Kate Chopin's 'The Story Of An Hour'

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The title of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tips off the reader that much will happen in the following hour. A title, in my mind, is the way the author would sum up the literature in just a few words if they had to. As a result, the title of a story can reveal more about how the author views the story that they are telling. The title “The Story of an Hour” informs the reader both of the format: story, and duration: an hour. This title creates a sense of mystery and intrigue that persists throughout the poem; what surprises does the story contain, what could possibly happen in just an hour? It also makes you think about your own experiences, and how, when dealing with something difficult, an hour can go from passing in the blink of an …show more content…
“A Rose for Emily” takes place in a town of Faulkner’s own creation, Mississippi County, Yoknapatawpha in the 1860s to 1930s. He actually used this town that he conceived as the setting in much of his work. The locale and time period of the story are significant to “A Rose for Emily” because this was around the time that slavery was abolished and Mississippi was in the South, where they had a hard time accepting their new way of life. The division between old ways and new ones in the South contributed greatly to the storyline and created a judgmental, high-tension atmosphere. For example, Emily was born before slavery was abolished, so she grew up during this period of adjustment. As a result, decades later, she was then alienated from the rest of the community, treated like a pariah, and not even required to pay taxes or adhere to any other societal responsibilities. Paradoxically, despite growing up during a time when Southerners tried to cling desperately to their beliefs, Emily is far less conservative than those in her community; she was engaged to a gay man, which at the time was about equivalent with being engaged to a black man. She also kept a former slave as a servant, which could either be viewed as stuck in the time of slavery, or as feeling less disgust towards people of other skin colors. The time and place that the story …show more content…
The wallpaper begins as something that the narrator simply finds unpleasant and perplexingly amorphous, stating it is “one of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin ” and the color is “repellent, almost revolting” (Gilman 573). This reflects how she feels about the role that society has given to her. As the story progresses, she discovers “Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.” (Gilman 577) As a result of her illness, she begins to believe that the women in the paper are ghosts who are always “stooping down and creeping about” (Gilman 577). This is how the narrator feels herself, trapped and lost, being torn down by the oppressive domestic role of the woman from which she feels there is no escape. By the end of the story, the narrator has resolved to tear the wallpaper off the walls, freeing the woman trapped inside. She now realizes that the woman trapped inside the wallpaper was herself, and she “got out at last” “in spite of [John] and Jane” and “pulled off most of the paper, so [they] can’t put [her] back” (Gilman 584). Despite her husband’s
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