Compare & Contrast “the Story of an Hour” & “a Respectable Woman” - the Awakening of Female Consciousness

Compare & Contrast “The story of an hour” & “A respectable woman”

The Awakening of Female Consciousness

By Ryan | Aug 24

There ahead of you, are two choices, two roads; And there you are, wandering at the turnoff, paralyzed in a critical moment of existential ambivalence. You are hesitating between sanity, the road consists of only true and false, the road leading to the ultimate triumph of human reason; and emotion, the road consists of ardor and freedom, the road leading to the ultimate awakening of your self-consciousness. This is an extremely tough choice, which has already provoked many controversial arguments. “The story of an hour” and “A respectable woman” are two novels about making a choice: freedom or sanity. Both of the women seem to have some conjugal issues. Gradually, they found out that the relationship they have rob the pieces of who they are. Both of them end up freed from their fettered lives, though the ending and the process of self-awakening are quite different. It is clear that Chopin, by writing the two stories, was implying her own choice between freedom or sanity, and it is obvious: God granted her freedom. No matter what the consequences were, I respect her choice. It is a bold choice, Chopin address something almost no woman during her era dare to call out: freedom. These two stories, among all other stories I’ve read, are the most impeccable works in addressing this theme: freedom. The succinct writing, bright image, rich emotion and profound thought constitute Kate Chopin’s astonishing works, which queried the bondage of traditional customs for female consciousness, vividly portrays Mrs. Baroda’s strong, determined characteristic. Her legible feminist consciousness has an indelible influence on the emergent women’s liberation movements.

As mentioned, both of the short stories dealt with in this essay present women who express their desire for fulfilment and freedom in different ways. Mrs. Baroda in 'A Respectable Woman' is attracted to her husband's friend but seems to have found the means to handle her feelings at the end of the story. Having learnt that her husband has been killed in an accident, Mrs. Mallard in 'The Story of an Hour' has a heart attack when he arrives home hale and hearty. Although these plots are different we encounter two women in rather similar circumstances. They all lead respectable lives together with their husbands, whose natural positions of power and control are coupled with love and respect for their spouses. Still, something happens in these two women's lives, disturbing their presumed tranquility, and the problems experienced need to be addressed. Just as the “tragic” death of Chopin’s husband, the problems both Chopin and the fictional characters were facing were the turning points of their life---they are the reflection of who they are.

At the starting point of “a respectable woman” we are dealing with a nice man and a good marriage. In fact, Mrs. Baroda is looking forward to having her husband to herself on the plantation after a period of entertaining in New Orleans. When her husband's friend, Gouvernail, is invited to stay for a couple of weeks, she is quite put out. Mr. Baroda shows his guest a “frank and wordy hospitality” being a considerate man, who unsuspectingly sends his friend out with a scarf for his wife, when she is seated out at night. Similar signs of affection are depicted in 'The Story of an Hour'. Here we encounter yet a nice husband in the brief portrayal of Mr. Mallard, whose face “had never looked save with love” upon Mrs. Mallard

Clearly, Chopin has no wish to condemn the male sex. She depicts agreeable fellows who have done nothing wrong to their women. Still, the two female characters display signs of discontent, subtly and half-unconsciously like Mrs. Baroda in 'A Respectable Woman' and Mrs. Mallard in 'The Story of an Hour'.

In 'A Respectable Woman', we are dealing with a very subtle conflict. The visit of her husband's college friend, Gouvernail, is the cause of some irritation to Mrs. Baroda. Despite her negative attitude to his stay in the house, she can not help liking him when he does appear. However, she has difficulties in understanding why, since he sits “mute and receptive he made no direct appeal to her approval or even esteem”. After a couple of days, Mrs. Baroda gives up her attempts to please her guest, feeling “piqued” and she leaves him and her husband be, only to impose her company on Gouvernail again, when she realizes that he does not seem to notice her action. From Chopin's subtle hints about Mrs. Baroda's confusion and her erratic behavior, the reader easily detects what is going on. Mrs. Baroda seems to be falling in love with Gouvernail, without being aware of it herself, as she oscillates between attraction and recoil. Knowing that this attraction to the forbidden fruit is wrong, she has to get away, as soon as possible.

Similarly, in 'The Story of an Hour', a vague feeling of dissatisfaction is expressed in the portrait of Mrs. Mallard, who has loved her husband sometimes but often not. She has a young, calm face, but its “lines bespoke repression” and she is used to a “powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”. In Mrs. Mallard's brooding over her marriage, we sense Chopin's own broad-mindedness. She lets Mrs. Mallard consider that both men and women can be the victims of a strong-willed partner, reflecting that a “kind intention or a cruel intention made the act [of suppression] seem no less a crime”. In this particular marriage, we understand that Mrs. Mallard has lived in the shadow of her husband for a long time, and that even if the oppression has been unintentional, it is still there.

In 'A Respectable Woman', Mrs. Baroda also seems to yearn for freedom as she has “the feeling of a distinct necessity to quit her home”. Her husband's friend seems to have awakened something in her, a subtle wish to please, which she is barely conscious of herself. When her attempts to penetrate Gouvernail's reserve fail, she expresses a frustration which is as inexplicable to her husband as to herself. Without spelling it out, Chopin shows her protagonist's attraction to Gouvernail; she just can not leave him alone, as she hovers between her desire to please and her frustration. Mrs. Baroda's desire has been awakened by another man than her husband. Her growing uneasiness in the presence of Gouvernail combined with her wish to be near him signifies an attraction she can do little to withstand.