Essay on Freedom in Chopin’s Story of an Hour and Gilman’s Turned

Freedom in Chopins story of an Hour and Gilmans Turned In Turned, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and The composition of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, two female protagonists gradually reject and overcome their socially constructed and internalized female consciousness. These changes of heart happen when horrific events that relate to twain the characters husbands occur. The women ar then forced to define themselves as individuals rather than relying on their mates, their families, and their households to give them meaning. Their life-changing realizations are channelizen by means of the environments surrounding them and through suggestive body of water images. In these pieces, the female mind and thought process is dissected to show how these women discover their complex and somewhat hypocritical social positions. Both protagonists are finally able to comprehend the weight of their roles as wives and as women in their confining societies. Through their new found understanding, they are forced to attend to the idle and petty live ons they have been living to attain the others acceptance. In effect, the characters attempt to renounce their oppressed female roles and adopt lifestyles of their own. The turns that transpire in these feminist works are suggested in the environment that the females live in. Their surroundings not only imply a change of lifestyle, simply indicate a shift in the tone of the stories. Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour opens with Mrs. Mallard receiving word of her husbands close through her sister. With the tragic news hovering inside her head, Mrs. Mallard withdraws up to her room to be alone. Her room becomes a retreat to her she is able to peer down on society without participating in it as well as meditate her n... ... of femininity and of marriage. Achieving independence, although it may result in ones death or may cause one to be an outcast in society, becomes the ultimate objective of Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Marroner. Work s Cited and ConsultedChopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. In literary works and Its Writers An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters, Eds. Boston Bedford Books, 1997. Martin, Wendy, ed. Introduction. New Essays on The Story of an Hour. New York, NY Cambridge UP, 1998. Beer, Janet. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman Studies in Short Fiction. NY St. Martins P, 1997. Knight, Denise D. Charlotte Perkins Gilman A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston Twayne, 1997. Lane, Ann J. To Herland and Beyond The brio and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. NY Pantheon Books, 1990.