"The Story of an Hour"

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was a very enjoyable short story in my opinion. For a short story, there was a lot of detailed imagery. Kate Chopin has a great sense of her surroundings, and the way that she puts them to paper is wondrous. I’ve commented about this a couple times in my journal already about her imagery in The Awakening. I’ve stated in the first entry that her writing is quite comparable to that of Fitzgerald’s in The Great Gatsby.

On another note, I think that the plot twist in “The Story of an Hour” was interesting. One would think that a woman would be upset that her husband was dead, but Chopin doesn’t write of what was considered “the norm” in her days. In the story, it doesn’t state anywhere that Brently Mallard was an abusive or overpowering husband, and yet Louise Mallard felt that oppression had been lifted after getting the news. She was oppressed by society’s stereotypes and expectations of her. 

Chopin seems to follow this theme frequently, though I can’t state that for certain since I’ve only read “The Story of an Hour” and The Awakening. However, both of these works follow the tale of a young female protagonist that feels that they are oppressed by something. Both are married, and both have the come-and-go feeling of love for their husbands.

If authors write from what they know, which I do firmly believe, then is this feeling of oppression something that Kate Chopin felt herself? Did she not like the idea of married life and following the expectations of society? After skimming through a biography, it seems possible, but probably unlikely. The biography stated that The Awakening was actually based off of a woman that Chopin had known of in New Orleans. It also says that Chopin’s husband, Oscar Chopin, “‘allowed’ her unheard of freedom.” Maybe she wasn’t as oppressed by society as the women in her stories, but skimming through one biography doesn’t make me completely sure of this.