Kate Chopin & Ernest Hemingway
Women Repression and Empowerment in Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and Ernest Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain"
Nineteenth century literature gave birth to a preponderance of works that centered on themes about women and their subjugation and struggle for power in the rigidly conservative society. Through literature, writers, men and women alike, pushed forth the program of inflicting change, as the 20th century began to emerge, through the social movement of women aspiring and achieving equal rights with men.
This was the social environment that Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway had been exposed to when they created their works "The Story of an Hour" and "Cat in the Rain," respectively. Both works had women as its protagonists, and implicit each story was the apparent repression and desire for freedom and power of the woman characters, the American wife and Louise Mallard. Though each woman had been put in different scenarios and social roles in life, both were characteristically repressed by their husbands. The American wife sought to attain power over her husband through the possession of a cat, the symbol of power. Louise, meanwhile, had experienced power and freedom with the death of her husband; the story of his 'false death' had only resulted to the woman's death.
This paper delves into the existence of repression and eventual emergence of power against women in...
Story Of an Hour The story details the events of one hour during which a woman learns of her husband's death and is thinking of all that she would do now that she is free and at the end finds that he is alive and the death of her hope causes her own death. In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin has introduced a character, Mrs. Millard, who relishes the freedom after
Story Of an Hour: Theme and Narrative Elements In a way, Kate Chopin's short story, "Story of an Hour," deals with a variety of different issues that are still relevant to this day. It alludes to the repression of women, the fine line between life and death, as well as that between kindness and cruelty. Additionally, the author uses a variety of literary conventions to convey these different elements, which include
it's enough that her life will change dramatically for the better -- why does it need to be a supernatural or sexual experience as Deneau (2003) argues? And her depression has lifted, too, by the prospect of a complete life change: "Spring days and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only
Story Of an Hour Kate Chopin was an American writer whose deeply feminist views often influenced her writing. In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin (1894) explores Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the news of her husband's death and the emotional rollercoaster that she experiences during the brief hour after she hears her husband has died and before she learns her husband is actually still alive. Chopin's (1894) "The Story of an
Before this point, it feels that Louise is actually mourning the death of her husband: "She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat..." (p. 259) The author has indeed tried to give away Louise's Id even before this point of revelation but full blown discovery is made when Louise finally allows herself to rejoice
She actually loved Brently very much and her first impulse at the news of his death was to cry. Also, she was perfectly aware that she would also cry at his funeral, considering that they loved each-other and that she was accustomed to living next to him. Brently was actually caring and loving toward her and one might believe that Louise's concern about her having been freed is morally
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