The theme in “The Wife” and “The Story of an Hour” relate to each other of the women wanting to have an internal sense of being good enough and worthy of love. Both poems shine the light on how yes in society it is respectable if you’re married but being a wife can cause suffering, especially for the women in both poems who value their independence life. In The Wife, “If ought She missed in Her new Day, Of Amplitude, or Awe Or first Prospective Or the Gold In using, wear away,” analyzes the women’s new married life she can’t express the old life she misses when she was independent, using the world “Amplitude” to show the change she’s going through. Her married life has more responsibilities and pressure she may not be able to handle. In The Story of an Hour, when Mrs. Mallard finds out about her husband’s death she says “She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!” this tells us that she’s discontent with her husband and is a benefit to her being free now. Usually, when someone finds out about the passing of someone they love, their first reaction would be to become emotional and ask questions but Mrs. Mallard just sits motionless on her chair and doesn’t seem to be phased by it, opening her arms means she’s comfortable now. In both poems, the women will have a new journey of them being independent and don’t have to worry about the pressure marriage can bring.
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One thought on “Christian Alvear Discussion 9”
I wholeheartedly agree with the analysis and ideas published in your discussion post. Both do show how women suffer in marriages. I find that the women did suffer more during the times that both works were written as they did not have as much freedom or power in society. Many women living in more conservative societies have even less rights than the women that Emily Dickenson and Kate Chopin were referring to in their works which is difficult to imagine as the wife in “The Story of an Hour” couldn’t bear to live with her husband already.