Kate Chopin: Woman Out of her Time

An analysis of Kate Chopin’s short stories.

A paper which considers symbolism, style, tone, setting and perspective in a short story, demonstrated by comparing works of Kate Chopin’s the “Story of an Hour” and “The Storm”. Using these stories the writer examines how emotions and events are depicted with the positive and negative impacts of marriage and how this may be interpreted by a reader.
“Most of the work by Kate Chopin was mostly in the 1890’s and can be seen as very advanced for its time. The books look to understand and explore more than the different levels at which society operates, but looks to the human condition and the way that relationships are formed and develop. The story written in 1898 can be seen as a controversial subject, the affair between two married people, Calixta and Alce. In first reading the book the initial judgments of guilt to the woman and understanding or less condemnation for the man is still seen as prevalent in many readers interpretation (Skaggs, 2001). However, the message in this story is much deeper, looking to explore how the heart and emotions are deeper than social facades would indicate.”