Christalyn Grantier
ENG 104, Prof. C. Agatucci
Midterm Literary Analysis Paper
4 November 2002
Plot vs. Point of View in Chopin's "Story of An Hour"
Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” tells the tale of an evolution of a character in a single
hour. Chopin accomplishes this by using a specific point of view and unique plot to carry out
her vision. These elements work together to create a theme that has the greatest impact on the
reader.
Ann Charters defines “point of view” as “the author’s choice of narrator for the
story”(1009). “The Story of an Hour” is told from the viewpoint of a third-person
narrator. This speaker is a “non-participant in the story” (Charters 1009). Never does the
narrator include herself in the plot of “Hour.” Specifically, this speaker has only “limited
omniscience” as she relates the story. According to Charters, a speaker with limited omniscience
is able to know what is going on in the mind of a single character, but not have a full
understanding of, or chooses not to reveal to the readers, the minds of all the characters (Charters
1009). For example, the emotions and thoughts of Mrs. Mallard are fully described within the
story. We see her grief, but also the thoughts of freedom that begin to come to her mind (Chopin
157-8). Because the narrator does not show all the aspects of the story, it allows the fact of her
husband being alive to be a surprise (Chopin 158). The narrator, because he or she is not a
member of the story, may be able to be trusted more by the reader than a person involved
directly in the story (Charters 1010). The narrator is considered more “objective” (Agatucci 4).
The author, Kate Chopin, was a great admirer of Guy de Maupassant, a writer of the
realist genre (Agatucci 4). Maupassant stated that “The writer’s goal is to reproduce this illusion
of life faithfully…” (Maupassant 898). Chopin used a point of view in “Story of an Hour” very
similar to that of Maupassant when he wrote “The Necklace.” The author’s factual account
allows a reader to experience this “illusion of life”. According to Maupassant, a writer should
find a new way of looking at a situation (Charters 523). Chopin, in attempting to imitate the
genre embraced by this author, looked at a situation of the death of a husband in a unique
way. She accomplished this by presenting the true feelings of a widow and contrasting those
feelings with society’s beliefs. Working in the realistic genre, Chopin presented a more
“disillusioned” view of life (Agatucci 4). Chopin did not portray the accepted norms of
society. She did not state that the wife could not go on without her husband. By contrast, she
viewed her story with a new concept, that of a wife feeling empowered to go on
living because her husband was no longer alive.
The thoughts and actions of these characters can be seen in the development of the
plot. Point of view is how a reader is able to look into a story; the plot is the arrangement of the
incidents themselves (Charter 1003, 1009). Charters defines plot as “the sequence of events in a
story and their relation to one another as they develop and usually resolve a conflict”(1003). The
sequences within this story are quite short because this story occurs in the course of a single
hour. The conflict present in this story is all within the protagonist, “the main character of [the]
narrative” (Charters 1051). Without the view which allows the reader to see inside the mind of
Mrs. Mallard, the reader would not be aware of the true conflict. Without this insight, a reader
might assume, like Mrs. Mallard’s sister, that the conflict of the wife was the grief associated
with her husband’s death (Chopin 158). The point of view allows the reader to see the true
conflict within the plot and to sense the freedom that is eventually embraced by the protagonist
(Chopin 158).
The life of the author seems to have an impact on the plot. Kate Chopin had a very
similar experience as Mrs. Mallard in the tragic death of her father. Chopin’s father perished
when she was young in a train accident (Chopin 157; and “Katherine Chopin”). Also, she did
not begin writing until after her mother and husband had both passed away (“Katherine
Chopin”). She herself stated that “If it were possible for my husband and my mother to come
back to earth, I feel that I would unhesitatingly give up every thing that has come into my life
since they left it and join my existence again with theirs. To do that, I would have to forget the
past ten years of my growth -- my real growth” (O'Brien). This suggests Chopin sympathized
with Mrs. Mallard, who had found new freedom in the death of a loved one (Chopin 158). Kate
Chopin had a bicultural background. According toContemporary Authors, this author’s greatgrandmother related stories of her ancestors, including those about “notorious infidels”
(“Katherine Chopin”). This may have given Chopin confidence to explore topics not generally
discussed by the society of her day.
The plot itself has some very distinct characteristics that are of the literary realism
genre. First, it is believable. Most people believe that heart disease and train accidents do exist
(Chopin 157). Authors writing within this style often chose to look at the nature of human
beings (Agatucci 3). The entire plot of “Story of An Hour” is that of describing the nature of the
characters. The plot begins by depicting the reaction of Mrs. Mallard’s sister and Mr. Mallard’s
friend (Chopin 157). The evolution of the emotional nature of Mrs. Mallard is described as she
sits alone (Chopin157-158). Finally, we see the nature of society at that time, totally ignorant of
the true feelings felt by the wife about her husband. Agatucci describes this impact on characters
such as Mrs. Mallard as “ordinary people of contemporary times live it in society, caught up by
social…forces” (3).
The social forces of this time included, what could be referred to as society’s
“repression” of women. Seyersted describes this time period as a society in which “a society
where man makes the rules, woman is often kept in a state of tutelage and regarded as property
or as a servant”. Seyersted quotes Chopin herself in saying, “As Mme. de Stael's Corinne is told:
Whatever extraordinary gifts she may have, her duty and ‘her proper destiny is to devote herself
to her husband and to the raising of her children’.” This type of society had a great impact on the
plot of this story. The reader can better understand the situation of Mrs. Mallard. Her destiny
was that of devoting herself to her husband. Even though she loved him and would weep upon
seeing him dead, she welcomed the “procession of years that would belong to her absolutely”
(Chopin 158). Maureen Anderson refers to Chopin as having an “authorial skill through which
she elegantly addresses society's flaws” present in all her works.
In conclusion, both the point of view and the plot of “Story of an Hour” work to create
the theme of this story. Theme is “a generalization about the meaning of a story” (Charters
1013). The theme of Chopin’s story is how ignorant society was at that time of the true feelings
experienced by repressed women. First, the point of view allows us to see the inner emotions
expressed by Mrs. Mallard. Without a speaker with limited omniscience, a reader would never
realize what was truly being felt by the protagonist, and the theme would be lost. Because the
narrator is outside the story and could be considered more objective, the reader is more likely to
believe that these feelings experienced by Mrs. Mallard are true. If Mrs. Mallard or the sister
had told the story, readers would have gotten two different, biased accounts. The point of view
allows a reader to feel that this really could have happened, an “illusion of life”, thereby making
the theme more powerful. The plot allows Mrs. Mallard to explore her feelings of repression and
finally accept the fact that she can rejoice in the freedom of being a widow (Chopin 158). The
surprise ending, the return of Mr. Mallard and the death of Mrs. Mallard, gives the reader a
chance to understand the ironic beliefs of society (Chopin 158). The irony can be seen in the
totally contradictory feelings of the protagonist and society. Mrs. Mallard, upon seeing her
husband alive, was suddenly thrown back into a situation in which she had “thought with a
shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 158). It was this great shock and grief that led to her
death, not the “joy that kills” (Chopin 158).
Works Cited
Agatucci, Cora. (Professor of English, Humanities Dept., Central Oregon Community
College). “Emergence of the Short Story: Literary Romanticism and RealismPoe and Maupassant; Myth Lit. Theory”. In-Class Presentation, English 104:
Introduction to Literature-Fiction, Central Oregon Community College [Bend,
OR]. Fall 2002. Handout.
Anderson, Maureen. “Unraveling the Southern Pastoral Tradition: A New Look at Kate
Chopin's At Fault.” Southern Literary Journal 34.1: 1-14. Rpt. Ebsco Host
Academic Search Elite, 2001; Article No. 6124416.
Charters, Ann. “Appendix 3: The Elements of Fiction.” The Story and Its Writer: An
Introduction to Short Fiction. Compact 6th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2003. 1003-1015.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour”. [First published 1894.] Rpt. The Story and Its
Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact
6th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 157-158.
“Katherine Chopin, 1851-1904.” [New Entry: 28 Apr. 1998.] Contemporary Authors
Online. The Gale Group, 2000. Rpt. Gale Literature Resource Center [Online
Subscription Database]. The Gale Group, 2002.
Maupassant, Guy de. “The Writer’s Goal”. [First published 1888.] Rpt. The Story and
Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact
6th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 896-898.
O'Brien, Sharon. “Bored Wives and Jubilant Widows”. The New York Times 30 Dec.
1990, late. ed., sec. 7: 10. Rpt. Lexis-Nexis. 28 Oct. 2002.
Seyersted, Per. [Excerpt from] Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Louisiana State
University Press, 1969. 246. Rpt. World Literature Criticism Supplement,
Vol.1. Gale Literature Resource Center [Online Subscription Database]. The
Gale Group, 2002.
Ruzha Todorova
ENG 104, Prof. C. Agatucci
Literary Analysis Paper
4 November 2002
A Cure for Temporary Depression
The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story of
a young depressed woman, traveling to the country with her husband, so that
she can be away from writing, which seems to have a bad impact on her
psychological condition. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar call it ”a striking story
of female confinement and escape, a paradigmatic tale which (like Jane
Eyre) seems to tell the story that all literary women would tell if they could speak
their ‘speechless woe’” (874). In this story theme and point of view interlace and
work together to create an intense description of an almost prison-like
prescription for overcoming depression. She struggles with male oppression,
because she is told by her husband and her brother many things about her own
health that she disagrees with. She strives for independence, and she wants to
break free from the bondages of that oppression. The story is written from the
character’s point of view in a form resembling journal entries, which describe her
stay in the house. The house itself is an old mansion, and the yellow wallpaper in
the character’s bedroom seems to be really disturbing. She believes that there is
a woman locked behind bars living in the pattern of that wallpaper. She spends a
lot of time trying to figure it out, and in the end she completely breaks away even
from her own mind.
Ann Charters defines theme as the “generalization about the meaning of a
story” (1013). The theme in The Yellow Wallpaper describes the struggle of
women to live in a male-dominated society. Gilman portrays the man as
insensitive and lacking in emotional support. From the beginning of the story
forward the narrator speaks of how her husband and other men in her life direct
her so that she will recover quickly. The narrator shows that even though she is
convinced that she knows what to do about her depression, she is still influenced
by her husband with the following passage: "I sometimes fancy that in my
condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus – but John says
the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it
always makes me feel bad" (306). Her husband seems to be the one who can
change her thoughts because he is a man or because he is her husband.
Nonetheless, she is still being suppressed by a member of the opposite sex.
Many times the narrator also speaks in a way that suggests that because a man
speaks she has no means by which to disagree with him because she is a
woman. A perfect example of this is presented in the beginning passages of the
story, where the narrator states, "Personally, I disagree with their ideas.
Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do
me good. But what is one to do?" (306). This last sentence "But what is one to
do?" exemplifies wonderfully her oppressed female stature in the society of her
life. She states right from the beginning that "John is a physician, and perhaps - (I
would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great
relief to my mind) - perhaps that is the one reason I do not get well faster" (306).
She obviously loves her husband and trusts him but has some underlying feeling
that maybe his prescription of total bed rest is not working for her. In the second
passage the narrator becomes comfortable with the room, now she likes the
room enough and is curious enough to open up to her husband and tell him what
she thinks she has been seeing. John becomes terrified of these ideas she has
in her head and what she might believe to be real and not real. He begins to
plead with her and tries to convince her that she must control all of her ambitions
and act sanely. Later John is trying to manipulate the narrator with guilt. He is
implying that she must think of herself as getting better, mind and body, for the
sake of other people, rather than herself. The narrator is, however, doubting that
she will ever recover mentally. Although John says her appearance has
improved, she believes that she is not physically better. The final passages of the
story, at last, successfully manifest a display of power and possible regain of selfgovernance through the narrator's finally standing up to her husband by locking
him out of the room in which he has imprisoned her supposedly for her benefit.
Whereupon, for the first time in the story, he must listen to her entreaties to
discover where the key is hidden (317).
According to Charters, point of view is “the author’s choice of a narrator for
the story” (1009). In this story the narrator is a first person narrator. We can
easily see what is going on the head of the main character. We can feel sorry for
her because she is a victim of male oppression. However, we are presented with
a biased story. We can only see the events that take place from her point of view,
which turns out to be quite distorted. She stares at this wallpaper for hours on
end and thinks she sees a woman behind the paper. "I didn't realize for a long
time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am
quite sure it is a woman" (313). She becomes obsessed with discovering what is
behind that pattern and what it is doing. "I don't want to leave now until I have
found it out" (314). Once the narrator determines that the image is in fact a
woman struggling to become free, she somehow aligns herself with the woman.
We don’t see that until she mentions that she often sees the woman creeping
outside: "I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in
those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden.... I don't blame her a bit.
It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight! I always lock the
door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect
something at once" (315). This shows the narrator seeing herself in the woman
and when she sees the woman creeping outside, she sees herself. When she
creeps outside she locks the door. She is afraid her husband will take away the
only comfort she has. She continues to pursue this obsessive idea that she has
to get the woman out. The narrator wants the woman to be free of the paper but
does not want to let her go, because the woman is what keeps her focused and
sane: "I don't want to go out, and I don't want to have anybody come in, till John
comes. I want to astonish him. I've got a rope up here that even Jennie did not
find. If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her!" (317). She
peels all the wallpaper that she can reach. She wants to help the woman get out,
and she becomes quite extreme: "I am getting angry enough to do something
desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars
are too strong even to try. Besides I wouldn't do it. Of course not. I know well
enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued" (317). She
goes on to say, "I don't like to look out of the windows even--there are so many
those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of
that wallpaper as I did?” (317). It seems she has released the woman and it is
indeed herself. As if she enjoys being out and doing as she likes but at night her
husband will be around and she mustn't creep around her husband. He might
find her mad. But at last she finds the courage to confront her oppressor and
stand up for herself. "'What is the matter?' he cried. 'For God's sake, what are
you doing!' I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my
shoulder. 'I've got out at last,' said I, 'in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off
most of the paper, so you can't put me back!'” (318). Jane is undoubtedly the
narrator herself. She is the result of a distorted mind trying to free herself from
the male oppression. From the narrator’s point of view we had this fact hidden
throughout the story. However, as soon as her mind has freed itself, she had
freed herself both from her husband and from her own identity.
In order to read and understand this story, we must consider many things.
First the time frame in which the story was written, and that society's attitude of
the story content at that time. Written in 1892, a woman suffering from
depression was not clearly understood and was treated with isolation. This would
clearly drive any person mad. The narrator made attempts to bring to her
husband's attention what she felt was a better way of making her better but he
refused to listen and ignored her wishes to involve herself in more activity. This
was the experience of Gilman herself. She shares that she wrote The Yellow
Wallpaper “to save people from being crazy” (879).
Works Cited
Charters, Ann. “The Elements of Fiction”. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short
Fiction. Compact 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 1003 – 1015.
Gilbert, Sandra m., and Gubar, Susan. “A Feminist Reading of Gilman’s ‘The Yellow
Wallpaper’.” [First published 1979.] Rpt. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to
Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
873 – 875.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” [First published 1892.] Rpt. The Story
and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact
6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 306 – 318.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” [First published 1913.]
Rpt. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters.
Compact 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. 878 – 879.