Week 7 posting

Week 7

            In the short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, is an oppressed woman, looking through the lens of the gender criticism. The fact that she is mentioned in the very first sentence of the short story speaks to when the story takes place. “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently possible the news of her husbands death”. The story is already speaking to how weak she, a woman, is. As a reader I am left anxious to read on why it is that she needs the news to be put to her gently, could it because she’s weak? Or she doesn’t take news well? or she is fragile? There are a lot of possibilities that it could be. An opening line like that speaks about the character of the protagonist and leaves the reader with an impression. In this instance it is that women are weak. However there are instances of literal irony in the way the author describes her such as

“She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength”. That seems to be on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from the Mrs. Mallard of the quote prior than the most recent. The Literal irony is in that she is said to be strong on the outside and seen as weak on the inside. If she were so strong on the conclusion of the story would be a lot different. If she was so weak how did she have the strength to not collapse into pieces in front of the people when she was told? Ironic.

            The objectification of women seems to be shown in the story as well. The author gives her no lines in the story so Mrs. Mallard never speaks for herself, rather the only thing we know of Mrs. Mallard is what the author has told us about her. That is interesting when you think about the fact that the author of this novel is a woman. Perhaps that means that at the point of history when this story was written, even woman recognized other women as objects. The author mentions, “Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously” because of the spirit that she felt in the air. As a reader my first idea was that what she was waiting for what was coming to her and she was getting excited as she waited. That shows the weakness in women in that she is emotional. In the story we have seen her go from normal, to weak, to devastated, to strong, to excited, and to curious. That is a very womanly thing to do, I do not know of any men that have mood swings. At the end of the short story I took away the message that woman have many sides to them and that is the way that it is. The author left an impression on me that clearly says, woman have flaws.