Feminism in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour

Melinda
University of Trunojoyo Madura

Feminism is one of the most phenomenal movements which had been pursued by
women for centuries. Feminism became an official concept in the nineteenth century.
The feminist political movement were struggle in equality of education, labor, and
electoral rights. The first feminist wave began during 1850 to 1940 in Europe. The
emphasis of the legal equal rights for women in education and paid work. Later, it
focused on political rights where women should be allowed in election process. This
era lasted during Kate Chopin lifetime, a controversial feminist writer during her
period.
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) was a popular feminist writer who introduced this
movement through her writings. Her short stories constantly appeared in literary
magazines by the 1890s. She was considered to be too far ahead with her literary
works that incorporated the realities of women’s rights and the portrayal of society.
Her ideology was greatly influenced by her background life. She was really affected
by the early death of her father and husband. Becoming a single mother with children,
she had no one to depend financially and mentally. Her mother, then, passed away
thereafter. She fell into sadness and depression for several period. She began to
aspirate her feelings through literature under the suggestion from her doctor and
friends.
Kate Chopin’s literary works had been studied thoroughly by scholars for a long
time. One of the most well-known is A Story of an Hour which published in 1894, 6th
December in Vogue magazine as A Dream of an Hour. However, the title was
changed in 1895, 5th January as it was republished by St. Louis Life. This essay would
like to analyse this short story based on feminism perspective which can be reflected
through some crucial points of the text that will be discussed later.
When considering a literary works whether its center is feminism or not, there are
several goals of a feminist text from a feminist critics Lisa Tuttle (184): 1) to develop
and uncover a female tradition of writing; 2) to interpret symbolism of women’s
writing so that it will not be lost or ignored by the male point of view; 3) to rediscover
old texts; 4) to analyze women writers and their writings from a female perspective;
5) to resist sexism in literature, and; 6) to increase awareness of the sexual politics of
language and style. A Story of an Hour, at least, consists of one or more of those
feminist literary works objectives.
First of all, we need to know about the plot and characters in A Story of an Hour.
It tells about a woman named Mrs. Mallard who had lost her husband due to railroad
accident. Then it shows how Mrs. Mallard dealt with that situation and the following
events. For instances, this short story depicts the author points of view in regard of
marriage and women’s roles during the period of time.
This short story centralizes a woman as the main protagonist, which is regarded as
a tradition of feminism literary works. It starts with how author called the main
protagonist, Mrs. Mallard which shows that she is a wife of a man named Mallard.
Using the omniscient point of view, the feminine pronounces such as ‘she’ and ‘her’
are following after throughout the whole text. The short story focuses on Mrs. Mallard
thought and feeling which delivered implicitly through how the readers will see her
action and reaction. “Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning
to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to
beat it back with her will—as powerless as her two white slender hands would have
been.” (paragraph 10). One of the examples above shows the readers how Mrs.
Mallard started to feel excited.
Chopin, then, showed how Mrs. Mallard’s reaction toward the obituary of her
husband. There are a lot of contrast in describing her emotions between sadness,
numbness, and happiness. In the initial stage, she felt really shocked and sad after
hearing the death news of her husband. Then, as she watched from her house the view
outside, it implicitly shows how she felt nothing afterwards. The ongoing scene is
quiet surprising when the excitement and joy started to fill her. The author used only
simply prose to describe the sadness and numbness, and used a number of vibrant and
powerful words for happiness.
The setting of this short story also can be one of the clues of feminism. There is a
metaphorical purpose in the scene when the sad Mrs. Mallard sat down on her
armchair while looking through the window, to the outside view. The lying psyche of
Mrs. Mallard is considered as never disclosed to the world. The room and the house
are used as a symbol of marriage and household which restrained her right of
freedom. The windows and the view also described as alive and vibrant like her mind
and inner feeling. It all shows how Mrs. Mallard could only cloister herself physically
in limited space. Then she finally could express her real feeling only after the one who
gave her the limited space, her husband, passed away.
The main protagonist first name, Louise, finally revealed by the end of the short
story. The delayed revelation also gives another clue about feminism. Her name only
showed once she regained her freedom after her husband died. It is suggested that
Mrs. Mallard has lack of self-individuality and identity when her husband still alive.
Because she was only the subordination of her husband and only recognized as Mr.
Mallard’s wife, beside that, no one. However, her name is the feminine form of
masculine one, Louis. So, when she finally got to show her real identity, it still part of
male identity. The same case also happened to her sister, Josephine, which is the
feminine version of Joseph. Louise surname, Mallard, also indicates her social status
because it is the synonym of wild ducks. This kind of animal, surely, will be
considered as dirty and worthless. By this, we can tell that Chopin had high
consideration to show feminism even through a single name, where female were
really controlled by male.
The change of the short story’s title also give another clue about feminism,
especially about how society perceived this movement at that period of time. The
previous title given by Chopin was A Dream of an Hour. The word ‘dream’ is greatly
related to ‘something desirable’ or ‘something that one pursuing on’. This title will
make the readers imagine about the main protagonist achievement of her dream which
is a thing that she wanted for a long time. However, the original title only lasted for a
month. The second publisher of this short story, less or more, had impact in changing
the title. It changed into A Story of an Hour. The word ‘story’ will only make the
reader feel curious about what happened during that one hour, there is no direct
indication to dream or anything like that. It is mean that women’s happiness should
not be something desirable, moreover if it is related to her husband’s death. It is also
indirectly cutting down women’s right in fulfilling their dream in any aspect. But still,
there was a positive side in this case. Feminism was still in the first wave and there
were too many critiques they must dealt with. Changing the title could be one of the
ways to avoid controversy and to make the short story still accepted by society, not
taken down or banned.
Chopin’s literary works also known with its unpredictable and surprising ending.
The powerful ending also can be found in this short story where Mrs. Mallard finally
knew that her husband was still alive and had return to their home. Emily Toth, in
Unveiling Kate Chopin, believes that Chopin had to ‘make the main protagonist died’
in order to make her short story publishable and accepted by society at that period.
Because, the grateful wife upon her husband death was really controversial by
American standards. This situation also showed that society was still controlled by the
classic social construction where women have no right to feel happy, even for an
hour. Therefore, Mrs. Mallard got her ‘punishment’ by facing her death due to heart
attack which caused by the sudden appearance of her alive husband.
Then, the last is main issue of the short story which is about the oppression
toward women in a form of marital relationship. Chopin often showed women in
unequal roles in their marriage in her literary works. She voiced that marriages were
things that put restrains upon women. Husbands are more dominant and powerful in
taking roles compared to wives. Husbands also have more control upon their wives,
therefore wives have no right for themselves and must always obey their husbands.
Even if the husband is so kind and gentle like Mr. Mallard, Mrs. Mallard still have no
sense of freedom. Because they followed what social construction build about
marriage and the roles of husband and wife, which means husbands have more
privileges while wives are not. That is why Mrs. Mallard could only get her freedom
once her marital relationship was ended.
The readers of this short story can simply agree that this work is really short and
concise yet so impactful. It speaks loud about women life during 19 th until 20th
century. It also has become one of the most important literary works which
contributed a lot for the development of progressive feminism. Feminism will be
always become a hot topic where people start to recognize through many media, and
women writers are the vanguard. The issue of unhappy marriage and chained women
have always been known as the characteristic of feminist literary works. Those issues
will still exist for a long time ahead if the concept of feminism is not strong enough,
therefore women writers will always voice it out, too.

References
Chopin, Kate. 1895. A Story of an Hour. Louisiana: St. Louis Life.