Comparison of The Story of an Hour and Silk Stockings from a Male Perspective

"The Story of an Hour" and "Silk Stockings" is two stories written from a feminist view. As with most of Chopin's writings, she highlights the plight and struggles of the women in her stories, often not including much information about the male characters, or when information is revealed, it is often negative towards the male character.

To paint a picture of Kate Chopin, you'd have to first understand she was a lady and writer ahead of her time. She was married to a man that allowed her an unusual measure of freedom, compared to other women in her time. Kate was a gifted writer, who often wrote of women's subjugation to men, and about how they often felt the need to be themselves. Her stories always carried a feminist view, and this could be attributed to living with the women in her family and with nuns during her childhood, after losing her parents. She also lived in the
Louisiana region for many years, specifically around New Orleans, and often peppers her stories with characters and story lines that relate directly to her life experiences in that region.

The settings for these stories could be the same. Both are in cities, shown by references to "cable cars" (Silk Stockings, p 11) and "the street below a peddler was crying his wares." (The Story of an Hour, 7) These stories also have the backdrop of a time in a similar era, with "Silk Stockings" being first published in the early 1890's and reprinted in 1894, and "The Story of an Hour" being published in 1894. Those two eras were ripe with male dominance and control over almost all matters. Women had very little input, except when it came to raising children and general household upkeep.

"Silk Stockings" appears to have a southern flavor, evidenced by Mrs. Sommers' interest in fitted gloves and the perception of a person of society. "The Story of an Hour" could be in any geographic location, but given Chopin's penchant for sprinkling in details of her real life into her stories, this story too most likely is placed in the South, in a city or urban environment.

While comparing the stories of "Silk Stockings" and "The Story of an Hour" we find several points where these stories have a similar tone of a woman who wants to leave her current situation behind, and be her own woman again. These areas of the story outline the feminist view of the characters, the attempt to gain or retain power over their lives and the loss that both protagonists endure. While loss usually suggests death of a loved one, sometimes loss can be shown as the loss of dreams, the loss of one's interest in living life further under current circumstances.

In "Silk Stockings" Mrs. Sommers and the story comes into view with the sudden gain of $15. While she struggles with how to properly spend the money, Mrs. Sommers comes to the decision to spend the money on better quality shoes and other items for her children. As soon as she starts to shop for her items, she immediately finds items that interest her, but are frivolous purchases. In the passage "She looked down to see her hand in a pile of silk stockings," Mrs. Sommers starts on the path of selfish, impulsive purchases.

These actions outline both the attempt to exert some power over her life, as well as regain some of the lost prestige she once felt in her life prior to her marriage, as shown in the following passage "The neighbors sometimes talked of certain �better days' that little Mrs. Sommers had known before she had ever thought of being Mrs. Sommers."

In comparison, our protagonist in "The Story of an Hour" Mrs. Mallard is a woman who has learned of her husband's death. When she comes to terms with her grief, she realizes that she can regain some control over her life. She utters the words "free, free, free" to signify a change in her feelings towards the death of her husband. This story, too, shows a combined regain of power and the coping with loss. Although in this story, Mrs. Mallard's loss was the loss of her husband. At the end of this story, when it is revealed that the notification of her husband's death was premature, the shock of the sight of him, coupled with the heartbreak that she will not regain the power over her life as she had longed for, it kills her. While the story ends here, as a reader we find that we can read into her death as one of heartbreak and shock.

Feminism in these stories is revealed in several ways. First, in "Silk Stockings" you find Mrs. Sommers taking the expected approach in regards to the fifteen dollars. She thinks of how to spend the money judicially and how it benefits her kids. Then we find that she easily falls back into her old ways of wanting to been seen in society as someone well to do. Shown in the following passage, Mrs. Sommers was fully into the moment of feeling like a woman in control. On page 9, she says "She wanted an excellent and stylish fit, she told the young fellow who served her, and she did not mind the difference of a dollar or two more in the price so long as she got what she desired."

One further point to make here, is all throughout this story no allusion to the male perspective is ever shown. For but a brief comment to mention that she is married, "The neighbors sometimes talked of certain "better days" that little Mrs. Sommers had known before she had ever thought of being Mrs. Sommers. She herself indulged in no such morbid retrospection. She had no time-no second of time to devote to the past." (6) From this passage we cannot even be certain that her husband is alive nor dead. The use of the word "morbid" might lead us to believe he is passed, but the connotation here could also be that she is unhappy about being married and longs for a different life, such as her pre-married life of being financially well off.

In "The Story of an Hour", Mrs. Mallard shows much of the same sentiments as does Mrs. Sommers in "Silk Stockings" towards being married. She is shown to be confused during the time when she is first notified of her husband's death. In paragraph 3 of the story she "wept at once, with sudden, wild abandon". However, upon retreat to her room, she starts to slowly take stock of the significance of he impact of his death. She utters the words "Free, Free, Free" (11) upon the realization that she is no longer restrained by the bonds of a marriage she no longer wished to be in; a marriage short on love, and long on control, wielded by her husband.

Both of these stories also describe a loss to the protagonists. In "Silk Stockings" Mrs. Sommers' loss is shown as a loss of her former life. In the last paragraph of the story, she is shown to be sitting on a cable car, wishing it to never make it to her destination, or any final destination. By having never to get off, she can live in the feeling of having a gentleman looking upon her, dressed in her new stockings, gloves and shoes and feeling like a woman of society again. She can also not have to worry about the constraints of her daily life with her children and duties at home.

In "The Story of an Hour", Mrs. Mallard has loss represented in several, disparate ways. She is first inundated with the notification of the death of her husband. (2) As she comes to grips with this loss, she finds that is has regained a sense of freedom and a newfound hope for her life. In paragraph 21, she is then overcome at the sight of her husband walking into the door, not dead but certainly alive. Her sudden realization that she has lost the freedom she had just realized through the death of her husband, was no longer hers. This caused her to be shocked and heartbroken to the point that it kills her. This use of loss causes the reader to feel sorry for Mrs. Mallard in separate ways. Feeling for her loss in death, and then feeling for her loss of her regained control of her life.

Each of the two stories shows a loss suffered by the women, due to the circumstance of being married. Mrs. Sommers felt her loss of feeling privilege in society, while Mrs. Mallard felt her loss of being in control of her own life.

Bibliography

Chopin, Kate. (1969)."Confidences of" The Complete Works Kate Chopin Ed. Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge and London Louisiana State UP. pp700-702

Chopin, Kate.(1969) "Her Letters" Ed. Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge and London Louisiana State UP, pp398-400

Chopin, Kate. (2004). The Story of an Hour. In L. Kirszner & S. Mandell (Eds.), Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. (pp. 50-52).
Boston Thomson and Wadsworth.
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Le Marquand, Jane. (1996). "Kate Chopin as a Feminist: Subverting the French Androcentric Influence" Palmerston North, Deep South
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