Introduction
Unfortunately, oppression of women is a severe and extended process that was especially active in the 1890s. A number of famous American writers of those years used their talent of choosing the right words to describe how women and men may oppress each other and deprive their beloved ones of freedom. A short writing “A Story of an Hour,” created by Kate Chopin in 1894, touches on the topic of unhappiness during the marriage.
A woman named Louise Mallard is informed of her husband’s tragic death. While trying to process this information and understand her own feelings, the woman wants to be alone in her room. Unexpectedly, instead of continuing mourning and grieving, Louise meets with another feeling – freedom. While knowing that she will miss her husband, the woman also feels relieved that she will not have to live with him for years – she is now free. However, when she learns that her husband is actually alive, she dies, as noted by the doctors, “of heart disease–of the joy that kills” (Chopin). It is possible to say that the story evokes strange emotions and leaves an ambiguous impression, making one think about the connections between love, marriage, happiness, and freedom.
External and Internal Conflict
In “The Story of an Hour,” there is both internal and external conflict. The essence of the latter is in the opposition of a person to society and its norms. Chopin refers to one of “the numerous paradoxes against which the woman had to survive in the American society in the 19th century” – imposed roles and stereotypes (Kusi and Zetang-Jua 2). When finally feeling free, Louise joyfully realized that “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). Thus, it is evident that the conflict discussed in the short story is between the society that wants males and females to follow their roles and real people who are tired of stereotypes and taken freedom.
Further, the second conflict in “The Story of an Hour” is the internal struggle and confusion of Louise. It is challenging for her to understand and accept the duality of her feelings. On the one hand, her husband loved her and never treated her badly, which is why it is difficult to name her marriage unhappy. On the other hand, being someone’s spouse deprived the woman of her right to make decisions and live in the way she wanted. Mrs. Mallard is simultaneously relieved and overwhelmed by the terrible news and tries to decide whether her new freedom or old happiness is greater:
And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering… (Chopin)
This is probably why Louise dies when her husband returns home. The woman has already accepted her new happiness, has imagined and loved living alone, and the great news of her spouse being alive makes it impossible for her to return to reality.
Physical and Cultural Setting
The setting in the story is also essential for understanding the conflict and main idea. As mentioned above, the story takes action in the 19th century when many roles and stereotypes were imposed on both males and females (Jassam and Jassam 2). Such a circumstance weighs on Louise, not allowing her to understand that she is being oppressed (Yazgı 148), but these societal norms do not seem to bother her sister and husband’s friend (Chopin). The physical setting in the story is the Mallards’ house. It is a neutral territory where Louise is both happy and safe, but her freedom is somewhere else, behind the window. Finally, the time in the story is limited – all events take one hour, and the author shows how much a character’s feelings and life, in general, can change in such a small amount of time.
Literary Devices
As with most literary works, this short story is filled with numerous language devices that add to the ambiguity and power of “The Story of an Hour.” To begin with, it is essential to discuss repetition since, as noticed by Hu, it is “replete with repetition of words, phrases, structures, ideas, and themes” (1). Among many other examples, the window in Louise’s room is selected to prove the point of this paragraph. There are three sentences in which the window is mentioned in a similar form: “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair,” “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window,” and “she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window” (Chopin). According to Hu, the repetition in these fragments is used to portray Mrs. Mallard as a vivid woman who suddenly changes her mind (3). Therefore, this literary device is needed to allow the readers better understand Louise.
Another language device in this short story is symbolism, and it is also discussed in the example of the window and the doors in Mrs. Mallard’s house. When trying to process the news and imagine her future life, she is looking precisely out the window and realizes her freedom, feels being “body and soul free” (Chopin). The window is the symbol of liberty, life, and uncommon happiness for Louise. At the same time, the doors in their house symbolize the past and death as they provide no escape from stereotypes, oppression, and unhappy marriage. When Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room, the closed door is a symbol of the past she has left behind; however, opening the door for her sister means that Louise returns to her past and is going to meet her death. It is also interesting that, for Mr. Mallard, the front door that he enters actually symbolizes life, so this is a dual symbolism – if her husband is alive, Louise has to die to be free.
Conclusion
To draw a conclusion, one may say that “The Story of an Hour” is indeed rather ambiguous writing that leaves the reader with confusing emotions. Is it correct to consider Louise’s death as the final escape from oppression and unhappy marriage? Was it possible for her to live happily with her husband, who loved and admired her? These are the questions I have after reading the story. The opposition between death and life, social norms and self-perception, and marriage and freedom make this story, written in just a few paragraphs, unique in terms of feminist literature.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.”Virginia Commonwealth University, 1894.
Hu, Aihua. “The Art of Repetition in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 2020, pp. 1-6.
Jassam, Aseel Hatif, and Hadeel Hatif Jassam. “Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”: A Feminist Discourse of a Married Woman Reclaiming Her Lost Female Identity.” Social Sciences International Research Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-5.
Kusi, David Toh, and Zetang-Jua, Amandine Ankainkom. “Aesthetic Significance and Biographical Signposting: Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and the Release of Patriarchal Grief.” International Journal of Integrative Humanism, vol. 12, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-9.
Yazgı, Cihan. “Tragic Elements and Discourse-Time in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” The Explicator, vol. 78, no. 3-4, 2020, pp. 147-152.