The History of an Hour is a short story by the novelist Kate Chopin. The story took place in the 1800s when women had very few rights, including the right to vote and hold property. It tells the story of a married woman who deals with abuse from her husband and society but ultimately finds happiness in her own life. “It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work.”(Chopin 6) The story shows how Mrs. Mallard is preparing for an evening out with her friends at home when she comes across a letter from her husband asking for money as he is broke. She sends him money anyway but worries about what he might do when he gets home, so she decides to leave early before dinner and go shopping instead. She meets up with some friends at a dress shop and orders several dresses for herself, one for each day of the week, so that she can return them without being seen by her husband, who would be suspicious if his wife returned anything other than new clothing each week.
In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin shows the feminist criticism approach, which is applied to the death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband, to explore the question of what it means to be a woman in American society based. Her story is told from the perspective of her daughter, who is only ten years old and living with her grandparents, while her mother recovers from the shock of her husband’s death. The child witnesses how Mrs. Mallard reacts to this shocking event, which seems to change everything about her future dreams and goals for herself and her family. “Then a strange, an awful change in her husband’s manner, which she dared not ask him to explain.” (Chopin 24)Chopin’s focus on Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death reveals that she is not alone in feeling this way; she is simply one example among many women who feel like they have been robbed of their identity by circumstances out of their control.
In Kate Chopin’s short story The Story of an Hour, the main character, Mrs. Mallard, is a wife and mother who has to overcome negative emotions to picture and visualize her own future. “She stayed motionless, with gaze riveted upon her child, and her face the picture of fright.” (Chopin 25)Mrs. Mallard, in the story, describes how she has been feeling. Mrs. Mallard then explains that she had been feeling lonely and upset because her husband had gone out for a few hours with his friends and not returned home until late at night. She describes how this made her feel lonely and rejected by her husband even though he was having some fun with friends while they were both at home together, waiting for him to return home from work early. Mrs. Mallard has negative emotions such as loneliness and rejection towards her husband due to his absence from home while he was out with friends rather than being present in their daily lives as they would have preferred.
The feminist approach to women’s lives in the 19th century was not one of acceptance but resistance. Women were treated poorly and expected to be submissive to their husbands and fathers. If a woman loved her husband and did not want him dead, she would be overjoyed at the news of his death. There are several instances in which the author reflects on how women are treated differently than men and how this can harm the family unit “The young mother was recovering slowly, and lay full length, in her soft white muslins and laces, upon a couch” (Chopin 23). However, this news only disturbs Mrs. Mallard, as she has loved her husband dearly and mourns his loss. She is further outraged when she learns that her husband has been unfaithful to her and feels betrayed. Therefore, Chopin uses this story because it illustrates how women are not valued in society unless they are married or have children; if they do, they cannot achieve their full potential as humans because society does not value them as much as men.
Furthermore, it is a mistake for us to take the past for granted. We need to ensure that this mistake does not repeat itself in the future. The past can be a valuable source of knowledge, but it can also hinder our growth. We must never forget that every action we take has consequences, which will follow us forever. “I used to feel that if any of the other things looked too fierce, I could always hop into that chair and be safe” (Chopin 7). Therefore, we must always be vigilant and ensure that our actions do not lead us down the road of regret. For example, if you are going to save money in your bank account, you need to make sure that you do not spend all of your money on unnecessary things because if you do, then there will be no money left over for emergencies or future purchases. In order to ensure that this does not happen again, we must take a critical approach when analyzing our past mistakes so as not to repeat them in the future. Hence, this means taking time out of everyday life and thinking about what happened before so as not to repeat similar mistakes.
Work Cited
Chopin, Kate. The story of an hour. Jimin Recordings, 1981.
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