In The Story of an Hour (1894), Kate Chopin represents a negative view about marriage in the 1800s American South. Although The Story of an Hour is very short, it explores the women’s plight and the issues they faced in American society—issues that still challenge women today. As Susan Cahil states, Chopin’s story is one of feminism’s sacred texts. Chopin’s works, including this short story, target Victorian America’s perspectives that did not allow women to be equal to men, who were the most dominant gender. She shows, through her main character, Louise Mallard, how a widowed woman can overcome her husband’s death. Instead of living in sadness, Louise finds her freedom. That is to say, Chopin aims to mock as well as to transcend the confinement of Victorian America. The story’s structure contains modern literary characteristics such as irony, minimalist style, fragmentation, plotlessness, and narrative unreliability. These characteristics are filled with the most powerful and truthful representation of human life and morality.
Kate Chopin’s feminist consciousness started after her husband’s death, Oscar. She wrote fictional stories. She was influenced by great writers such as Guy de Maupassant and other American writers. In The Story of an Hour, her main character, Louise Mallard, has a different personality from those of Victorian Americans. After she hears about her husband’s death, one expects that Louise will feel sad and cry for the rest of her life, especially since she locks herself in her room. However, what happens is the opposite. She turns down all the reader’s expectations. Instead of grieving and wailing, Louise becomes happy and smiles. Yet, the story’s ending is extremely dramatic—no one can expect it.
Chopin uses metaphor to show how Louise’s emotions change. She states, “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.” Everyone in the house is very worried about her. Her sister, Josephine, tries to console her. She thinks that Louise might harm herself, get sick, or never stop crying. She says: “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door — you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.” Indeed, Louise starts crying. However, her tears do not last. After a short time, she becomes happy. Louise, in her room, finds her real identity and freedom—something she never had with her husband in the past. She realizes that she is not the kind of woman who will grieve her husband’s death for the rest of her life. She wants to have a new life where she will be independent and happy. She makes her decision when she is alone, which shows that a woman can make decisions on her own.
The structure of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour perfectly fits the subject matter. The story is very short and made up of a series of short paragraphs. Any reader will read it quickly in one hour or less, and the events happen in one hour too; that is why it has a sense of realism. But it is not so easy that someone will understand it from the very beginning. Since the story’s events take a short time, unlike common stories that are full of additional details, Chopin makes every sentence very important and meaningful, in which she employs an almost poetic writing style. The husband’s death, for instance, is compared to the rain, which shows the miserable life Louise had with her husband, and Louise’s happiness is compared to the spring, which is stated after her husband’s death. Also, Louise experiences different states of emotions in a short time. These emotions help her to build a personality and change her way of thinking.
Besides minimalism, Chopin uses irony to separate herself from her main character, Louise. She gives the power and voice to Louise to narrate the story. Louise, after her husband dies, makes quick plans. As readers, we would never expect this reaction from Louise, especially since she “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment.” Her action does not mean that Louise is careless or that she does not have feelings for her husband; rather, it shows that she has been waiting to live the freedom that she never had before. Chopin does not mention what the plans are, but she gives a glance that they are going to make Louise extremely happy.
However, she ironically kills her main character as she starts walking down the stairs at the end of the story. She does not give much time to Louise to enjoy the freedom that she has finally found. Once again, we would not expect that Louise will die. Perhaps some of us would feel compassion towards her, or maybe we would think that she will live happily. But Chopin plays with us and turns our expectations down. The funny thing is that doctors state that Louise’s death is caused by a heart attack brought on by her happiness. One, including her husband, would believe that the reason behind her death is that she was so happy her husband was still alive and, consequently, could not accept this beautiful surprise. Instead, Louise’s death shows, indirectly, that death might be the only escape to live real freedom in a society where men are the dominant gender.
Kate Chopin also portrays the marriage issues that women faced in late nineteenth-century America. Chopin was completely against the Victorian age’s perspective that marriage leads to a happy life. In the Victorian age, there was the idea that women could not be independent—they had to get married to have an identity and to be happy. Besides, they did not have a voice in society. Serious decisions about family were taken only by men. They did not even have the right to vote. This led to the following situation: on one hand, women were housewives, whose main role was managing their families’ home—cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, and taking care of their children and husbands’ needs. On the other hand, men used to work to support their families financially. If a husband died, his wife would no longer be happy or have an identity; therefore, she would grieve to death.
Chopin, through her character Louise, shows that a woman can be independent and that her happiness and identity are not related to her husband. Louise takes a very important decision in her life—to move on—when she isolates herself from others. She does not need her husband to make decisions for her. What Chopin is trying to show through this short story is that marriage is a means of social control that restricts women’s freedom. This can be seen through Louise’s reaction when she becomes happy. Louise feels that her freedom is locked away while she lives as a wife.
Thus, Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour might reflect her real life. As mentioned above, she started writing stories after her husband’s death to support her family. She had to take care of her children on her own. Although the story is full of irony and unexpected events, Chopin sends powerful messages about how women are regarded in society by criticizing Victorian beliefs. That is to say, she wants women to have a voice and an identity in society—a voice that will make them equal to men, where they can also vote, write, work, and be responsible. She does not want women to live in the same situation over and over. Her works were the beginning of a new women’s movement.
By Wadi Batyouk
