Evaluating Feminist Literature: Works by Kate Chopin and Gail Godwin

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and Gail Godwin's "A Sorrowful Woman" could easily fall under the category of feminist literature. Both short stories display some similarities and differences in the means used to present this anti-myth of the American female for the respective time periods of the stories. The two authors use varying methods to deliver the identity of the women, the situation in each story, and the inevitable escape to freedom from the clutches of chauvinistic oppression.

The mode used to identify the protagonist in both stories varies, but it remains equally important to the overall meaning of the story. For example, the author consistently calls Louise Mallard "Mrs. Mallard" until she learns of her husband's death and the freedom that comes with that death. Until that brilliant epiphany, Louise remains an extension of her husband (Cunningham). On the other hand, the characters in "A Sorrowful Woman" do not have any names. The terms used to describe the three characters remain so vague throughout the story that application of the situation to a real life scenario does not present any difficulties (Gardiner). At the very beginning of the story, the author describes the characters as "a wife and mother one too many time," "the husband durable, receptive, gentle," and "the child a tender golden three" (Meyer 38). Rather than having names, the author grants titles to her characters; Kate Chopin, on the other hand, gives the name Louise Mallard a great deal of significance in the development of Louise's character.

Similarities exist in the general situation for Louise Mallard and the mother. The mother in "A Sorrowful Woman" does not indicate at any particular point that she has had undue stress placed upon her by her husband or her child. She fully admits that her sudden need to escape has no obvious origin. According to the text, the husband "understood such things" (Meyer 38), and he allowed his wife to distance herself from her duties as a mother and a spouse, much like the character Edna in Kate Chopin's The Awakening (Gardiner). Louise Mallard endures a similar situation after hearing the news of her husband's death. She indicates that she did occasionally love her husband and that he never truly inflicted mental or physical pain during the marriage. However, unlike the mother, Louise knows the source of her emotional shift; she simply realizes that her husband's death awards her the freedom to live for herself. She quite plainly admits that he was a good husband, but she does not care for that fact in light of her emancipation (Cunningham). Despite the difference in time periods, the two women begin with a similar situation, but the individual mindset varies.

Death is the obvious conclusion to any human life, and both stories end with the death of the main character. From the beginning of "The Story of an Hour," Louise Mallard's heart condition foreshadows her nearly inevitable death. At the news of her supposedly dead husband's arrival, she dies "of heart disease---of joy that kills" (Meyer 16). Doctors and friends alike assume that her badly timed death occurs due to the shock of seeing her dead husband coming home, but Chopin steadily implies that perhaps the shock of having her freedom torn away killed her in the end (Cunningham). At the conclusion of "A Sorrowful Woman," the mother is dead, but she has completed an assortment of house duties commonly associated with being a housewife. Godwin implies that adhering to the myths of the American housewife standards will eventually lead to self-destruction, and she demonstrates this with the death of the mother (Gardiner).
"The Story of an Hour" and "A Sorrowful Woman" both present a woman trying to escape the confines of her time period and situation. Both authors imply that being denied that freedom ultimately leads to destruction. The two authors present this theory through the identifying characteristics of the women, the description of the situation, and the gloomy conclusion to each story.

Resources

Cunningham, Mark. "The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise

Mallard in Kate Chopin's 'Story of an Hour.'" English Language Notes

42.1 (2004): 48-53.

Gardiner, Judith K. "'A Sorrowful Woman': Gail Godwin's Feminist Parable."

Studies in Short Fiction 12.3 (1975): 286-290.

Meyer, Michael. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Seventh

Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.