Preview

Comparison Essay Between Story of an Hour and Rose for Emily

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1408 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparison Essay Between Story of an Hour and Rose for Emily
REPRESSION OF WOMAN IN THE 19th CENTURY

Since the beginning of time, women have been treated as second class citizens. Therefore, women were forced to face many problems. Because of this women were repressed. At that time, the Napoleonic Code stated that women were controlled by their husbands and cannot freely do their own will without the authority of their husband. This paper shows how this is evident in the "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In both stories, the use of literary elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and significant meaning of the titles are essential in bringing the reader to an unexpected and ironic conclusion. The background of both authors, which was from the South, we can conclude how they could described the situations that they faced such as political and social presumptions problems especially for women at that time. The story explains how

Nurhayatti 2
Chopin wrote how women were to be "seen but not heard". "The wife cannot plead in her own name, without the authority of her husband, even though she should be a public trader, or noncommunicant, or separate in property. " (Kreis 1) This is one of the Code Napoleon that shows women have no right and position at that time. However after World War II, most of the men were going to war and left the women, who make them finally, could get their freedom to do anything or their own because they have to do it to survive. Chopin's stories seem very modern in different ways even though it was written about two hundred years ago. Chopin says that it "..does not always find that marriage necessarily requires that a wife be dominated by their husband,.."(Grabovoi 198) and she was trying to show that women can get along just fine without having man interfere. The story represents a disdain for the way women are treated in some relationships and in society as well. "Her concern with women's place in society and in marriage, her

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The comparison and contrast of A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin will give information about the stories and their backgrounds. A Rose for Emily by Faulkner is based in the post-civil war about the Grierson family. When Emily Grierson’s father dies she is left alone and unmarried only with her servant Tobe. She meets Homer Barron and after he enters her home he is never seen again. The Story of an Hour by Chopin is based in industrial times and Louise Mallard finds out that her husband had been killed in a railroad accident. Josephine her sister tried to tell her gently not to upset for she had heart trouble. Her husband believed to be dead had come home but in all the grief of seeing him she killed herself from shock of seeing him.…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Her stories often deal with marriage and would provoke an unconventional perspective on the theme. “She forced her characters to face choices between what society expects of them and what they really desired” (Bonner Jr.). When the characters decided to follow their own path rather than that of society, it forces the reader to explore the problems and dilemmas that women face. “Chopin also is unafraid to suggest that sometimes women want sex -- or even independence” (Baker). Women accepted their roles forced upon them by society, even though a void in their inner selves longed to be filled. Chopin used her writings to put longings and feelings in written form on a page. The Awakening and “The Storm” opened an awareness that women and society needed to address and change for the better. Naturally, sexual feelings are something to embrace not confine. Putting restrictions on these feelings is not healthy and confines a woman to not blossom and grow. Letting a woman blossom would bring out the true beauty of her inner being. She also gave us a glimpse of possibilities when the decision of an adulterous affair is acted upon. No judgment or condemnation came from her writings. Kate did want to show that outcomes could have different collateral and consequential paths. No matter what decision has been made, the cause and effect implemented as soon as a decision has been reached. Either bad or good outcomes are one’s own personal choice. Every individual has to live with every decision acted upon. The consequences can lead an individual down a bittersweet path. To have the freedom or liberty of being one’s true self is worth the outcome. Every individual is unique and created to bloom from this uniqueness. People around us would not see the beauty the individual is meant to be unless we allow ourselves to bloom to…

    • 1827 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    She uses attitudes of characters in her novel toward gender, changes in Edna and her suicide to express her own feminist attitudes. Chopin was shunned from communities as a result of her strong feministic views and great ability to express them.…

    • 2601 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the use of first-person point of view, authors Alice Munro and William Faulkner achieve contrasting effects.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Therefore, women had to become more submissive, gentle, and pious. But if men view them as domineering, irritable, and full of lies, the women have no way of defending herself because that is what the men have labeled them as. In “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin subjectively writes about the strong racial discrimination and sexual discrimination that women suffer. When Desiree’s husband accuses her of being black, she tries her hardest to defend herself,” ‘It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair,’ seizing his wrist. ‘look at my hand; whiter that yours, Armand,’ she laughed hysterically” (652). No matter how hard Desiree tries to defend herself; her husband has already dismissed her and thrown away. The unfairness of not being able to defend herself seems to have made Desiree crazy because she tries to prove the truth to her husband, but he keeps insisting she is wrong simply because she is a woman. Her husband has made her into a pitiful woman because even though she is his wife, he is not understanding and does not offer any sympathy. In fact, he doesn’t…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Published in 1894, “The Story of an Hour,” has endured longer than the title would indicate and is a declaration of the support of independence for women from its author Kate Chopin. Having read this story before in other courses, and having spoken at length about how Chopin was in support of the idea of woman’s suffrage even before the suffrage movement caught hold, this story leaves a lasting impression and resonates deeper with me every time I read it. Chopin uses her work to illuminate the joy of independence and the oppression that marriage can bring. Whether intentional or unintentional, her message is not only meant for women but, extends to men as well. It is a timeless theme that anyone can learn from in every age. By her use of various literary elements such as, structure, and style, and the use of rhetorical devises such as pathos Chopin creates a work that provokes deeper though and asks a reader to delve into the emotional struggle of her character Mrs. Louise…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Suspense In The Awakening

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It aided feminists in their struggle for gender equality and it was a controversial and criticized piece of literature because of it. What makes the novel so important is how Kate Chopin portrays the situations in the story. The action, conflict, and excitement are all psychological. It is amazing that Chopin could make nothing but a woman’s thoughts so meaningful. Edna’s goals, desires, and thoughts romanticize the goals of the early feminist movements. The way in which Chopin expresses significant psychological events is incredible and effective in portraying female struggle for independence and equality in the…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The two short stories, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe are similar in that they deal with death in a macabre fashion. Both protagonists exhibit narcissistic personalities perpetrating murders to satisfy selfish justifications. The characters Fortunato and Homer Barron were murdered in gruesome manors; Fortunato was encased in a brick wall and Homer Barron was poisoned. Beyond these two similarities the stories differ greatly.…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” are both stories about women that struggle with love. In a Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson is in the need to get married, while in The Story of an Hour, Louise Mallard is convinced that her husband is dead and we she finds out that he isn’t, it saddens Louise and ultimately kills her. The characters, the setting, and the idea of repression in both stories are three topics that can be compared in these two selections.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    At first glance, Chopin’s Story of an Hour (1894) and de Maupassant’s The Necklace (1884), appear to have very little in common. Chopin’s story, as displayed in its title is quite short; while in comparison, de Maupassant tells a much more detailed account of the beleaguered Loisel’s, who must learn from the self-centred Madam Loisel. With de Maupassant’s depiction of his female protagonist as selfish and ungrateful; it is difficult to fathom Chopin, known for her active role in describing woman's oppression in the nineteenth century. Interestingly, Chopin, a realist, did consider de Maupassant to be one of her largest influences. (Powell & Blakely, 2001). By analyzing both stories’ form, content and style, we can see how the authors developed themes of illusion, deception and obligation to marriage, to pinpoint the suffering of women who society renders mute.…

    • 2795 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Desiree's Baby Chopin

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages

    During Chopin’s life, there was a lot of oppression in women’s lives because they were constantly being molded, restricted, and immobilized because of society and their pressures they put on women (Frye 68). Society constantly placed gender roles on women, which were “society’s views or expectations of women” (Fox-Genovese 37) and women could not possibly escape these social pressures from society (Frye 69). Examples of society’s social pressures on women include marriage, children, and domesticity. These social pressures placed on women did not allow women to become their own self because women’s “social role[s] [conflicted] with her true identity” (Jones 121). Women had a difficult time finding their own identity because of these social pressures.…

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    An Hour Gender Roles

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin analyzes the lives of women in the nineteenth century and not just the routes in which society, through its ideas of gender, its generalization of women, marriage, at last, eradicates female yearnings. Women were usually expected to live their lives largely at home, taking care of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children they turn into the invisible partners to their spouses, without any wishes and…

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kate Chopin is an outstandingly creative writer who brilliantly writes so that even if someone is not the strongest reader, they will still get a compelling story; but if they are a strong reader, they’ll go further by receiving the true meaning behind her wit and intelligent writing styles. Chopin is great about letting readers scratch the surface of a topic that needs to be brought to attention and then just exploits the details by placing wordage exactly where it needs to be to realize just how pressing these issues are, and especially how different times were back then than how they are currently. In her short stories, specifically “The Storm”, Chopin contrasts the responsibilities of the spouses based on gender…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kate Chopin

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages

    * Chopin is demonstrating the way society perceives women and wives as weak individuals who are childlike. The text ironically suggests that these definitions are the results of patriarchy and that such categorising means that the society fails to perceive the true nature of…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In To Build a Fire, written by Jack London, and The Story of an Hour, written by Kate Chopin, both contain many similarities while also being unique in their own way. Both To Build a Fire, and The Story of an Hour heavily discuss the idea of death and independence. However, there are differences in the stories that include themes of confidence, and the idea of free will.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays