4.3 Kate Chopin

Notes

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) lived in Louisiana and wrote about women's lives and desires in the late 1800s.

• "The Story of an Hour" (1894): Louise Mallard has heart trouble, so friends gently tell her that her husband, Brently, has died in a railroad accident. Alone in her room, she feels a surprising wave of freedom. Then Brently walks in alive, and she dies. Doctors say she died "of the joy that kills."
• The story's situational irony is that the doctors' explanation is the opposite of the truth: she died from the loss of her new freedom.
• Themes: the limits placed on women in marriage, self-identity, and freedom.
• Chopin's novel The Awakening (1899) was also controversial for exploring a woman's search for independence.
• Worked example: the word "free," repeated in Louise's whispering, shows her private joy that contrasts with the public mourning.