How Women Impact American Fiction
Women’s roles in society are constantly changing. During World War II woman began to join the work force. Today women can have almost any job they want. Yet, many still feel the burden of stereotypes. Women feel pressured to settle down and become devoted wives and mothers. The pressure to settle down and stay in society’s boundaries is not just a modern problem. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Kate Chopin are two authors who use their writing to defy norms and display women’s independence. In their works, Freeman and Chopin have strong female characters that simply turn their backs from the norm of marriage. In the late 1800’s women were expected to be wives, mothers, and take care of the house. However, Freeman and Chopin built female characters that strived to be more than house wives. In Chopin’s The Story of an Hour the main character, Mrs. Mallard, was …show more content…
She thought she was finally free from society’s norms, free from the restriction of marriage, free to be who she is. Yet that is taken away from her when her husband returns. Upon accepting her husband’s death Mallard had a “feverish triumph in her eyes.”(544) Chopin’s character turns from the norm by not simply grieving her husband’s death, but rather embracing it and embracing the freedom it brings. In Freeman’s A New England Nun the defiance is blatant. A nun is in love, and willing to marry, a man. Louisa, the nun, had been engaged to an absent man for several years. So when he returns and she discovers he is in love with another woman, Louisa lets him go. Louisa does not fight for Joe Dagget because she was happy in her “cage.” Both characters are in unhappy relationships and are shown to be upset when they end, but not devastated. After Joe Daggett betrayed her, Louisa “wept a little, she
Women’s roles in society are constantly changing. During World War II woman began to join the work force. Today women can have almost any job they want. Yet, many still feel the burden of stereotypes. Women feel pressured to settle down and become devoted wives and mothers. The pressure to settle down and stay in society’s boundaries is not just a modern problem. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Kate Chopin are two authors who use their writing to defy norms and display women’s independence. In their works, Freeman and Chopin have strong female characters that simply turn their backs from the norm of marriage. In the late 1800’s women were expected to be wives, mothers, and take care of the house. However, Freeman and Chopin built female characters that strived to be more than house wives. In Chopin’s The Story of an Hour the main character, Mrs. Mallard, was …show more content…
She thought she was finally free from society’s norms, free from the restriction of marriage, free to be who she is. Yet that is taken away from her when her husband returns. Upon accepting her husband’s death Mallard had a “feverish triumph in her eyes.”(544) Chopin’s character turns from the norm by not simply grieving her husband’s death, but rather embracing it and embracing the freedom it brings. In Freeman’s A New England Nun the defiance is blatant. A nun is in love, and willing to marry, a man. Louisa, the nun, had been engaged to an absent man for several years. So when he returns and she discovers he is in love with another woman, Louisa lets him go. Louisa does not fight for Joe Dagget because she was happy in her “cage.” Both characters are in unhappy relationships and are shown to be upset when they end, but not devastated. After Joe Daggett betrayed her, Louisa “wept a little, she