Kate Chopin's Portrait of a Wife as a Free Woman in The Story of an Hour

Abstract

Kate Chopin a famous female writer who wrote about the domestic oppression of woman. She stood up for woman rights through her controversial works. Her works were greatly criticized in her time period. In 1800's the cultural norm was for woman feel tremendously grievous, and distraught over the death of her husband. Because woman’s worth based on who she was married to. The Story of an Hour, Chopin shows us a social situation of times with the woman as prisoner of her husband and the independence was a forbidden pleasure for her. She mentioned that Mrs. Mallards was trapped in her marriage she is coerced by her society to marry despite what she wants to do in her heart and soul. This story of a woman who finds out of her husband has died in an accident, she reacts in sadness at first but then realizes in a rush of emotion and relief that she is free body and soul. Chopin uses special forms of imagery which reveal the psychological strains of someone who is underrated by s social expectations. She shows the gradual transformation from a grieving, repressed wife to a free woman with new mood.