Let the Women Speak

Let the Women Speak

The 19th century “Cult of Domesticity” in the society has caged the idea of feminism enthroning women lower and inferior to men. Women having more liberated minds than the ordinary female shouted their role suffocation through various literary works. Kate Chopin was one of the courageous writers that exploded this reality in the face of society during the time when this strict regulation blanketed the world. She was a pioneer in the feminist stories revealing how women were confined to enclosed private spheres of the homes and denied of public participation (Hicks, 2009). Such was revealed in her short story “The Story of an Hour”. The women like Mrs. Mallard waited for her freedom for so long. When the news of her husband’s death got to her ears, she instantly elevated to a heavenly euphoria as she envisioned the gate towards freedom and liberty being opened up for her. However, the shock of encountering her after all alive husband shattered her spirits causing her instant death. The voice of the women was after all inhibited to be heard at this time, thus, causing tumultuous female struggles against gender equality and role liberation.

Arts and literature are mirrors of the society. Kate Chopin’s literary works became a literary canon in the 19th century way of writing. She advanced the topic of feminism explicitly showing details of female liberation and individual self-assertion (Deter). Together with the rest of the writers with, Kate Chopin asserted a fiesta of whining in the stereotyping of female roles and the standards on how they were valued in the society. Chopin’s exploration of relationships exposed the inherent conflict between the woman’s traditional requirement as a mother and wife and the woman’s deeper need for personal identity and personhood (Maillakais). Mrs. Mallard was just one of the instruments used in the literary revolution that screeched the discreet needs of the women at that time. There were many unspoken wants, thoughts, needs and desire inside of her that made her heart weary and weak from carrying them all through her