Themes of Short Story - an Act of Vengeance and the Story of an Hour

The short stories "An Act of Vengeance" by Isabel Allende and " The Story of An Hour" by Kate Chopin both had a major theme to them. The major theme that both of these stories have in common is that they both are about feminine empowerment in a society mostly dominated by males. Both of these short stories contain characters that in some way gain a sense of self. The authors of both "An Act of Vengeance" and " The Story of An Hour" most likely used the theme of feminine empowerment in a society mostly dominated by males because at the time the fact of a woman having independence and freedom was not likely.

When the author, Kate Chopin, wrote "The Story of An Hour", she probably had the story take place somewhere around the 1890s which was also when the story was published. During this point in time it is probably normal for women to not have as much freedom as they do nowadays. In the story "The Story of An Hour" the main character Mrs. Mallard who upon hearing about the news of the death of her husband gets stricken with grief and sadness she even starts crying and runs off to her room. Her sadness was really only momentary because after a while of looking outside her window she started to feel less grief and more relief and less restriction. This is proven by the fact that Mrs. Mallard kept repeating the words "free, free, free!" to herself, but she eventually relaxes herself slowly while she repeats those words. When the author said that "she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills" she did not mean that Mrs. Mallard died from her weak heart but rather that she was so surprised that her husband was not dead but in fact very much alive. Mrs. Mallard probably wanted to enjoy her newfound freedom and could not bear to see him alive instead of dead.

How the theme of feminine empowerment in a society mostly dominated by males fits into Isabel Allende's "An