Story of an Hour the Story Details

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 her husband's death and dies when her husband returns in the end of the book. This relates to many women who actually undergo a two sided feeling at the time of their husband's death. Chopin understood all aspects of a women's psyche and brought out the feelings of women and wrote numerous literatures focusing on the intimate desires and feelings of a woman. In an age where women were of no importance, Chopin wrote to educate others that women have feelings and are not just vegetables.

The story had a profound impact on readers as it conveyed the feelings of many married women who may not be entirely unhappy in their marriage yet feel restricted in some way. They feel that they could have done so much more had they not married, if they had been without all these restrictions. They could spread their wings and fly to their favorite destinations if they had stayed unmarried. Marriage despite all its so-called bliss is still a very restrictive union that clips a woman's wings sometimes because of the children, sometimes because she is constantly reminded of her wifely and motherly duties and sometimes simply because her husband wouldn't approve.

I loved the way Chopin captured the feelings of the leading female character, Mrs. Millard, who is happy to know that her husband is not alive anymore as this gives her an opportunity to anything that she wishes to do like join some classes, learn new skills and simply enjoy life for her sake. This is important story to most reader because we have all seen many women around us who feel restricted by their marriages and what is so surprising is the fact that in many cases, their marriages are not apparently bad or abusive.

In the same way, we see that Mrs. Millard doesn't complain of her marriage being bad. She is just happy that she is no longer restricted by the institution of marriage. She wants to be free and that's how many married women feel even though they do not complain of their marriages being bad in any sense. I therefore feel that Chopin was able to capture a feeling so deep that only a woman of her caliber and wisdom could do that. A man can never understand these feelings but only a woman knows what another woman goes through when such restrictions are placed on her. "Then she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" this is exactly how many married women would feel if they finally get some freedom. It must be understood here that a marriage need not be bad in the ordinary sense for it to be restrictive.

Many women feel like they have been caged by the restrictions a marriage places on their lives. This is how Louise feels too. There was so much she wanted to do and to achieve but couldn't do it because of her marriage and the responsibilities it had placed on her shoulders. She wants to live for herself but is unable to do that because people expect her to live for her kids and for her husband. She doesn't have a life of her own. And that can be very difficult for a woman.

What is truly amazing is that Chopin had the foresight to write this story in 1894 when women were not as liberated as they are today. The story truly is universal in its appeal and transcends time and space as even after more than a century later, it still holds true for women around the globe.

Kate touched key issues of her days in her writings where she brought out in the open the inner cravings of women which were based on real women. She lampooned the social injustices that the women were facing. When women read what Kate wrote, they could relate to it and thus this brought up the consciousness and gave them the will and power to liberate themselves. One of her works title "Mrs. Mobry's Reason," as portrayed by Emily Toth, was in response to "a suppressive" law passed in the United States which stated that all prostitutes should undergo tests for venereal diseases before then can practice prostitution (Toth p.98). Kate saw this law as discriminatory in the terms that only the women who were prostitutes were asked to undergo medical examinations whereas men who were their customers were exempt from such tests. Further she also felt that such a law indirectly legalizes prostitution.

"The Awakening," published in 1899 was severely condemned due to the sexual openness. It brought an end to Kate's literary career. Its central character is a woman called Edna who wants to reconcile sexual liberation but is unable to do so and commits suicide. She goes to the sea and "for the first time in her life" she stood naked out in the open which made her feel "like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that is had never known" (Chopin p.58).

"Edna's hair, fingers, limbs and skin are sensitized to touch, smell, sight, which mingle together in a bodily triumph that leads Edna to an awakening and the discovery of her sexual and sensual self, a self that has been utterly removed from her relationship with her husband, Leonce. Edna's attempt to escape from her confinement in the role of an asexual woman demands that she pay a high price. Finally, she is unable to reconcile social and sexual liberation and she walks into the sea and allows herself to drown." (Pontuale p. 37)