There are various similarities and differences between “The Story of an hour” and “Beyond The Bayou” in regards to feminism. Chopin depicts the struggles of female characters by characterizing them as being fragile. In The Story of an Hour Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble and suddenly receives the horrifying news that her husband has been killed in an accident. Mrs. Mallard does not have a normal reaction. The fact that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble it made her seem very weak. Why couldn’t it be vice versa with her husband. I felt that is was characterizing females as complicated. On page 47 it states ” She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will”, my educational guess is that Mrs. Mallard is approaching her death and some spirt has came for her. The news  about her husbands death affected her not at the moment but afterwards. In Beyond The Bayou the author characterized women of being equal to men. On page 50 it states ” She dwelt alone in her solitary cabin, for the rest of the quarters had long since been removed beyond her sight and knowledge. She had more physical strength than most men” this depicts the character as a strong independent women.                          In The story of an hour Mrs. Mallard does change but not voluntarily it seems that something has gotten into her and took control of her body and soul. The settings are very different from one another. The Story of the hour setting takes place in a home where a women finds out devastating news about what had occurred to her husband and she goes running to a room where she passes her last few moments alive. In Beyond The Bayou the setting takes place in a remote area where the people living on it work on it daily.
4 thoughts on “The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and Beyond The Bayou by Kate Chopin”
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I agree with this post there are similarity in regards to feminism. When Mrs.Mallard find out that her husband died, I think she had a sense of freedom and independence with herself now that she didn’t have when her husband alive. It was almost as if she was both sad and relief once they told her the news. Also the way they said it was the husband who died but towards the end said the wife actually was the one who died from a heart attack of happiness shows, that once her husband is back in her life the “free” feeling wasn’t going to last as long. So she ended up dying from the happiness knowing that for a while she was actually going to be her own person and independent . While La Folle was basically describe as physically as a man throughout the stories though they’re parts where her feminine emotion side comes out for the young boy.
In my opinion, I felt that the two stories were less about feminism but rather a sense of freedom for these women in both stories, âThe Story of an Hourâ and âBeyond The Bayouâ by Kate Chopin. In the first story, “The Story of an Hour” I got the feeling that the women was rather joyful at the death of her husband even though she did cry and said she would cry again when she sees him in the casket. “Free! Body and soul free!” goes to show how exactly she felt now that she was one that really married and free to carry out the remainder of her life and two how much her husband meant to her. In regard to “Beyond The Bayou” La Folle was extremely glad to know after the events that there is a whole new and vast world beyond the bayou as if we freed herself from the restraints she set for herself.
I disagree with the idea that Chopin intended to depict Mrs.Mallard as fragile. I believe that through the duration of the story, Mrs.Mallard was coming to the realization that she did not actually depend on her husband the way that she originally thought. When the text states âShe was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her willâ, I think this quote is speaking about the feeling of happiness that she is beginning to feel. While she thought about how life would be without her husband, she felt guilty at the joy she felt that she had freedom. She also stated that he was good to her and loved her very much. This shows that the reason that she was happy was solely for the fact that she could be independent.
I agree with Melissa, on the way that Kate Choplin depicts feminism amongst her characters in both readings. In “Beyond the Bayou” Kate allows the setting to enhance the plot. La Folle never left the bayou, so we as readers assume that this would be what the story would be about, La Folle and Cheri building a great frienship where La Folle is familiar with. Kate Choplin allows the major event of Cheri falling and shooting himself as a reason for La Folle to leave the bayou. La Folle was given a major reason to do something she had never done in order to save Cheri’s life, this event was a major turning point. After crossing over, La Folle eventually went back to check on Cheri and stayed for awhile to watch the sun rise as if it she was looking a new world. So this new setting shows us that La Folle was no longer confined to what she knew, but she was willing to know more because she loved Cheri. Whereas, in the”The Story of an Hour” Kate Choplin setting develops the style of the reading. As Melissa stated the setting taking place in a home where a wife has learned that her husband has passed, leaves the readers to believe that she is in great mourning as Kate describes “when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams”. As a reader I took heed to how Kate used a lot of strong punctuation throughout the reading to make us feel the exact emotions the wife was feeling. She also let us look at the wife’s point of view by letting us know how she reacted once she was told of her husband dying, and her heart condition, and the way she sat in the room while she felt “Free!Body and soul free”!