Essay on the Search for Freedom in Kate Chopins The...

Search for Freedom in The Story of an Hournbsp;nbsp; nbsp; In the early 1900s, marriage was comparable to a master-and-slave relationship.nbsp; The role of the woman in the marriage was minimal.nbsp; The woman’s place was in the house, caring for the children, cleaning the house, and doing other â€Å"womanly† tasks.nbsp; Chained to their husbands, marriage became prison to many women; the only means of breaking free from these bonds being the death of a husband.nbsp; In Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† Mrs. Mallard lives for an hour, experiencing rebirth into freedom and death when that freedom is lost. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; While sitting downstairs, Mrs. Mallard grieves over the loss of her†¦show more content†¦nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Upon passage of her â€Å"storm of grief,† Mrs. Mallard retreats to her room in order to obtain tranquility.nbsp; Standing before the open window, she begins to take in the â€Å"elixir of life† and thus triggers her rebirth into freedom.nbsp; Looking out the window, Mallard views â€Å"the new spring life,† symbolic of the dawning of a new day or of her born-again experience.nbsp; â€Å"Trees†¦aquiver with new spring life†¦breath of rain in the air†¦.a distant song which some one was singing†¦[and] sparrows twittering†¦,†nbsp; all provide evidence for the rebirthing experience occurring to her.nbsp; Sitting â€Å"quite motionless,† she begins to sense â€Å"something†¦.subtle and elusive†¦.coming to her†¦.† nbsp;As the proces s of Mrs. Mallard’s transformation nears completion, she receives â€Å"†¦this thing†¦.[with] monstrous joy†¦.†nbsp; She now realizes that â€Å"†¦this thing†¦.† is the one thing she has longed for – freedom.nbsp; Mallard comes to the conclusion â€Å"that she would weep again,† however, this time the tears would be of joy instead of sorrow, knowing that the rest of her years would â€Å"†¦belong to her absolutely†¦,† and no longer will she have to endure men trying to â€Å"†¦impose a private will upon [this] fellow-creature.†nbsp; She now knows that her â€Å"self-assertion†¦the strongest impulse of her being,† can now run rampant, and she begins toShow MoreRelatedThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin1540 Words   |  7 PagesIn Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour†, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is a woman with a heart problem that gets horrifying news that her husband has passed away in a train crash. When she starts thinking about her freedom, she gets excited; she is happy to start her new, free life. However, a few hours later her husband walks in the door and she finds out it was all a mistake. When she realizes her freedom is gone her heart stop and she then dies. In â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† Desiree is an orphanedRead More The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper2395 Words   |  10 Pages   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kate Chopins story The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilmans story The Yellow Wallpaper draw their power from two truths: First, each work stands as a political cry against injustice and at the socio/political genesis of the modern feminist movement. Second, each text is a gatekeeper of a new literary history. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman seem to initiate a new phase in textual history where literary conventions are revised to serve an ideology representative of theRead MoreFemale Empowerment in Kate Chopins The Awakening7915 Words   |  32 PagesHeinrich-Heine-Università ¤t Wintersemester 2010/11 Vertiefungsmodul Kurs: American Realism and Naturalism - Short Stories Seminarleiter: Georg Schiller Datum der Abgabe: 16.04.2011 Female Empowerment in Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Awakening† Anjana Dhir BA Englisch KF, Geschichte NF 3. Semester Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. The FrenchRead MoreCalculus Oaper13589 Words   |  55 Pageshttp://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence †¨ Adrienne Rich    Adrienne Rich s essay constitutes a powerful challenge to some of our least examined sexual assumptions. Rich turns all the familiar arguments on their heads: If the first erotic bond is to the mother, she asks, could not the natural sexual orientation of both men and women be toward women? Rich s radical questioning has been a major intellectual force