Oppression In William Faulkner's The Story Of An Hour

Everyone experiences some type of oppression during his or her lifetime. Per Mar’i, oppression is the “‘institutionalized collective and individual modes of behavior through which one group attempts to dominate and control another in order to secure political, economic, and/or social-psychological advantage’” (Prilleltensky and Gonick 129). In laymen’s terms, it means that it is a series of unbalanced relationships between genders, classes, communities, individuals, states, and nations (Prilleltensky and Gonick 130). Oppression may not be as obvious today as it was during the 19th and 20th century. During this time frame, many short stories have an issue of oppression in them. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story that was written by Kate

This short story was written about forty years after the Chopin piece, however, the issue of oppression is still present. Emily is oppressed by her father since “none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such” (Faulkner 1000). This means that any man that Emily wanted to date or have court her were never good enough for her father. The community gets the impression that Emily has never had a date or gotten serious with a man for her father was very controlling and particular about the type of man he wanted for Emily. The speaker of the story “remembered all of the young men that her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (1000). Since she had never had any experience with dating before, when her father died, she had no idea how to be in a relationship so she isolated herself and remained alone for a long time. She was robbed of the opportunity to have a relationship and this affected her for the rest of her life. When she finally was in a relationship, she was extremely obsessive and territorial which lead to her killing Homer. Obviously, this is not the proper way to act in a relationship and she acts this way as she does not know how else to act. Prilleltensky and Gonick believe that dominant males

After Homer came to town, the community noticed that “she carried her head high enough- even when we believed that she was fallen” (1001). The town and community did not know if she was truly a fallen woman or not, but they assumed that she was and this affected Emily every time that she entered a store or walked down the street. She was a woman of lesser status as she was suspected of giving up her chastity to a man who ended up disappearing. When the townspeople found out that Homer had “left” her, “the next day we all said “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing.” (1001). This is a very significant quote for the society is oppressing her and what makes her happy. When the man in Miss Emily’s life disappears, they believe that it would be better for her to kill herself instead of live the rest of her life as a fallen woman in their society. Society is oppressing her happiness because they are judging her and her relationship with Homer even though they do not know what truly went on in the relationship. Society has also oppressed Emily’s happiness and life by thinking that she will kill herself since it would be the best thing to save her from her mysterious relationship with Homer that everyone saw as damaging to her reputation as the town suspects that she lost her virginity to him. When Homer disappears, the gossip is rampant throughout the