Determinism in Kate Chopin's "The Term Paper

Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while" (Chopin 1889). In Chopin's wording there is the implication that Clarisse is not as sexual as her husband. Still, like "The Storm" itself, the consequences of the illegitimate passion are minor: "So the storm passed and every one was happy" (Chopin 1889).

"The Story of an Hour" takes place in an urban, industrial landscape. Its plot also revolves around a deterministic twist of fate: Mr. Brently Mallard is killed in a railroad disaster. Suddenly, his wife begins to envision all of the new possibilities that have been opened up to her as an independent woman. Her grief is described as a "storm" but is one that quickly passes (Chopin 1894). In her environment, Mrs. Mallard suddenly only sees joy and hope: "the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life" (Chopin 1894) Mrs. Mallard thinks that "now her life would belong to her absolutely" (Chopin 1894). Mrs. Mallard's life has been entirely shaped by the social forces of her existence which dictate that a woman must obey her husband, and cannot live on her own independently. Her reflection that sometimes she loved her husband, and sometimes she did not and the fact that she accepts the news so readily indicates that she married Mr. Mallard more out of social obligation, and a sense that she had to do so, as a woman, than out of love. Economically, a young woman also had difficulty 'making it' on her own during the time and place where the story is set. Thus, even if 'Louise' (the reader only learns Mrs.Mallard's first name after her husband has died, as if she has suddenly acquired her old identity back) had resisted the socially deterministic pressures for a woman to marry, economically deterministic factors also made it difficult for her live an independent life.

As a widow, Mrs. Mallard would have a social identity: she could respectably live alone on the pretext of mourning her husband's death. She would have financial security, which Brently presumably provided for her in his will. The only problem with her fantasy is that her husband is not dead. The horror of her re-imprisonment in a loveless marriage is so great Mrs. Mallard falls to the floor, dead. Ironically, her wish for independence is never known. Society stubbornly insists that women need to be married to be happy, so the death is said to be because of "the joy that kills" (Chopin 1894). However, both short stories illustrate the fictional nature of the social lie that women only require marriage and the love of one man to be happy: women need social independence as well, to feel fully complete.

References

Chopin, Kate. The Storm. About.com. 1889. Full text available on July 19, 2010 at http://classiclit.about.com/od/stormkatechopin/a/aa_thestorm_kchopin.htm

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an hour. English Web. 1894. Full text available on July 19, 2010 at http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/.....