Kate Chopin Critique
Throughout the course of literature the female character has often been construed as the stereotypical helpless, subservient, and troublesome figure. Often in literature as well as in life women became trapped in a marriage, living out a simple housewife persona. Even before the emergence of the 20th century feminist movement, female writers often criticized the conventional way of patriarchal society through their works. Feminist authors, such as Kate Chopin, tried to personify their characters as strong able individuals to "endorse feminine self-assertion"(Fluck 154) and make a statement for women while criticizing institutions that hindered women's rights. In Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" she openly questions societal norms, expresses strong feminist viewpoints on a woman's place in society independent from her husband, and condemns marriage as a societal method to inhibit a woman's self will. "The Story of an Hour" is historically set in the nineteenth century. Women at this time were believed to be to incompetent for their own accord, completely relying on their husbands for support. Placed in the gender biased society women were considered housewives and mothers whose sole purpose
Chopin uses this to "undercut the stereotype of the sorrowful widow, which was especially potent in Chopin's era"(Castillo 86). Mallard has accepted her revelation, and with the pleading of her sister, she makes her way back downstairs. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!"(Jacobus 234). Kate Chopin showed through her words that women can be "Free! Body and soul free!"(Jacobus 234), live their lives for themselves, and not feel confined to marriage or traditional female molds. "And yet she loved him-sometimes. Chopin openly and outwardly slanders the institution of marriage, for its use to confine an individual's will, especially the woman's, to that of another persons.
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