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A review by laurenkara
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
4.0
Like I mentioned in my review for A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf I just wanted some quick and easy classics to read because 1) I have no attention span and 2) I'm so brand new to them I don't want to scare myself by starting with something too full on.
Unlike A Haunted House, The Story of an Hour really impacted me. I love the message that Kate was portraying. I can also imagine it would have been a tad controversial for it's time considering how valued and respected marriage was and I appreciate any female authors who break the boundaries and tell a different side of the story. Even today, society deems marriage as a way for our lives to be "complete" and it was nice seeing something breaking that mold since I have no desire to get married any time soon or at all.
It was a really refreshing change having a woman - instead of a man - admit that she felt trapped by her marriage. A man wanting to be free is such a normal thing, no one even questions it. It's okay for men to make jokes about how "their freedom is over" but it's not nearly as acceptable for women to speak out about the same things.
Louise's condition being a heart ailment was some incredible symbolism. The ending confused me at first because it felt kind of like it was going against everything else in the text, which was really empowering and uplifting, but then I realised it was a really hard-hitting way of showing how oppressed women are.
I'm definitely going to be reading more of Kate's works!
Unlike A Haunted House, The Story of an Hour really impacted me. I love the message that Kate was portraying. I can also imagine it would have been a tad controversial for it's time considering how valued and respected marriage was and I appreciate any female authors who break the boundaries and tell a different side of the story. Even today, society deems marriage as a way for our lives to be "complete" and it was nice seeing something breaking that mold since I have no desire to get married any time soon or at all.
It was a really refreshing change having a woman - instead of a man - admit that she felt trapped by her marriage. A man wanting to be free is such a normal thing, no one even questions it. It's okay for men to make jokes about how "their freedom is over" but it's not nearly as acceptable for women to speak out about the same things.
Louise's condition being a heart ailment was some incredible symbolism. The ending confused me at first because it felt kind of like it was going against everything else in the text, which was really empowering and uplifting, but then I realised it was a really hard-hitting way of showing how oppressed women are.
I'm definitely going to be reading more of Kate's works!