The theme in the nineteenth-century Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” echoed in “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin because It portrays loneliness and the benefits and disadvantages that come with it. The events in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” develop swiftly; it appears that a person’s life and personality may change significantly in just one hour. Less than an hour passes while Mrs. Mallard processes the death of her husband. By doing this, she quickly progresses through her sadness to reach a “dream” or “story” of what life would be like for her on her own. In the story it states “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” She has become used to the concept of a completely different future; one she looks forward to rather than one she fears. She later finds out that her husband is still alive, and destroys her brand-new vision for the future.
Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” it says, “She rose to his requirement, dropped
The playthings of her life
To take the honorable work
Of woman and of wife.” Both the poem and the story convey the idea that women sacrifice their lives to be a wife to their husbands and experience less independence and freedom.
2 thoughts on “Brianna Sanchez Week 4 Discussion”
Hello Brianna, I liked how you have pointed out the lines “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will being hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”. As these lines portrays how Mrs. Mallard feels that she had been living for someone else for all this years rather than for herself. I also think that the poem and the story convey the message that women during those time had to sacrifice their independence for marriage.
I think the line about someone bending to another’s will applies to the narrator’s feelings about men too. It’s the whole idea of personal freedom and decision-making regardless of one’s gender.