Fictional Short Story in \"Story

¶ … Fictional Short Story

In "Story of the Hour" and other works such at "The Storm," author Kate Chopin rails against the social conventions of her time. She does this very effectively through the use of plot conflict and imagery to illustrate how women have not been fulfilled by the social institutions imposed upon them. In doing so, she captures realistic versions of why they were unhappy and the unfortunate results of their circumstances.

Kate Chopin, born in 1850, was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly of a Louisiana Creole background ("Kate Chopin"). With regards to feminist issues, her works were vastly ahead of her time. This reflects her own person experiences, having a husband who died and left her in debt as well as a relationship with a married man ("Kate Chopin") during a period in which women were taught that men would take care of them and that extramarital relationships were even more taboo than they are today. Perhaps that is why her stories such "Story of an Hour" and "The Storm" are so effective.

"Story of an Hour" uses a character vs. society conflict to illustrate Mrs. Mallard's desire to be free from the institution of marriage. This is made clear by Chopin's description of Mrs. Mallard's reaction to her husband's death as not one of grief, but one of relief as she writes, "When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" Mrs. Mallard was unhappy because marriage relegated women to property as best illustrated by Chopin's line, "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature."

Imagery effectively reinforces the plot conflict in the "Story of an Hour." From the very first line, the reader is informed that Mrs. Mallard "was afflicted with a heart trouble." As the reader soon discovers, this heart trouble wasn't physical; rather, her trouble was related to personal unhappiness in her marriage. The heart disease as not being a physical condition is once again reinforced at the very end of the story when the author writes, "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease -- of joy that kills." However, the reader is well aware by this time that she is experiencing despair knowing that her husband is still alive rather than joy upon his return to her life.

Likewise, "The Storm" involves a character vs. society conflict. This time the conflict deals with the loss of passion in marriage and is perhaps indicative of Chopin's own extramarital affair. For the reminder of a lost passion, Calixta is visited by an old lover while her lover is away as illustrated by the lines, "The contact of her warm, palpitating body when he had unthinkingly drawn her into his arms, had aroused all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh. "My! what a rain! it's good two years sence it rain' like that," After the storm had ended "...the sun was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems" symbolizes the loss of passion in marriage over time just like the tempory glistening of rain.