Allegories In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

I never expected that allegories were a big aspect of fiction, and their plot lines. I always thought that an allegory was basically just another word for symbolism, but referenced to the past, but I didn’t realize that there was more to it. But what I have learned about reading this entire semester, is that allegories are not just a tool for symbolism. Allegories are able to express the thought and ideas of authors on major controversies, such as women’s suffrage, or civil rights. Authors use allegories in a way to show how characters felt during certain time periods, most notably this year, women’s rights period. While doing all of these functions, allegories also give the reader a better understanding of what is happening in the story, and …show more content…
I dug deep into the story and did a full analysis, and never picked up an allegory. Even in our groups of four, we weren’t able to even get a single idea of what the allegory could have been. Later on during class, we were told that there was an allegory, and it was connected to the women’s rights movement. My mind started to race, as I was able to connect the pieces of evidence to the women’s movement. I then started to think that these evidences were not even close to what the allegory was trying to depict. I dug closer into the allegory, from looking at feelings, to actions of the main character Louise Mallard, and concluded that Kate Chopin didn’t add the allegory just for the story to be more complex, but to spread her ideas on the women's movement, to people who are against, and get an insight of what the women are going through. Once Louise Mallard hears the death of her husband Brently Mallard, Louise Mallard runs to her room and locks her door, and went into isolation, with no one following, Kate Chopin describes what she was thinking in her room in paragraph 8 as ” But she knew that bitter moment a long possession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” And then later in paragraph 16, Louise Mallard …show more content…
Before I came to learn even more about allegories, I just thought it was another form of symbolism, but when I dug deeper into the different functions of an allegory, it was just more than symbolism. Allegories are a really important way that an author can get their message out, at the same time, not having people reacting to their comments, and descriptions, of a controversy. In addition to the author giving out their ideas on controversies, the author can utilize an allegory to show how specific groups of people felt during the specific allegorical event. Some allegories can help better understand specific stories, give the reader some context of what is happening in the story, and what kind of significance it has to the entire