Introduction
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is an example of realistic prose that reflects the 19th-century position of women in American society. The traditional view on femininity and the place of women in the community supposed that they could only become mothers and wives. Becoming professionals or active members of society was unacceptable, especially for middle and upper-class women. At the same time, regardless of these females’ comparatively high social and economic status, they were utterly dependent on their husbands. There is no need to say that this restricted position of females made many feel they could not develop their potential and fulfill their desires. The short story by Kate Chopin is a realistic reflection of the feminist tendencies that started to grow at the end of the 19th century.
Discussion
It is necessary to define realism in literature to understand how this style is represented in “The Story of an Hour.” This artistic style was dominant in the 19th century when Kate Chopin wrote her story. The authors aimed to show the surrounding reality without changes to let their readers know the existing problems and controversies relevant to their time. It is possible to define realism as the example of the truthful, genuine experience the individual encounters in everyday life. Rather than allowing for imagination to take over, such as dramatizing or romanticizing a story, the author describes the protagonists’ events and characters as truthfully as possible.
The historical context is essential in elaborating the perspective on realism and its connection to the life of ordinary people. Throughout the Victorian era, realism was one of the unique forms of American literature. Realism captured the violent social conflicts regarding gender, race, class, national origin, and inequalities surrounding these issues (Barrish et al. 134). That said, realism brought an understanding of social realities through words on paper.
More specifically, it brought an understanding of women’s hardships and inequality throughout this era. The true womanhood ideology throughout this era strictly believed that women belonged at home, where they could care for children and their husbands, while important jobs were reserved for men, as they were seen as “dominant” over women (Barrish et al. 135). This information shows women’s hardships in the 19th century and the impossibility of finding the way out of this situation for most females.
The significant elements of realistic prose can be noticed in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” The main protagonist of this piece of literature is Louise Mallard, who receives the news that her husband has recently passed away in an awful railroad accident. Shortly after her “grief” subsides, Mrs. Mallard begins to realize the amount of opportunity and freedom she received with her husband’s recent passing.
As she begins to dream about everything she can do now, her husband surprises her to death as he walks through the front door. The woman dies from a heart attack, and only the omnipresent narrator of the story understands the motivation that makes her feel dramatic emotions. The rest of the people who surround the protagonist in the story think about the wife’s love for her husband and her inability to cope with stressful emotions.
“The Story of an Hour” expresses realism as it truly displays how most women felt about marriage throughout the 1890s. The story exposed women’s mixed feelings throughout their marriage by exhibiting the uncertain emotions Mrs. Mallard felt upon discovering her husband had passed away. Instead of being swallowed up in sadness and guilt, Mrs. Mallard could not help but think about all the things she could do without worrying about her husband’s overbearing control over her.
Throughout the entire story, images of freedom are shown through diction such as “the open window,” “new spring life,” and spring rather than fall,” which all create an emphasis on the sense of an open atmosphere (Chopin). Mrs. Mallard quite literally says: “Free, free, free! Free! Body and Soul Free!” as if she was finally living for herself and not for anyone else (Chopin). The prison called family control finally had ceased to exist, or at least she thought it had.
It is evident throughout Chopin’s story that the story revolves around metaphorical interpretation. Although some direct phrases unveil how Mrs. Mallard feels, such as “free, free, free,” she also includes other phrases that are not as noticeable (Geriguis 2). The open window, for example, displays a sense of freedom as Mrs. Mallard begins to absorb the “delicious breath of rain in the air,” “the countless sparrows twittering,” and “the notes of a distant song which someone was singing,” she begins to realize that her own husband’s death will allow her to become an independent individual (Geriguis 2).
Another great example is when Mr. Mallard walks right through the front door. As Mrs. Mallard desires to explore the outside world, her husband walks right through the front door and serves as some blockage, thus hindering Mrs. Mallard’s chance of independence and resulting in her death (Chopin). Therefore, Chopin’s word diction is an example of the realist perception of the story she tells, which is evident in the choice of expressions.
Considering it was the 1890s, divorce would not have been in the realm of possibilities for her to escape her unhappy life. However, that was not the case for Mrs. Mallard, as her husband seemingly passed away because she would not have to worry if he were not alive. To her deathly surprise, her husband walked straight through the front door shortly after fantasizing
about all the freedom she finally had. Therefore, “The Story of an Hour” captures women’s faithful uncertainty regarding marriage throughout the Victorian era through the realism delivered by Kate Chopin. The sense of realism is brought to life as Chopin told the story from a comical perspective – there is truth to be found in every humorous situation.
In Mahmoud Reza Ghorban Sabbagh and Mehri Ghaforian Saghaei’s “Conjured-Up Reality Shattered: Examining the “Uncertain” Ideology Underlying Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” the two authors elucidate the idea that Kate Chopin’s stylistic and strategic writing makes it difficult for anyone analyzing the work to have the “single best interpretation” of the text (Sabbagh and Saghaei 7.3). However, throughout their analysis, the authors do direct their readers’ attention to two main arguments interpreted by readers most popularly in the past–The Case for Feminism and The Case Against Feminism – In which they compare the two arguments’ by analyzing the use of focalization, voice, and transitivity in Chopin’s writing (Sabbagh and Saghaei 3/2).
For the argument of the research essay, the focus of the analysis from Sabbagh and Saghaei’s journal will be derived from the focalization analysis of Chopin’s stylistic writing to prove a case for the realism displayed in the feminist movement from Victorian era literature. It becomes evident through the perspectives of external focalization and internal/external focalization in the heterodiegetic narration of the story.
Conclusion
It allows assuming that the choice of the subject and the language the author uses to describe the emotional state of the main protagonist correspond to the feminist agenda that started to develop at the end of the 19th century. People started to see the signs of gender inequality in the American society that lived according to the traditional Victorian views on the division of the male and female roles, the responsibilities, and the rights of each party. Therefore, the ironic representation of the situation that the woman in the traditional American family experienced reflected the ideological crisis of that time.
In all cases, the way the main female protagonist in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” perceives her constrained position in traditional relationships and family is the realistic way to describe the feminist trends in the popular culture of that period. Even though the female protagonist in Chopin’s story did not suffer from violence or abuse at home, she still lacked freedom and could not live as an autonomous adult. It was consistent with the views of Victorian society on the place of women in the community’s life. The female had the opportunity to become a good mother or a decent wife, but she had no right to make free decisions without asking the husband for permission. There is no need to say that this crisis of ideology required representation in the piece of literature, and the discussed story was one of these realistic examples.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. n.p. Web.
Barrish, Phillip J., and Phillip J. Barrish. “‘Certain Facts of Life’: Realism and Feminism.” in The Cambridge Introduction to American Literary Realism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011, pp. 134–153.
Geriguis, Lora E. “The ‘It’ and the ‘Joy That Kills:” An Ecocritical Reading of Chopin’s The Story of an Hour.” Taylor & Francis. 2019, pp. 1-4.
Sabbagh, Mahmoud Reza Ghorban, and Mehri Ghafourian Saghaei. “Conjured-up Reality Shattered: Examining the ‘Uncertain’ Ideology Underlying Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour.’” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier. 2014.