The Awakening Critical Lens

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” This quote embraces the theme of both short stories “Story of an hour” and “Excerpts of the awakening”; both by Kate Chopin. In Kate Chopin’s story, “Story of an Hour”, the main character, Louise Mallard, is a woman that had recently been informed that her husband had passed away in an incident. At first, after she had been told about the incident, she felt great grief. Eventually, she began to think deeper into the possibilities that the tragedy could bring. She thought greatly about how she used to let others go before herself. Not much later, her husband appeared at the front door. The surprise was such that she had a heart attack

Edna is not happy nor satisfied with her marriage. She tries to find a solution to all her problems; but seeing that she could not, she decided to end her life to finally obtain her own freedom. In Story of an Hour and Excerpts from the Awakening, by Kate Chopin, it is clear that when you shove your feelings down and do not face them problems get bigger. Chopin uses inner thinking to show this in Story of an Hour, while she uses character action in Excerpts from the Awakening.

In “Story of an hour” by Kate Chopin, it states, “When she abandoned herself, a little whispered word escaped her slightly partly lips. She said over and over under her breath:”free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes.”(Para 10, Chopin) After she received the news of her dead husband, she was saddened, but then, she began to somehow feel relief and reassurance. She tried not to feel this way but her emotions won the best of her. The thought of her husband being dead gave her a soothing feeling. “He had

And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome. There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. 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.” She had a feeling of relief because she had realized that without her husband present, she wouldn’t have to listen or do what was said by him. She thought that she could not be free to make her own decisions and that no one else could take control over her. She thought that maybe by doing everything a normal loving wife would do, things would be fine. Until she felt the husband’s absence. “And yet she loved him — sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! “Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.” To her, her freedom and being capable of doing what she wanted was more important than her little amount of love towards her now dead husband. She felt splendid once he was