Story of an Hour Essay Example

Awakening/Story of an Hour Essay Example Awakening/Story of an Hour Essay Awakening/Story of an Hour Essay Essay Topic: The Awakening Neumann Story of An Hour and The Awakening Compare and Contrast Essay Kate Chopping literary works, Story of An Hour and The Awakening are very similar in their strong feminist voice, the mood of disconnectedness, and the prevailing theme of the search for freedom from a culture dominated by male supremacy and the belief that women are a possession rather than a gift to be cherished. In both Story of An Hour and The Awakening, a strong voice of feminism prevails throughout, paired with underlying tones of doubt. In The Awakening, Chopin uses throng symbolism, such as the caged birds introduced in the very first sentence of the novel, to set the idea that married women are caged by societal conventions and deserve to be freed to experience all that life has to offer free from responsibilities and confining rules. Mrs.. Pointillist expresses many times throughout The Awakening how she wishes to be free of her husband and children to pursue her artistic aspirations, her physical needs with other men, and her friendship with Mademoiselle Raise, a woman who escaped societys expectations and as a result ivies free to pursue her own wants and needs. Mrs.. Pointillist is surrounded by men, including her husband, Alice Robin, and Robert Lubber, but only wishes to pursue temporary relationships with Alice and Robert based on satisfying her physical and emotional needs that her husband ignores and regards as unimportant. In Story of An Hour, Mrs.. Mallard is also married but is dissatisfied with her marriage and like Mrs.. Pointillist likely wishes to pursue other men. In each of the stories, the women recognize that they do not need men to complete or help them, but they each struggle with doubt. Mrs.. Mallard thinks about how she will miss her husband when his hands are folded across his chest, dead, and Mrs.. Pointillist commits suicide because she doubts herself so strongly. The doubt is symbolic of the time period in which women were beginning to emerge as stronger but were still shielded by men at a moments call and had not yet fully recognized themselves as sufficient. Kate Chopping life growing up was dominated by a female presence. Her father died when she was young, and she was then raised by all female widowers, then went on to a Catholic school where she was further surrounded by unmarried women. Her young life probably contributed to the way she wrote since she was always taught that women wore more than able to make a successful living on their own. The mood of disconnectedness is prominent in both stories. Throughout all of The Awakening, Mrs.. Pointillist is dissatisfied with her life, whether she is married, in love with Robert, or pursuing relations with Alice. She is ignored in her marriage, abandoned by Robert, and used for physical pleasure by Alice. The only time that she seems content is in the final chapter of the novel where she takes the final act of fiance and removes her clothing, which is symbolism for removing her past, societys wishes, and the doubt that has slowly killed her inside. As she walks into the children, but does not stop what shes doing so that they can no longer have precedence over her. Mrs.. Mallard gained peace in Story of An Hour when she came to the conclusion that she was finally free! Body and soul free! Her peace was quickly removed, however, when her husband walked in the house and she recognized that her blossoming freedom had been revoked and she died. Each of the Tories end on a sad note and each with ambiguous endings to leave room for interpretation of what happened after the deaths. The reader can infer that no change occurs afterwards, though, because the husbands and families didnt really care about the women before. In each of the stories, the search for freedom is the dominant theme. Mrs.. Pointillist took steps towards freedom when she moved into her own home and when she stopped seeing her husband and children, but as previously stated, she never obtained that freedom and realized that she never could, so she killed herself. Mrs.. Mallard recognized her freedom, and the reader can infer this from the subtle change that occurred when the author quit referring to her as Mrs.. Mallard and began calling her Louise, symbolizing that she was no longer bound to anybody or any expectations based on a name. Louise never found freedom despite her invigorating experience near the window in her room because she too realized that she could never truly have freedom- even supposed death was not enough to free her because Mr.. Mallard was not truly dead. Each of the women ultimately failed at ending freedom, but each searched relentlessly in desperate hopes of finding it. Story of An Hour and The Awakening both contain many similarities and no differences- each of the main women are feminists, each are consistently discontent with their lives, each want to find freedom, and each fail and die, one from suicide and the other possibly from sorrow and shock. Kate Chopping literary career ended with The Awakening, but the influence of her story did not, and the rising of strong and independent women in the start of the sass can be contributed in part to Chopin whose stories inspired women everywhere.