Rhetorical Analysis The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin Scott Gordon October 16, 2011

Death and rebirth are complex, spiritual matters. The role of women, their repression and their desires are equally complex. In Kate Chopins unique short story, The Story of an Hour, the author uses a number of devices to show us the sometime futility of life and the effects of repression on a frail, complicated woman. Before exploring these devices however, it is necessary to understand the authors role in feminism. As defined by Oxford English Dictionary feminism is the advocacy of the rights of women.(Old English Dictionary). The general consensus among academia and the feminist movement is that Mrs. Chopin is indeed a leading figure in the feminist movement. Bernard Kolosk, editor of the web-site for the Kate Chopin International Society, disagrees. When asked this very question, he replied, No, it is certainly not true, simply because, from everything we can tell, little of what many readers today consider Chopins feminist literature was not read in the early 20th century (Kolosk). He further states that it seems she was satisfied with merely showing people the truth as she saw it and that her inclusion as a leader in the modern feminist movement took off with the publication of Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography by Per Seyerstad in 1969 This book, complete with critical analysis of Chopins major works by Seyerstad, sets the path for our analysis of this story. In it, he writes, Revolting against tradition and authority, with a daring which we can hardly fathom today; with an uncompromising honesty and no trace of sensationalism, she undertook to give the unsparing truth about womens submerged life (Seyersted 198). He further states, Mrs. Chopin had a daring and a vision all her own, a unique and pessimistic realism applied to womens unchangeable condition (Seyersted 199). We have these thoughts in mind as we begin our exploration of The Story of an Hour.

Page 3 Scott Gordon Nancy McGill English Composition ENGL111-OBJ-J1-201120 October 16, 2011 In this unique short story, Kate Chopin uses carefully chosen words, a cause-and-effect arrangement, and the themes of death and rebirth to illustrate her ideas on the repressed condition of women and repercussions of daring to live outside of societys expectations. In the immediate reality of the story, the perceived death of Louises husband is the catalyst for her change. We watch as she suffers a cataclysmic event, watch her symbolically buried in her grief only to be reborn as a fully realized, self-aware, independent woman. The greater picture, however, is the effect of making choices that dont seem to agree with what society expects. All people (men and women) are sometimes pressured into following a path that may lead us away from our true calling. In doing so, we pose great risk to ourselves. Deep down we know the path to take but we never walk down it. We are trapped by what others have in mind for us. But the thoughts never go away. Lying in bed at night, we see the light and understand the futility and the hurt we live with. For in those dark moments when we are alone and the world presses against us, we see the truth. Just as Louise understands as she is sitting in her room looking out into the world, we have denied our true nature and given into the plans and schemes of others. Also like Louise we feel powerless to change. Feeling trapped, we live day after day, week after week, year after year, knowing deep in our heart we deserve more. It is with this understanding that as we are introduced to fragile and frail Louise Mallard. She is someone we instinctively know. She is every person who has bargained their ideals away to live a life of comfort and security. Like us, she has sacrificed her soul for warm place to sleep and a hearth to call home.

As destructive as this sacrifice is for Louise, the reality of her life is far more sinister. By opening with the line, Knowing Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husbands death(Chopin 527), we are meant to see Louiss delicate nature, just as those around her do. Further, we are even told directly that Mrs. Mallard is unique in other ways. By using the line, She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same (Chopin 527), the author makes Louise even more distinct. Its in these two statements that we understand the loneliness Louise feels. For like her, who among us has never felt fragile and alone? Louise is fragile. She is frail. She is unique and now she is alone. All of these carefully chosen words, when taken together, give us a profound sense of unease as we continue to read. After watching Louise learn of the death of her husband, we are then privy to an emotionally compelling transformation scene. Our protagonist retires to her room after the initial surge of emotion. The shock of learning about her husband has passed and she finds herself alone behind locked doors. In a sense, this is the symbolic death of Louise. By locking herself in the bedroom, she effectively dies. The old Louise is no more. The new Louise hasnt arisen yet, but the old one is no more. She sits in a big chair that faces out an open window. As she does, she feels a weight begin to press down on her. This is the figurative burial of the old Louise. The author writes Into this (chair) she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul (Chopin 527). The use of the word pressed is a deliberate attempt by the author to both express the heaviness of the situation and to move the tension along. The transformation is beginning. As she sits in her chair and feels the enormous weight, feels the burial under the burden

Page 5 Scott Gordon Nancy McGill English Composition ENGL111-OBJ-J1-201120 October 16, 2011 of emotion, the next paragraph shows us that even in this darkness there is light. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of tress that were all aquiver with the new spring life (Chopin 527). The phrasing of the story starts to subtly change from dark and dour to a more upbeat and positive note. In a sense, this also echoes Louises change as well. She is transforming from repressed, unassuming housewife to fully realized, independent woman. She is starting to see the path she can walk and starting to have hope for the future. She understands that her life in transforming but cannot, yet, quite complete the change. Patches of blue start to show through the cloudy, gray sky and she begins to cry. Here the author piles on even more emotion, building the tension even more. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of her chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up to her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dream. (Chopin 528). But as she sits there sobbing, there is something coming towards her. It is her new life her new, unencumbered, unfettered, and free life. She is no longer the repressed unassuming wife of Brently Mallard. She is off that path. She is off the path chosen for her by society. This invokes a physical response from her. Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously and her pulse beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. (Chopin 528). No longer would she have to compromise. The dark moments were over. Her new path was free. She said it over and over and over under her breath, free, free, free! (Chopin 527). She finally exits the room at the behest of a worried Josephine who has been outside

knocking. As Louise exits she is reborn. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a Goddess of Victory (Chopin 528). As a new woman, she no longer does what society expects of her. She is empowered and self-assured. She is, in a sense, the model of modern feminism at this point. However, this course of action is not for the timid. It will come with a steep price. We watch as Louise and Josephine descend the stairs, She clasped her sisters waist, and toghether they descended the stairs. (Chopin 528). Upon reaching the bottom, the new life Louise had just discovered came to an abrupt end. Society, in its seemingly endless capacity for stability, reaches up and punishes her for daring to strike out on her own. As Brently, the supposedly dead husband re-enters the house, Louise drops dead. While we are left with some ambiguity as to what actually caused her death, I think it is safe to assume it was the reappearance of her husband. In the late 1890s, an unattached woman was not going to fly. We have looked at several aspects of this story. From the role of Kate Chopin in modern feminism to the how the effect of her husband dying causes a profound change in the protagonist; to the themes of death and rebirth as a symbolic gesture towards feminism, we understand now that Louise is every person struggling to live a life they didnt necessarily choose for themselves. For every person who has opted to trade their individualism and sense of self for a warm place to sleep and sense of belonging can find a little bit of themselves within Louise Mallard. Yet, even as she represents the change that can occur with self-realization, it comes with a price. Ultimately, our protagonist dies, living behind a sense of bewilderment and confusion as we struggle to maintain our balance of individualism and our sense of duty.

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Works Cited Chopin, Kate. "The Story of An Hour." Reid, Stephen. The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions, 1894. 526-529. Text Book. "Feminism." Def. 2. Old English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. Kolosk, Bernard. Frequently Asked Question. Ed. Bernard Kolosk. n.d. 25th September

2011. <http://www.katechopin.org/faq.shtml>. Seyersted, Per. A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. Book.