead than return to the oppression of her marriage. Works Cited. Howard, Ann Bail (1997). A Woman Far Ahead of Her Times. 23 July 2007. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/chopinhoward.htm Lavender, Catherine. The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood. 23 July 2007 http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html Welter, Barbara. The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860 (1996). 23 July 2007 http://www.pinzler.com/ushistory/cultwo.html Read More