The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

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Every author has a unique sense of writing style. Kate Chopin chooses to utilize her life events and experiences into her works. Her outlook on society during her time was successfully portrayed through her writings, and this is what differentiates her from other writers that were present during the late 1890s. Through her works, we can easily identify the repeated themes and motifs. A very prominent theme Chopin likes to emphasize is the theme of feminism. Women in the 1800s were commonly mistreated and perceived as “second-class” citizens of their community. As a writer, she attempted to make her readers aware of the issues facing society. Kate Chopin highlights the struggles faced by women through her narratives. Women’s lives in the 1800s were…show more content…
It was a time where men were superior over women. The decade of the 1890s started the movement of female rights and equality—it began the evolution of feminism. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” begins with a female protagonist that was perceived to be weak and abandoned. As I began to read the short story, it seemed that Mrs. Mallard was deeply saddened by the sudden traumatic death of her husband. However, as the story progresses, I began to question the use of metaphors and symbolism surrounding our protagonist. Pathetic fallacies was used when describing the “patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds.” The passage presents her awful situation to be the complete opposite of it. If the death of her husband truly devastated her, then the weather would have been described as a dark, rainy day. She starts to see the brightness in the sky, which is also a sign of heaven. The setting Mrs. Mallard was in was described as being “aquiver with the new spring life”; a sign of a new beginning.
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