Female Characters Overthrowing Gender Roles - 1101 Words

Throughout the world of writing, including short fiction, women are portrayed as good, evil, funny, dry, smart, stupid, almost any adjective you can think of. Kate Chopin, a primarily short story writer, does not fall short of this statement. Through her stories, â€Å"The Storm,† and â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† the women seem to be trapped in confining gender roles. By the conclusion of each story all the women find a way to challenge their everyday roles and overthrow them in some matter. Although these stories are dissimilar from each other, both show the struggle that women have against one or several antagonists in their lives. Chopin shows hardships through internal and external struggle within and family environment and within a personal†¦show more content†¦Although her way of avoidance was not harsh, Calixta still was trying to leave the restraints of her husband and family. Aside from â€Å"The Storm,† Kate Chopin shows a different side of a g ender confining role in her succeeding short story. â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† is an ironic love story of a newly widowed woman finding a struggle for her own freedom. The story begins with a friend of Mr. Mallard, Richard, finding out that he has been killed in a train wreck. Mrs. Mallard’s sister Josephine hesitates to tell her of the news because she knows of her heart condition. Mrs. Mallard finds out that her husband has died; she is sad, but for only a briefs period of time. Something is different; Mrs. Mallard should feel sad and not filled with an inner sense of happiness. At this junction, Chopin begins to hint to the read that this woman is feeling happy about the death of her husband. It is almost like a burden has been lifted of her shoulders. The un-named woman goes to her room and sinks into a chair, only then does she start to realize her internal joy about the situation. She gets up from the chair and focuses her body towards the window and begins to notice all the wonderful things about life she never say before. An open square before her house, the tops of trees that was all aquiver with the new spring life (Chopin 158). This quote by Kate Chopin lets the reader know that the main character is now freeShow MoreRelatedInfluence Of The Industrial Revolution1207 Words   |  5 Pagesrevolution caused a difficult division between the gender roles, especially of the upper and middle classes. Men and women were taught to have completely different dispositions, and people saw those differences as a forced separation in society. Men were taught to have attributes appropriate for the public world while women to the private. 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It examines the gender politics and pre-conditioned, constructed sex role stereotypes, while making us aware of marginalizingRead MoreCritical Theory2551 Words   |  11 Pages‘white European male ’ dominated society, thus overthrowing centuries of colonization, subordination, marginalization and  exploitation Feminists seek to reconstruct decrepit ideas of femininity, and extinguish female oppression over the years. Feminist literary criticism, in the first and seconds waves, critique patriarchal language, by exposing how these reflect masculine ideology. It examines the gender politics and pre-conditioned, constructed sex role stereotypes, while making us aware of marginalizing