English 2000 - Kate Chopin’s ‘the Story of an Hour’

Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ is a short story about the feelings

of its main character Mrs. Mallard. It follows Mrs. Mallard through the blow of

losing her husband to the even greater devastation of realizing that he is still

alive. There are many different oppinions and views about the meaning of

this play such as the feminist interpretation to the authors opinion.

Kate Chopin born Katherine O’Flaherty was born in St.Louis into an

Irish-American family. Chopin had an ordinary childhood she attended

convent schools and debutant balls, which were quite common in the post-

civil war period. At the age of nineteen Chopin married Oscar Chopin a

wealthy cotton broker from New Orleans. After her husband experienced loss

in business, they moved to a plantation in Natchitoches. This is where

Chopin found many of her setting for her stories such as Bayou Folk and A

Night in Acadie. From her experiences in Natchitoches she absorbed a

plentiful mixture of of stories from the Black and French cultures. In 1883

her husband passed away. After his death Chopin and her six children

returned to St.Louis. It was at this time that her career really started to take

off. Chopin began writing stories for popular magazines such as Vogue. Many

of her greatest works were notorious for its frank depiction of womens

sexuality. It was because of these stories that Chopin faced considerable

criticism. After all of this Chopin began to only write a few stories and wasn’t

properly recognized until after her death in 1904. << Dana Gioia, R.S.

Gwynn. The Longman Masters of Short Fiction 2002. Print p.152>>

One view of “The Story of an Hour” is the feminist view. Some critics

say that there are many forms of oppression in the story. They feel that

throughout the story Mrs. Mallard wasn’t treated as equally with her

husband. In the begingin of the story she is refered to as “Mrs. Mallard”

(Chopin 157) then as the story progresses