Gender Roles Kate Chopin
Gender today is not that big of an issue in society, but it was not always that way. It is hard to think about the fact that women did not have the right to vote until 1920 and were also not allowed to have jobs. As it would be nice to not have to work for a living, it should be up to the woman herself to decide that not society. Gender issues have come so far since then and things like voting and working are not even an issue, in America at least. After reading Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour the student of English can better understand how big of an impact gender had on a person’s life by seeing how happy Louise was at the thought of freedom.
Kate Chopin is an American author who lived from 1850-1904, this was part of the Victorian era. She wrote a lot about sensitive, intelligent woman. She was French and English and the French influence is quite visible in her writings. The story of an hour made an appearance in Vogue, because of the impact it had on woman of society. In the early years, her work was not accepted by critics, there was even a rumor that one of her stories had been banned from a library. ("katechopin.org") That of course has not been proven, but just that fact shows that people did not like gender issues to be discussed. The story of an hour was written on April 19th 1894, and was first published under the name “The Dream of an Hour”
The role of the woman in the late eighteen hundreds was to maintain the household and raise children. Some woman primarily of the upper class were ok with this, they liked staying at home while their husbands were off to work making money to provide for the family. Woman from more of a working class sought this idea. (Van de Creek Ph.D.) Whether they liked it or not woman were to stay in the house. The only way that they had control over what they did, or where they went was if they were widowed. "Kate Chopin had to disguise reality. She had to have her heroine die. A story in which an unhappy wife is
Kate Chopin is an American author who lived from 1850-1904, this was part of the Victorian era. She wrote a lot about sensitive, intelligent woman. She was French and English and the French influence is quite visible in her writings. The story of an hour made an appearance in Vogue, because of the impact it had on woman of society. In the early years, her work was not accepted by critics, there was even a rumor that one of her stories had been banned from a library. ("katechopin.org") That of course has not been proven, but just that fact shows that people did not like gender issues to be discussed. The story of an hour was written on April 19th 1894, and was first published under the name “The Dream of an Hour”
The role of the woman in the late eighteen hundreds was to maintain the household and raise children. Some woman primarily of the upper class were ok with this, they liked staying at home while their husbands were off to work making money to provide for the family. Woman from more of a working class sought this idea. (Van de Creek Ph.D.) Whether they liked it or not woman were to stay in the house. The only way that they had control over what they did, or where they went was if they were widowed. "Kate Chopin had to disguise reality. She had to have her heroine die. A story in which an unhappy wife is
Cited: "Kate Chopin Biography." katechopin.org. Kate Chopin Society, n.d. Web. 8 Nov 2011. . Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999. Van de Creek Phd, Drew. "Illinois during the Guilded Age." N.p., 2002. Web. 8 Nov 2011. .