Women’s roles in society were a controversial thing in the past, women weren’t allowed to act the way they wanted. In the “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard has felt trapped since her marriage but becomes overflowed with joy and the idea of freedom but in the end she dies. In “The Waltz” by Dorothy Parker, the narrator is forced to dance but she doesn’t speak her mind and acts as if everything was fine. Women’s roles in society were very similar but also different, women didn’t have the freedom to speak their mind or had freedom in general which is seen in both the stories. “Story of an Hour” and “The Waltz” are similar because both women feel freedom without the presence of males. In “Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is told her
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In “Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is overjoyed as she stares into the window and as her sister begs for her to open the door: “She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.”(Chopin) As Mrs. Mallard continues looking through the window and feeling the freedom she desired, she’s interrupted by her sister Josephine. Mrs. Mallard realizes her husband isn’t dead and she dies of heart disease. She was in such a shock that she died because she couldn’t face the idea of living with her husband again, and losing the freedom she had just gained. On the other hand, in “The Waltz”, the narrator agrees to dance with the man and during their waltz, she gets kicked in the shin and even though they both apologize, she lets him know it was her fault, but she has a different idea running through her head: “I wonder what I’d do -- kill him this instant”. (Parker) The narrator instead of wanting to end her suffering, would rather kill him for hurting her on accident, she thinks of a plan to kill him but not long after she thinks differently and states maybe he didn’t mean to do it. Both the stories show the different ideas of death, in “The Waltz”, the narrator has the thought of killing the male because she wanted to her suffering, but in “Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard realizes her husband didn’t die and instead she died of shock. This demonstrates that in the past, women had the idea of killing the male but in the nineteenth century, women would have rather ended their
In “Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is overjoyed as she stares into the window and as her sister begs for her to open the door: “She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.”(Chopin) As Mrs. Mallard continues looking through the window and feeling the freedom she desired, she’s interrupted by her sister Josephine. Mrs. Mallard realizes her husband isn’t dead and she dies of heart disease. She was in such a shock that she died because she couldn’t face the idea of living with her husband again, and losing the freedom she had just gained. On the other hand, in “The Waltz”, the narrator agrees to dance with the man and during their waltz, she gets kicked in the shin and even though they both apologize, she lets him know it was her fault, but she has a different idea running through her head: “I wonder what I’d do -- kill him this instant”. (Parker) The narrator instead of wanting to end her suffering, would rather kill him for hurting her on accident, she thinks of a plan to kill him but not long after she thinks differently and states maybe he didn’t mean to do it. Both the stories show the different ideas of death, in “The Waltz”, the narrator has the thought of killing the male because she wanted to her suffering, but in “Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard realizes her husband didn’t die and instead she died of shock. This demonstrates that in the past, women had the idea of killing the male but in the nineteenth century, women would have rather ended their