A Look into “The Story of an Hour” and “A Rose for Emily”
Introduction
In my writing, I will be looking at two stories: Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.”
“The Story of an Hour” tells the story of a married woman, Louise, who suffers from heart problems. Her husband died in a tragic accident, and because of her heart issues, her sister was hesitant to deliver the news to Louise. Despite the sister’s concerns for her taking it badly, Louise found comfort and happiness in the news, so much so that she suffered a heart attack and died of happiness. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” follows the life of Emily, a character who was heavily impacted by her father’s death. She isolated herself from the city and other men, including the man she was supposed to marry. The city marveled at Emily’s state of aloofness, only pitying her until she met her death in isolation.
Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” are two distinct stories who, while being vastly different, share many key elements. Both stories emphasize on feminism and highlight different issues that women face in their lives, although the depiction and resolution of these issues vary between the two. The characters in these stories both live their lives under the oppressive nature of a patriarchal society, and in the end, experience some kind of liberation from it. Louise from “The Story of an Hour” finds liberation in death after finding out her husband had died, finally escaping the oppression and restrictiveness of marriage. Emily from “A Rose for Emily” unknowingly finds freedom and comfort by seeking isolation and killing her soon-to-be husband. That being said, the two stories also dwell on themes of death. In fact, the entirety of both stories revolve around how death affects the characters, and what it means to them. In total, both stories share many similar themes, mainly death and liberation, both of which can be found with the use of symbolism within each story.
Given that both stories delve deeply into oppression, I couldn’t help but think of Andrew Hussie’s “Homestuck,” which shares many story elements with both readings, including oppression, isolation, and freedom.
In the “Homestuck” universe, the characters are treated differently based on the color of their blood. The lower their blood color is on the hemospectrum, the more oppression they face. I found that Kanrki and Karkat Vantas shared many struggles with the two women. Their blood color, being the same shade as human blood, is not found on the hemospectrum due to a mutation, making them more vulnerable than the rest of the trolls in either of their timelines: Beforus and Alternia.
During Kankri’s introduction and his first exchange between Karkat and himself (Openbound — Kankri & Karkat exchange), Kankri explains to Karkat how trolls of their blood color face more oppression in his timeline (Beforus) than in Alternia. Kankri’s line,
“while your people may have been engaged in violent, lethal class struggle for millions of sweeps, by no means does this imply that the Beforan way of life was entirely without problematic elements, perhaps even more disturbing and insidious for their lack of acknowledgement and open discussion” (Hussie 5263)
gives us a look into the life of the Vantas bloodline. With his unique blood color, Karkat lives in constant fear of his life, and resorts to aggression and secrecy to keep his identity hidden. I made the connection between his character and the two women when considering the oppression that the three characters face. They are weakened by an oppressive society, and forced to submit to a limited life.
IRONY
Irony plays heavily into the dynamics of both stories, affecting not only the plot, but also the characters and their behaviors towards one another. Although the type of irony found in “The Story of an Hour” differs from the irony found in “A Rose for Emily,” they are similar in the way that it affects the way the story plays out. Irony leads both stories to conclude in death, bear heavy emotions onto the characters, and profoundly affects each aspect in both stories..
THE STORY OF AN HOUR
Situational irony gives a well-developed story an unexpected ending. In the case of “The Story of an Hour,” we expect Louise to die of heartbreak, due to pairing her heart troubles with the death of her husband. Unexpectedly so, Louise dies of happiness after the news is delivered to her. Her epiphany is when she comes to the realization that the death of her husband was beneficial to her, liberating her from the oppression that she faced while her husband was still alive.
In the beginning of the story, we are led to believe that sadness and heartbreak would be the cause of her death. The quote,
“knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death,” (Chopin)
establishes that extra consideration must be taken in account of Louise’s emotions. With death being such a heavy topic, it would be easy for one to believe that she would be affected negatively by it, not the other way around.
A ROSE FOR EMILY
The verbal irony found in this story affects the townspeople more, but in turn, affects Emily as well, given that the townspeople directly affect Emily’s character. For the entirety of the story, the townspeople contradict their words and thoughts about Emily, calling her “crazy,” yet holding her in in high regards. Most of the oppression that Emily faces is caused by the townspeople. The quotes,
“We did not say she was crazy then,” directly contradicts the line, “and the following day the minister’s wife wrote to Miss Emily’s relations in Alabama,” (Faulkner)
by suggesting that the townspeople were directly involved with her despite their perception of her. Their perception of her as a person is warped, which leads her to force herself into isolation in order to escape it.
THEME
Although multiple themes are observed in both stories, they seem to have many in common, most notably, death and freedom. Louise finds liberation in death, while Emily meets her death through her involuntary freedom. In both stories, the two themes go hand-in-hand, however, they differ because of the ways in which each character interprets them.
DEATH
One of the most obvious differences between the two stories is how each one depicts death. “The Story of an Hour” portrays death in a positive light, making it out to be a door to freedom. Louise finds comfort and joy in accepting both her husband’s death, and her own. One of Louise’s lines,
“Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin)
reflects her positivity towards her loss.
On the contrary, Emily is affected negatively by death, until she meets her own, of course. Her father’s death weighed heavily on her, and affected her mindset for the entire story. This event led to her retreating into her home to hide away from other people and led her to neglect many of her duties. The quote,
“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town . . .” (Faulkner)
suggests that death had such a profound effect on her life, that she became a burden on the rest of the town.
While listening to music and looking into the themes of both stories, I found that Louise and Emily could relate to the lyrics of Inner Wave’s Balto.
The lyrics of the song reflect the longing for freedom. The song focuses on love, and how the songwriter once had it, but now felt incomplete and insecure without it. The songwriter explains how he only wants to make it work, and how life is too unpredictable. It’s clear he feels sourly towards love, while simultaneously desiring it. He makes his own issues worse by constantly being reminded of them via his thoughts.
The lines,
“I need a place to sleep
Place to rest my head
Do you have a home?
Can I stay there instead?”
reflect the songwriter’s struggles with putting his issues to rest. Considering the first two lines, we can infer that he is in need of a break from his thoughts or himself. The last two reflect his desire for freedom and the need to escape his thoughts. He seeks a “home” for his mind, so that the pain they bring him ceases.
You can tie Balto to the two women by considering the fact that the characters feel the same way. Although what they desire may not necessarily be love or a relationship, the lines the desire to finally find a solution is heavily relatable to the two characters. In their case, they also desire some form of freedom and a clause to their suffering. The “home” that the songwriter refers to can be compared to the death that the two women meet at the end of their stories.
SYMBOLISM
The symbolism found within the two stories heavily reflect themes of, again, death and freedom. A major commonality between the two is that the symbolism also heavily reflects themes of entrapment, an issue both women face. The authors placed emphasis on both freedom and entrapment when including symbolic elements to portray these themes.
ENTRAPMENT
“A Rose for Emily” places more emphasis on symbols that represent being trapped than Chopin’s story does, but that doesn’t change the fact that both play an important role in the story. For Emily, this symbol would be the house that she resides and hides away in. If it weren’t for the quote,
“an eyesore among eyesores,” (Faulkner)
the house could be interpreted as simply a house. However, the house is described negatively, implying that the house is a negative element in Emily’s life. Because of the townspeople and their perception of her, as well as her fear of mistreatment, she subjects herself to live in a negative environment.
Louise’s heart troubles in “The Story of an Hour” is representative of her feelings towards her marriage, which restrained her. With them, she was very limited in the things she could do, and people had to tiptoe around her. Not only that, but she was weakened by them, which could represent how she was powerless in her marriage. The quote,
“into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul,” (Chopin)
reflects how limiting her heart condition could be.
I found that as I read these stories, I began to wonder how else women faced oppression during these eras, and felt trapped within their own homes. While doing research, I came across an article which describes the struggles women faced when it came to psychiatry.
The following line from the article,
“the Daily Alta California newspaper reported that she “had threatened to kill her stepfather, and had made no secret of her satisfaction at his death,” though neither of those sentiments necessarily made her insane,”
was what made me think of the two women. Louise and Emily were not insane for doing or feeling the way they did. Emily sought death for comfort and to save herself of further oppression. Louise felt satisfied and content with her husband’s death for the same reasons. Women’s emotions and issues are often taken at face value, rather than in full consideration.
Often, the struggles of women were heavily undermined, while “unacceptable behavior” was seen as a need for treatment. When women defied traditional gender roles and behaviors, they were placed into asylums to reform them. It was a way for the male-dominated world to have a means to control women and their behaviors. This is similar to the oppression that the women faced, but instead, Louise faced it in the form of a marriage, and Emily faced it from the townspeople as a whole.