Video Essay Transcript:
In the United States of America during the 1890s, women were fighting for their rights, and social norms for women were abnormally restricted compared to now. The ongoing women’s rights movement was pushing for equality in all aspects of American life: voting, wages, reproductive rights, property rights and job opportunities (Williamson para. 7). The primary role as a woman was to get married and have children (Williamson para. 4). In that marriage, they were expected to cater to the needs of their house and their husbands (Verhaeghe para. 4). Women who had a job were looked down upon (Verhaeghe para. 4). The simple quality of independence was so far out of reach for them. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin utilizes a bird motif and tone shifts to represent the oppressiveness of marriage for women and support the Women’s Rights Movement.
In The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin incorporates symbolism through the name of the main character, Mrs. Mallard. Mallard is the name of a wild duck breed (Snider para. 2). According to UNC student Claire Snider’s English 105 essay titled, “A Flock of Feminists”, “For mallards, courting occurs during the winter. The females will build the nest on the ground, incubate the eggs, and care for the ducklings” (Snider para. 2). The idea that female mallards will have the main responsibility in raising and caring for the baby ducklings goes hand-in-hand with the social norms of American society in the 1890s, when Kate Chopin wrote the story. Snider also points out that male mallards may force relations with other females, further enforcing the idea that Mrs. Mallard felt an unwanted dependency on her marriage and a control she could not escape from.
Mrs. Mallard’s initial reaction to her husband’s death is described by Kate Chopin as a “paralyzed inability to accept its significance,” followed by a “storm of grief” and weeping with “sudden, wild abandonment” (Chopin para. 2). Initially, Mrs. Mallard’s reaction represents one of a normal grieving wife; however, as soon as she is not in the presence of her sister, her reaction changes promptly. Chopin uses a tone shift to represent the wave of relief that washes over Mrs. Mallard once she is finally upstairs and alone. Once she sits down in the chair, Chopin states, “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (Chopin para. 3). This physical exhaustion that haunted her body was stemming from her marriage and her expectations to obey her role as a housewife.
Followingly, Chopin shifts the tone and connotation of words when describing the environment outside the window. She begins writing with a rejuvenated and relieved tone as Mrs. Mallard is realizing what the end of her marriage might entail. Imagery such as “open window,” “new spring life,” “delicious breath of rain,” and “blue sky” all symbolize her new opportunities that she has gone without being held down by her marriage (Chopin paras. 4-5). The “open window” and “new spring life” represent these new opportunities and possibilities that are now accessible to her without having to fulfill her role as a housewife, while simultaneously establishing the rejuvenated and relieved tone of this section (Chopin para. 4).
In Chopin’s description of Mrs. Mallard after she sits down upstairs, she describes her as, “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin para. 7). These lines symbolize Mrs. Mallard’s hesitance to express the relief she feels and her still trying or using her strength to conform to society’s standards of a wife. The use of the word “repression” is significant to the time period that this story was written in. Women were victims of repression, as they were consistently expected to live a lifestyle not all of them wanted to live, and act in a way that was acceptable to their society, but not always to them. Mrs. Mallard is an example of this. Until the moment of her husband’s death, she did not feel independent. This is also made evident in the fact that Mrs. Mallard is home all alone due to her heart disease and housewife responsibilities, while Mr. Mallard is out working and even using the railroads for transportation (Chopin para. 1). Mr. Mallard was not only leaving the house to work, but had the privilege of traveling long distances for work.
As Chopin builds to the climax, she continues using a rejuvenated tone. As Mrs. Mallard is staring out the window, Chopin writes of “something coming to her” (Mrs. Mallard) and she describes it as “creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (Chopin para. 8). Chopin uses these words to represent Mrs. Mallard’s newfound freedom and spiritual breakthrough. Mrs. Mallard is rejuvenated from finally being without a husband and without the responsibilities of a housewife. So much so, that in line 36, the word “free” escapes from her mouth repeatedly (Chopin para. 10). The verbal repetition of this word deeply emphasizes how free she felt without her marriage.
Chopin also uses Mrs. Mallard’s heart disease to further emphasize how she felt when she believed her marriage was over. For example, Chopin begins and ends the story with Mrs. Mallard’s heart disease. In paragraph 1, she describes how Josephine must be careful when delivering the news to Mrs. Mallard because her heart is fragile (Chopin para. 1). This acts as situational irony, because once Mrs. Mallard finds out the news that her husband has passed, she is overwhelmed with relief and even joy. Chopin writes in lines 37 and 38, “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin para. 10). Mrs. Mallard’s heart disease almost faded away from her when she met her newfound independence and had no more obligations to her husband or her role as a housewife. Chopin writes in line 45, “…she would live for herself” (Chopin para. 13). Without her husband, Mrs. Mallard’s entire life was renewed, and that ironically eased her heart disease.
When Mrs. Mallard’s husband, Brently Mallard, shockingly walks through the door after they thought he passed away, Mrs. Mallard immediately is sent into a heart attack. In the last line, Chopin writes, “When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease – of the joy that kills” (Chopin para. 22). This shows that her heart disease was cured when she believed her marriage was over, and that her heart disease was worsened by her constraining marriage and the repression that she, and many women in the 1890s endured from not having independence. Her freedom was brought back to her, and it had cured her heart disease, and she died from the grief of that freedom, that had never actually existed. This highlights how much her marriage affected her life. Mrs. Mallard expected her life to change entirely for the better when she found out the news, and she died as soon as that was taken away.
Kate Chopin’s use of symbolism in the bird motif, Mrs. Mallard’s heart disease, imagery used to describe the open window and outside environment, as well as the tone shift, allowed Chopin to highlight the themes of the women’s rights movement and marriage for women in the nineteenth century. Chopin’s many uses of effective literacy devices and complex diction in telling The Story of an Hour advocated for women in situations like Mrs. Mallard in that time period. Mrs. Mallard’s confinement to her house and her obligations to take care of her husband’s needs prevented her from feeling independent. This was a recurring issue with women in this time period, as they were fighting in the Women’s Rights Movement for job opportunities, suffrage rights, and simple gender equality. Ultimately, Kate Chopin highlighted the difficulty of women’s fight for freedom and independence in the United States. Her writing enabled her to effectively demonstrate her critique against the oppressive nature of the current gender conventions at this time.
Word Count: 1,358
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Featured Image Citation:
Halsoe, Carl. “Waiting by the Window.” American Literature, 1863, https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanliterature.com%2Fauthor%2Fkate-chopin%2Fshort-story%2Fthe-story-of-an-hour&psig=AOvVaw3TQ4_H_fz0toM5qa4-Nddy&ust=1669813579086000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=2ahUKEwiCr4a7utP7AhUnFlkFHSuTCNgQr4kDegUIARDwAQ.