Feminism in the Story of an Hour free essay sample

Feminism can be traced in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† which is about an hour in the life of the main character Mrs. Mallard . . In this story, a woman named Mrs. Mallard believes her husband to be dead, and at first, is very sad. Then, as her independence sinks in, she is elated with the idea of her newfound freedom. At last, she discovers that her husband has not died and she is so surprised that she dies of heart disease. The story shows the thoughts and emotions that can support the feminist theory. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief with the loss of her husband. This shows that the female is an emotional person compared to men. It was natural to know that she would be upset with the death of her husband, but the story had both her sister and her husband’s friend be there to break the news to her. Mrs. Mallard has heart problems which can make the reader see her as a weaker person right at the beginning of the story. From the start, we as readers are told to see Mrs. Mallard as a naturally weaker character. the story reveals that society is a patriarchal society . So the female has no real authority or important role. She is inferior than man . She is dependent on man. The female is regarded as a fragile creature. Mrs Mallard has been oppressed in her marriage. Chopin suggests that all marriages, even the kindest ones, are inherently oppressive. Louise, who readily admits that her husband was kind and loving, nonetheless feels joy when she believes that he has died. Louise views Brently’s death as a release from oppression. She never names a specific way in which Brently oppressed her, hinting instead that marriage in general stifles both women and men. She even seems to suggest that she has oppressed Brently just as much as he has oppressed her. Louise’s epiphany in which these thoughts parade through her mind reveals the inherent oppressiveness of all marriages, which by their nature rob people of their independence. After she hears the news of her husband’s death Mrs Mallard ‘s character starts to appear as a feminist character. She goes to her room. After she sits down, Mrs. Mallard begins to appear as a stronger woman which is where the feminist theory takes effect. She looks out of the house through the large open window which could also signify the open opportunities available to her now. She begins to see how her marriage made her into a lesser person. She realizes that she has been living her life through limitations caused from being married. Mrs. Mallard knows that she can begin to live for herself. The story says, â€Å"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.    This quote shows the feminist theory that it was assumed women were oppressed and shows the patriarchal ideology. She was bending her will and freedom to a white man that held all of the control in the relationship. Marriage, in this story, appears to be the male having complete control over the woman. It also seems like Mrs. Mallard thought that she wasn’t even allowed to have her own thoughts which was probably true. To question your husban d at this period in time meant that you were being an out of control wife. Mrs. Mallard goes on to realize how much she really does not love her husband. She doesn’t feel the need to have guilt over it since he is already gone. She finally breaks away from the role forced onto her as the perfect wife and can begin to stop holding herself back. This can show the reader that a woman at this time might not even be aware of just how much of herself she has to hold back when married. It seems like Mrs. Mallard didn’t allow herself the thoughts of being completely free from him and what she will be able to do when he’s no longer around, until he was actually dead. The window in the story can symbolize an escape from the traditional gender roles according to the feminist theory. The big comfortable chair is located right in front of it, comfortable possibly meaning that she shouldn’t fear being uncomfortable escaping the typical gender role and becoming an independent woman. Once she sits in the chair she notices all the beautiful things going on outside, â€Å"the trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life† is referring to her new life as a woman breaking free from traditional gender roles and experiencing woman’s rights. When her husband who is actually never really dead in the first place came inside, Mrs. Mallard died right there because when she sees her husband, all her feminine freedom is crashing down around her and now that she has seen the freedom she could have as free woman she could never go back to being under the control of a man and ever be happy again. â€Å"When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills† means that when a man has control over a woman, it’s like a disease on the woman’s heart and it’s not healthy to give in to inequality, eventually it will kill them. Once she gets to experience the delights of woman’s rights and freedom the thought of being without that kills her, literally. The images of feminism in the story There are different images in the story that reflect the idea of feminism. After Mrs. Mallard knows that her husband died , she does not just sit there paralyzed by how her life will be over without him. However, immediately , she goes to her room alone to be at once with her thoughts. She sinks into a comfortable chair and is haunted by her horrible news. This is where Mrs. Mallard becomes filled with an inner joy slowly. She looks out her window and sees the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all  aquiver with the new spring life. The chair was facing the open window showing the reader that she has sat there many times before, maybe longing for a life she could not have, seeing all the possibilities in life out before her. Seeing all of this begins to put her in a different frame of mind to appreciate her newfound freedom. She smells rain in the air. ‘’ she felt it creeping out of the sky reaching toward her through the sounds , the scents , the color that filled air’’. In other words, she hears the sounds of life all around her. She smells the scent of a fresh start where the rain washes everything clean. She begins to imagine herself in her new beginning as though her very life is washed clean by the rain. This reveals as if she sees life for the first time and starts to enjoy nature . However, at this point, When she  abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped  her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath:  free, free, free! . She anticipates her own freedom as much as she tries to stop the thoughts. This reflects strongly the theory of feminism which calls for the freedom of women. Blood begins to course through her body as she just begins to realize the unlimited choices in her new life. The ‘’ a monstrous joy ‘’is a metaphor that reflects her feeling of guilt because she is happy for her freedom. ‘’ free Free! Body and soul free!   she kept whispering . Tying back to the quote from the introduction, Mrs. Mallard realizes that body and soul are tied together and that she is completely free. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. The image ‘’ she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory’’ is very effective. Comparing her to a goddess of victory shows the immense power she feels at being free. She now sees a future when before people were afraid to tell her the truth. Having the story end with Mrs. Mallard dying and society thinking it was joy of seeing The patriarchal images in the story. The story reflects the strict patriarchal society at that time . this is stressed even in the name of Mrs . Mallard . hroughout the story the main character is not named by her name but by her husband’s which shows how society is restricted at that time and does not give women any importance or freedom. The image ‘’There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. ’’ He r tiredness is caused not only by â€Å"the storm of grief† experienced by Louise after hearing the news of her husband’s death, but also by a long-time of self-control or suppression in the conventional and patriarchal environment. he is defined as a self-less woman who is attached to Mr. Brently Mallard as his wife, who does not have her own social status and who surely lacks her self identity. This female selflessness and lack of self-identity should be also considered part of the patriarchal suppression. The only time she gets back her own name, the symbol of her self-identity, is when her sister Josephine is calling her through the keyhole, and that is the time when Louise has achieved her self-assertion. The patriarchal suppression can be further proven by many deep ironies applied in the story. While other characters (Josephine and Richards) in the story think that Louise is in deep grief because of the news of her husband’s death, ironically she is actually experiencing â€Å"a monstrous joy† in her room. The story starts with the false death of Brently Mallard, but ends with the real death of Louise, and that Louise truly dies of the shock caused by the unwelcome and unexpected return of her husband, but the doctors, typical representatives of the patriarchal society, have claimed that Mrs. Mallard has died of â€Å"joy that kills. †4 At the end of the story, Louise’s husband, Brently Mallard, comes into the house with only two things: â€Å"his grip-sack and umbrella† (538). If we split the compound word â€Å"grip-sack† into â€Å"grip† and â€Å"sack,† we will easily find that the word â€Å"grip† means â€Å"a tight hold, strong grasp, the power to grasp,† while the word â€Å"sack† means either a large bag. Brent Mallard not only firmly grips Louise’s life but also tightly controls Louise’s fate by controlling her freedom and self-identity. Traditionally an umbrella usually symbolizes some kind of protection, and in the context of this story under discussion it still symbolizes a kind of protection—the protection of marriage, the protection that Brently Mallard provides Louise as a husband to a wife, as a man to a woman in social and conventional terms. But this â€Å"so-called† social and conventional protection exactly proves that a woman exists only as a men’s wife without her own selfhood and self-identity This point can be further proven by the fact that Louise lives as Mrs. Mallard in life and dies as Brently Mallard’s wife, as she is called Mrs. Mallard in the very first sentence of the story and â€Å"his wife† at the very end of the story. . Her repression seems a matter of course for the people around her. Her sister and friend interpret her reactions according to their  model that a woman should be  grieved to see her husband die. The true irony lies at the end, where she is said  to have died of â€Å"the joy that kills† where the reader knows that it is more likely that she dies of extreme grief. In a way, she will not go back into her cage, even if the only option to keep her free lies in death. Furthermore, it is interesting how her death is worded-the doctors say that â€Å"she died of heart disease-the joy that kills†. It makes you wonder whether this sort of thing happens often for the doctors to have a label for it.