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Women And Their Rights In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

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During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed. This shows a balance between gender roles, as well as the embracing progressive changes within culture and society. In the story “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, a third-person omniscient narrator, relates how Mrs. Louise Mallard, the protagonist, experiences the euphoria of freedom rather than the grief of loneliness after hearing about her husband’s death. Later, when Mrs. Mallard discovers that her husband, Mr. Brently Mallard, still lives, she realizes that all her aspiration for freedom has gone. The shock and disappointment kills Mrs. Mallard. Kate Chopin reveals how language, institutions, and expected behavior restrain the natural desires and aspirations of women in patriarchal societies. In 1894, when this story was formed, culture had its own structure on marriage and the conduct towards women. Gender roles play a major role throughout our history. They would decide whether a woman in colonial times would be allowed to join the labor …show more content…

These were the accustomed gender roles acknowledged back then; nevertheless, various cultures could still contain them, although other don’t any longer. The culture I grew up in, still have these traditional gender roles to several degree, however several of them have distorted above a point in time; for instance, some ladies can assist men in helping with some of the households, therefore men can help them in the house caring. Both gender roles can gain knowledge of their accustomed gender

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“Adele Ratignolle: Kate Chopin’s Feminist at Home in the Awakening” was written by Kathleen M. Streater and featured in the famous “The Midwest Quarterly”, a famous peer reviewed periodical. Kathleen Streater has not written many articles, which is suggested by doing a thorough research on her background; however, this paricular article is highly quoated. Furthermore, she does not seem to possess in-depth knowledge on Chopin but the arguments made by her in the article are quite convincing and unique. There are many encouraging quotes used by Kathleen, for instance she once argued that Chopin is only concentrating on the radical feminism of Edna which has limited her assessment of feminism to a great extent. This is a unique argument presented

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Society explicitly molds a façade of conformity which aids in the direct manipulation and social castration of the individual, those with free spirits defiantly choosing not to fall victim to societal convention. Consequently, history is tainted with the continuous oppression of particular groups, a prominent one being women. The role of women in society has been purposefully dictated in order to maintain this false sense of societal uniformity. Furthermore, women have been subjugated to submissive roles in which any deviation from these predetermined standards labels an individual as an outlier. Specifically, in Kate Chopin’s

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In Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, Chopin illustrates the story of a women, Louise Mallard, who has the emotional experiences of a lifetime, in only one hour. After she was informed of her husband’s death, she immediately feels grief but then finds joy in her newfound independence. After her sister persuades Louise to come out from her room, she walks out to the sight of her husband alive. The intense emotion causes her to die from a heart attack.

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In the late 1800s, nearly all women were viewed as subservient, inferior, second class females that lived their lives in a patriarchal and chauvinist society. Women often had no voice, identity, or independence during that time period. Moreover, women dealt with the horrors of social norms and the gender opposition of societal norms. The primary focus and obligation for a woman to obtain during the 1800s was to serve her husband and to obey to anything he said. Since women were not getting the equality, freedom, or independence that they desired, Kate Chopin, an independent-minded female American novelist of the late 1800s expressed the horrors, oppressions, sadness, and oppositions that women of that time period went through.

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Literary Analysis “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to the sudden death of her husband. Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as sad, yet happy that her husband has been killed. Kate Chopin’s “ The Story of an Hour” argues that when a person is controlled and made to live under another person their mental state of mind is affected. The story also argues that when that person is freed from the controlling person their true self can finally be achieved. Kate Chopin portrays these themes by the use of character development; plot control, and irony throughout the story.

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Self-Identity and Freedom The story of an hour by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to her husband’s death. In this short story, Chopin portrays the complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as she is saddened yet joyful of her loss. Kate Chopin’s story argues that an individual discovers their self-identity only after being freed from confinement.

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