Silent Image of Marital Suffering in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hourâ€: A Reading of the Female Psyche

Prabhakar Upadhyay

Abstract


“The Story of an Hour†is a short story that explores the female psyche in a marriage. The story portrays a lady whose husband has died recently in an accident. The social norms expect wailing and sobbing over death. Chopin chose to be silent about the exact nature of the protagonist’s marriage, yet, the protagonist’s dilemma and momentary exhilaration in the death of her husband suggested that she was living a life of unhappiness. This story does not reveal the nature of the relationship between the husband and wife. But, the implication of silence goes beyond the expressed content of the story. A writer uses silence as a literary device to enhance the effectiveness of the text. Silence is revealed sometimes through characters where readers find breaks, gaps or pauses in their speech as in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Sometimes, it is used by a writer to hide crucial information from readers. For instance, Chopin indicates in the story about the trouble but does not say explicitly. Readers are left to guess the exact nature of the protagonist’s marriage. She desires freedom and feels it momentarily after the death of her husband. It is not the question of whether her husband loved her or not. The matter of interrogation is why did she feel like that? This paper investigates the psyche of the protagonist in “The Story of an hourâ€. It enquires how does Chopin use silence to reveal the loss of female individuality in a marriage? In this study, silence denotes something hidden or unspoken. 


Keywords


feminism, Chopin, genderisation, silence, female psyche

Full Text:

PDF

References


Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Viva Books, 2017.

Beauvoir, Simone De. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, Vintage Books, 2011.

Castle, Gregory. The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory. Blackwell, 2007.

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.†50 World’s Greatest Short Stories, Finger Print Classics, 2018.

Fulton, Erica. “A Mad Awakening: Female Madness and Depression in Gilman, Plath and Chopin.†Professor Downing, Eng 562, 30 Nov. 2014. https://www.academia.edu/15731323/A_Mad_Awakening_Female_Madness_and_Depression_in_Gilman_Plath_and_Chopin. Accessed 2 July 2022.

Jassam, Aseel Hatif, and Hadeel Hatif. “Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour: A Feminist Discourse of a Married Woman Reclaiming Her Lost Female Identity.†Research Gate, Sept., 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348162781_KATE_CHOPIN%27S_THE_STORY_OF_AN_HOUR_A_FEMINIST_DISCOURSE_OF_A_MARRIED_WOMAN_RECLAIMING_HER_LOST_FEMALE_IDENTITY. Accessed 5 Dec. 2022.

Mill, John Stuart. The Subjection of Women. Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1869. The subjection of women: Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive. Accessed 5 Dec. 2022.

Papke, Mary E. “Kate Chopin’s Social Fiction.†Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Kate Chopin edited by Harold Bloom, Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2007.

Robinson, Ashley. “The Story of an Hour: Summary and Analysis.†Prep Scholar, Dec. 9, 2019. https://blog.prepscholar.com/kate-chopin-the-story-of-an-hour-summary. Accessed 4 December 2022.



View Counter


Abstract - 269
PDF - 111

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2023 Prabhakar Upadhyay

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

                                                       SUPPORT JOURNAL

ISSN: 2454-2296

E-ISSN: 2395-0897