Lewandowski 1

Madison Lewandowski

Mr. Koroshec

English 111, Period 1

23 May 2017

The Story of the Hour: Patriarchal Oppression and Self Assertion

Have you ever noticed how much the position of just a couple phrases and the overall

tone of a piece of writing can say so much in so few words? Simply by hinting at a reoccurring

theme, an author can easily drive readers to think at a deeper level and ask questions about

sections that have been left unclear. Leaving substantial conclusions out of pieces of writing

prompt the readers to take a stance on their own opinion on the matter, rather than relying on the

authors single sided ending.

The short story The Story of the Hour, by Kate Chopin is no longer than three pages,

yet using irony and the realization of self-assertion, she brings attention to a much larger

message about the importance of patriarchal oppression and feminist views. In the short story,

Chopin describes a concerned marriage of an elderly couple in which the wife, Louise Mallard,

was informed that her husband was on his last few breaths of his life. Yet, rather than solely

being sad about his inevitable death, Mrs. Mallard felt as though a weight was lifted off of her

shoulders, thinking of the freedom she would soon have. In a strange change of events, her

husband walks into Mrs. Mallards room very much alive, and causes Louise to instantaneously

fall dead, missing out on the opportunity to her freedom. Considering the reason that Mrs.

Mallard falls dead suggests that Kate Chopin had much more in mind than a simple short story,

read solely for pleasure.

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Being written in 1894, The Story of an Hour was relevant in a time era where the roles

of women in society were a highly discussed topic. In the book Short Stories for Students,

literary professor, Kathleen Wilson, reminded us that women were restricted of the right to vote

until 1920, and have been struggling with their freedom and power since. Charles Darwins

book, The Origin of Species, had also become popular at this time and further questioned this

topic. Some believed it challenged the issue by encouraging women to be self assertive, while

others believed it encouraged the role of women to focus singly on their role of reproduction and

motherhood (268).

In addition, female authors were very rare. Despite Chopins many negative critics

judging her writing choices as improper, she continued to write and discuss pressing topics that

other women were too afraid to bring up. Though Chopins viewpoints were inspired from

feminist opinions, Per Seyersted, in An excerpt from Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography states

that Chopin shied away from labeling herself as the traditional feminist. She strongly believed in

having more rights for women, but avoided joining or publicly supporting any feminist equality

organizations. Although she had a strong opinion on the matter, Chopin isolated herself from

social issues in general and considered feminists unrealistic (1).

As an alternative method for expressing her opinion, Chopin turned to writing and has

written a variety of pieces regarding the subjects of and similar to discussing males natural

tendencies along with female self-assertion. Through her writing, she realized that when

discussing the topic of sex, it was difficult to come up with easy solutions. She wrote pieces like

Euphrasie, (about a heroine), Wiser Than a God, (about a hardworking woman who became

a self taught pianist) and A Point at Issue (about a passive woman in a controlling relationship)
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to bring recognition and explore important subjects like patriarchal oppression. As Seyersted

made clear, Story of the Hour is only one of many pieces of writing like it that Chopin used to

bring an important theme to attention.

One way she did this was analyzed in the critical essay, The Autonomous Female Self

and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopins Story of an Hour, by Literary critic, Mark

Cunningham. In his essay, Cunningham discussed the reason of uncertainty with Mrs. Mallards

death. Chopin leaft it unclear on whether or not Mrs. Mallard physically sees her husband alive

before she dies. Does she see her husband and fall dead of shock and disappointment of her loss

of freedom? If her vision for freedom was diminished too quickly for her heart to handle, this

seems like a viable solution. Or was it by simply attempting to break away from the life denying

limitations of a patriarchal society that caused her death? The possibility of Mrs. Mallard coming

to an epiphany about how her life mirrors the patriarchal society around her, could have been just

enough to send her life over the edge. Cunningham seemed to gravitate towards the latter option,

resulting in a deeper meaning of the text. He states that although Chopin implies for an ironic

self-assertive solution of Louises death, she leaves it unclear whether or not Louise sees her

husband enter the room which encourages readers to come up with their own reasoning. When

thinking about these two possibilities for death, it seems as though Chopin wanted her readers to

consider all options and think deeply about the message Chopin wants to get across. By

concluding that Mrs. Mallard dies from the disappointment of simply seeing her husband is

ironic in itself but does not send as strong of a message as the alternative. Since Chopins goal in

writing this was to spread feministic views and bring attention to the corrupt patriarchal society

we live in, I believe her intention was the latter option. The possibility that Mrs. Mallard didnt
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necessarily see her husband walk back in the room, yet died to escape the oppressing society she

lived in, emphasizes the message Chopin is attempting to get across in a slightly less selfish

manner.

In addition to the confusion about Mrs. Mallards death, Kate Chopin capitalized on the

use of irony to address the overall theme of how patriarchal oppression lead to self assertion. In

the critical essay, Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour, Lawrence I.

Berkove, a professor emeritus of English at the University of MichiganDearborn, argues that

the use of irony directed at patriarchal blindness, and Louises intelligent thoughts masked as

illumination on the struggle against society norms, causes her failing marriage. One of the

most important pieces of irony that Chopin uses is Mrs. Mallards heart problem. Other than her

old age, her weak heart represents love, which is the most important thing that seemed to be

lacking in her marriage. It ironically hints at love sickness (maybe the love sickness she once had

but is long gone by now) but only to point out that Louise simply feels lonely and powerless to

her husband. As a result of her ironically sickened heart, she favors love of her husband as

secondary to her self-assertion, and dies because of it. Secondly, at the end of the short story, the

author states that Mrs. Mallard dies of the joy that kills. This is most obviously the second

example of irony because Louise did not die of joy at all. She died because of an unanswered call

to freedom, yet ironically, those around her (who happened to be men) blindly assumed that the

only possible reason for her death was the overwhelming happiness of seeing her husband alive.

They never considered any other reason for her life coming to an end, which as we established,

was most likely because Mrs. Mallard desperately needed to escape the society of patriarchal

blindness around her. The doctors and nurses false accusation was a prime example of why she
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felt the need to escape. It seems as though Chopin used the method of irony to playfully connect

her story to her theme without being too direct. By using irony rather than more direct methods

to get her message across, she prompts her readers to ask more questions about the text and

pushes them to consider why she chose to write the way she did. Irony keeps her readers

engaged, curious, and questioning patriarchal norms.

Both critics seemed to come to a similar conclusion about Chopins reason for writing

The Story of the Hour: To bring patriarchal blindness and oppression to attention along with

the need for self assertion. Mrs. Mallard feels oppressed and powerless by her marriage and has

the need to be free. This represents the millions of women during the 1800s who felt trapped by a

man, most likely in their marriage. Trying to escape the marriage was frowned upon and nearly

unheard of during that time era, so regardless of how much they wanted to be free, the

probability of escaping a marriage was less than rare. By being partially happy when she found

out her husband didnt have much longer to live, she placed her self assertion above her

marriage. This seems to be a call to action to all the woman who felt similarly. Instead of

passively following societys corrupt norms, Chopin wanted women openly come to the

realization that being treated as less than was dehumanizing and wrong. Although death might

not be the answer she was directly suggesting, Chopin wanted women to stand up to this issue

and fight for the freedom they deserved; and by spontaneously dying because of Mrs. Mallards

need for freedom from her controlling husband, it stresses the importance of this issue. Chopin is

suggesting that Mrs. Mallard would rather die than live in a society where women are ignored

and oppressed by men. By the false accusations of the doctors and nurses who claim she died of

the joy of seeing her husband and implying her love sickness, for him, it reflects the patriarchal
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blindness Chopin saw in the society around her. This short story is not only a call to action for

women to be heard, but also a call to action for men to listen. Chopin most likely felt ignored by

a male presence in her life and watched women around her being constantly ignored as well. As

a result, she came to the realization that in order for a change to happen, men must be open to

listening to women. Because of their conceited ignorance due to societal norms, they often

overlook feminist views and neglect to open their eyes and ears to the inequality around them.

Overall, Chopin used this piece of writing to take a stance and call to action on feministic

views without plainly labeling herself as a feminist. She turned to writing to gain recognition on

the reality of patriarchal oppression in the society she lived in and to stress the importance of self

assertion. During the time period Chopin wrote this short story, this patriarchal imbalance was

much more prevalent than it is today. Although patriarchal oppression still exists, it is almost a

complete reversal of views since the 1800s. Woman today are easily heard in america and

accommodate a variety of powerful positions that women never would've dreamed of 150 years

ago. Because of writers like Chopin and a variety of women who werent afraid to stand up for

what they knew was right, changes were able to be made. And today we live in a society where it

is more than possible for a woman to become president, let alone break out of a controlling

marriage.
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Works Cited

Berkove, Lawrence I. "Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour'."

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Janet Witalec, vol. 127, Gale, 2002.

Literature Resource Center,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=cclc_santa&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH1420056

308&it=r&asid=933257178ad2ff32cc75da79ac4c1515. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017. Originally

published in American Literary Realism, vol. 32, no. 2, Winter 2000, pp. 152-158.

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Seagull Reader: Stories, edited by Joseph Kelly, 3rd ed.,

W W Norton, 2015, pp. 99101.

Cunningham, Mark. "The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate

Chopin's 'Story of an Hour.'." Short Story Criticism, edited by Jelena Krstovic, vol. 110,

Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=cclc_santa&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH1420082

721&it=r&asid=3f6bcd1ff658acd7b52876922187b3cb. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017. Originally

published in English Language Notes, vol. 42, no. 1, Sept. 2004, pp. 48-55.

Seyersted, Per. "An excerpt from Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography." World Literature

Criticism, Supplement 1-2: A Selection of Major Authors from Gale's Literary Criticism

Series, edited by Polly Vedder, vol. 1, Gale, 1997. Literature Resource Center,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=cclc_santa&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH142001

2147&it=r&asid=e9a14f5922eeaf12d4816b95b35e79fa. Accessed 4 May 2017. Originally

published in Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography, by Per Seyersted, Louisiana State

University Press, 1969.

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"The Story of an Hour." Short Stories for Students, edited by Kathleen Wilson, vol. 2, Gale,

1997, pp. 263-277. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=sant89825&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CC

X2694900026&asid=afbf45582564527733fb36bbe61930a1. Accessed 23 May 2017.