The Storm and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

The Storm and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin deal with difficult and problematic issue of marriage and personal freedom.

Kate Chopin lived in the period of time when the cult of true womanhood was entrenched in the minds of men, and it caused the situation when home and marriage could be compared to the cage for women. Her views on women’s freedom and role in the marriage are elaborating female rights; in her literary works female reconsider their rights want to live a free life. Still, love and family are in her focus too.

I think that love is always complicated; it is good when the feelings are reciprocal, but I am not sure if they can last forever. Unhappy marriage is one of the worst possible situations in family life because you have to live with a person you do not love any more. People find it difficult to split in a peaceful way. From my personal experience I know that sometimes attachment or habit can become an obstacle, and the relationships turn into hell. In these two stories two possible regulations of the conflict are suggested.

Calixta and Mrs Mallard are similar in some way. They are depicted in the domestic setting. Calixta is sewing; Mrs Mallard is in her room. Kate Chopin in both cases used the image of the window as a turning point. The possibility to escape through the window or to see own reflection in the glass switch the perspective from the outer to the inner factors of female characters in these two stories. In both cases, the theme of marriage is minor, and the female characters stand in the center of the narrative.

Mrs. Mallard waits for her husband to come. Still, her freedom is bounded by her husband, and marriage. She starts thinking about her husband’s death and finds out that such thoughts evoke some “monstrous” pleasure in her heart. (Chopin 353) Her character is not static; the feeling gradually feel her from the inside and, finally, result in her cries “Free! Body and Soul fee!”.(Chopin 354) She does not love her husband; her family life seems to be a burden for her. She has no private space t all. It was a continuous suffering she should bare. The phrase that she “had a heart trouble” is ambiguous because it has three possible interpretation, either she was ill, or had an unhappy marriage, or both. Still, the solution for this conflict is not a happy one because Mrs Mallard dies.

Calixta seems to be more free in her life than Mrs Mallard.

She is unhappily married, but she dares to cheat her husband with Alcee. She is not afraid to face the storm outside and inside, the passion in her soul. Alcee is a typical man in this case. He acts in terms of the philosophy of that time. He perceives Calixta as an object, “the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh.”. He was unhappily married. His wife did not mind his behavior; she had “the first free breath since her marriage seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days”.It shows how glad she was to be free of marriage even for some time. In this case, the fact that he cheated in minor. I think if I were her, I would not mind his cheating. This betrayal s positive for her because her husband switcher her attention to someone else and let her relax.

I do not know what is the right solution for such a difficult issue as marriage. The problem of Mrs Mallard who fell out of love with her husband seems to be worse than Calixta’s affair with Alcee. In the case of Mrs Mallard, I would try to divorce with the husband, because marriage with no feeling at all does not work. Cheating is not the escape, but Alcee and Calixta find a way to life further. In this affair, they express their unrealized feelings and lived further.

Author's Note

Source: Writemyessay.nyc