BLOG 9: Kate Chopin

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is an interesting story because it is about a woman and is also an ironic tragedy. There is sort of a cavalcade of emotions for the main character, Mrs. Mallard. The loss of her husband causes immediate grief but also eventual reluctance and freedom. She is liberated from the bondage of man and marriage, but, in the twist ending, the husband is still alive and she dies from the shock. In regards to her husband, she says she loved him sometimes, but “often she had not” (Chopin 555). This makes her freedom more easily acceptable, and she can go out and see “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”, feel “the delicious breath of rain… in the air”, and hear “the notes of a distant song” and “countless sparrows… twittering in the eaves” (Chopin 554).The philosophy is that freedom is natural, women deserve their natural right to freedom, and marriage is a form of bondage. It deals with, as Werlock says, “issues of feminism, namely, a woman's dissatisfaction in a conventional marriage and her desire for independence” (Werlock).

Pertaining to women being able to have equality, Emerson said that “it is they and not we that are to determine it” (Vetter and Dane). Emerson almost seems like he waffled on this issue, but he generally believed in equality by saying: “If women feel wronged then they are wronged...I should vote for every franchise for women” (Vetter and Dane). To marriage, Emerson said that “a man’s wife has more power over him than the state has” (Vetter and Dane). This is definitely something Chopin would disagree with. In her story, man either has all the power or marriage takes away both of the husband and wife’s freedom. A good marriage to Chopin might look something like FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt’s marriage; where they both did their own thing and the whole affiliation was mostly political.

Thoreau said that “a minority is powerless when it conforms to a majority” (Thoreau). Granted he was not talking about women when he said this, it really applies to all minorities. Although, this does not insinuate that he believes each minority, in this case women, should be empowered. Thoreau also said “it is the marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination”, so his marriage is different than both Emerson and Chopin (Creative).

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 553-555. Print.

"Creative Quotes and QuotationsOn Imagination..." CreatingMinds. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. .

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Vetter, Herbert F., and Andrew Dane. "Women’s Rights | Emerson - Living Legacy."Harvard Square Library. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. .

Werlock, Abby H. P. "'The Story of an Hour'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CASS782&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 23, 2012).