"The Story of an Hour"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the underlying idea of feminism in the story, "The Story of an Hour," by American author, Kate Chopin. It discusses the fact that the main character does not want to be married and especially does not want to have children.

From the Paper:

"Mrs. Mallard, from the very beginning of the story, we see as being "afflicted" with heart trouble-what Chopin meant exactly by "heart" trouble has been questioned repeatedly. The foreknowledge of her condition may be a mere foreshadowing of things to come, or it may help to paint a picture of how Mrs. Mallard's friends and family perceive her-perhaps even because she has yet to reproduce. We are told that when Mrs. Mallard first hears of her husband's death, she weeps "with sudden, wild abandonment" (par. 3). The use of the term "abandonment" suggests a former captivity of some sort. Most would probably say the imprisonment was the marriage itself, but since Mrs. Mallard shows no feelings of animosity toward her husband, and even thinks to herself that she "loved him--sometimes" (par. 15), the elation she felt cannot surely be due merely to her assumed widowhood."

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