Kate Chopin Freedom or Insanity The Story of An Hour

Kate Chopin Freedom or Insanity The Story of An Hour

Freedom or Insanity
Author Kate Chopin is well known for some of the most influential feminist stories and novels in the Western world. The Story of an Hour, written in 1894, is one such text which addresses many concerns that are central to feminism. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of The Yellow Wallpaper written in 1891, draws a similar and comparable conclusion about a feminist interpretation on the concept of the domestic life that women were held in during this period. Both are alike in that the women in the stories were controlled by their husbands which caused them to feel an intense desire for freedom. Both short stories have a lot to do with the subordination of marriage and the domestic work of the wife. While the husbands in the stories have an active working life, the women struggle for expression of a unique identity and the right to identify and express their own interests. Both stories clearly show the constraining tradition of marriage, but differs in that one story tells of the release from such an oppression while the other dwells on its detrimental effects.
In The Story of an Hour, there are several instances of ironic phrases used to convey the happiness of the main character, Mrs. Mallard, while contrasting them with the direct correlation of the ultimate message that marriage is constraining. The fact that she dies at the end of simple “heart disease,” which the doctors think came about as a result of her joy of seeing her husband, is symbolic of the “disease” of marriage. Much like a disease, she cannot feel free unless her husband is no longer present. The fact that it affects her heart as opposed to any other portion of her body shows that her misery from this symbolic disease stems from something inside of her rather than anything external. One of the most important quotes from The Story of an Hour clearly shows that her husband loved her when he is described as having “the face that had never looked save with love upon her.” This is...