Exploration of Theme of Isolation, Loneliness and Alienation

Introduction

Every story that a writer writes is followed or inspired by a theme. The whole story reflects the chosen theme of the writer. This paper also talks about the theme of the story. This paper makes an attempt to explore the theme of isolation, loneliness and alienation in three different stories. The three different stories that are selected for this purpose are “Story of an hour” by “Kate Chopin”, “Araby” by James Joyce and “A rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. All these three stories would be analyzed for the presentation of these themes.

Discussion

If someone from the contemporary era were to read this story, they would not find it to be extreme or rebellious in accordance with current time. But, for someone like Kate Chopin, who wrote this story in 1894, it was a story that shows some ideas that are very out of the box according to that period. She was not much appreciated for her work for the same reason until the dusk of the twentieth century. The way she used feminism and realism was not widely appreciated and approved in her society but she still, narrated strongly about raising the female voice. She rose her voice against how not being married could change the way a woman thought and the roles of spouses in marriages. The presentation of this idea can be regarded as the presentation of the theme of isolation and loneliness. As we know that, marriage means amalgamation of two souls. Marriage is a relationship where two individuals become one, they remain together and support each other and share eternal love and affection. By discouraging women to indulge in marriage Chopin discourage women to share this relationship. Absence of all these elements of relationship means there would be independence, lack of affection and friendship. This independence, lack of affection and friendship promotes loneliness and isolation. This story is a prime example of how Kate introduced the female protagonist. It offers a fine vehicle for exploring the intellectually and aesthetic tides of American thinking and literature also helps in showing the reader the way literature and thought has changed during the last century. She certainly brought a novel approach for women to think, although some of them did not become fully aware of that until after her time. Love was not essentially the motivating factor in marriages in that era and women were mostly in marriages that were totally arranged. This was more often the case during the time when Kate Chopin was writing these stories. At that time, marriages were as much about acceptance, social status and monetary comfort as they were about love. This shows the presence of the theme of alienation.

Araby is a tale of a teenager and his first love. In depth, this is a tale of the world where he resides; a world that is unfavorable to dreams and ideals. As this story only talks about the world of the boy and his dreams and ...