Gender Roles/Marriage: Story of an hour and The Necklace

Gender Roles/Marriage: Story of an hour and The Necklace

Introduction

The two American short stories 'The Necklace' by Guy De Maupassant and 'The Story of an Hour' by Kate Chopin can be considered to be surrounding the representation of gender roles and marriage. Both the writers are different in terms of their style of expression but in these stories they focus on similar values that connect them in literary style. The two stories having females as protagonists bring out aspects of subconscious beliefs of the two women. They are portrayed as weak and depending on their husbands and therefore, the two stories can be considered under the light of different gender roles when it came to married life. Mathilde and Louise, the protagonists of the two stories are two different yet alike women. The two women dream of things and of life they don't have which bring their tragic ends though we can see that the dreams of the two are different.

Discussion

The Story of an Hour

The short story is a description of a series of emotions at the outset of the news of the death of the husband of the protagonist Louise Mallard. When she first hears about the death of her husband in a rail accident, she cries and weeps. She has heart problems and therefore, the news is revealed to her by her sister and her husband in a gentle manner. After crying, she locks herself in her room to grieve and mourn the loss but contrastingly, she is immediately engulfed by a sudden sense of freedom. The grieving is now for the loss of those years that she spent with her husband which she considers her years of bondage. She then goes on dreaming about the wonderful life that lie ahead which will now be solely her own. The imagery employed by the author in this time also indicates and gives the hints of freedom that she feels in her. This way the inside and the outside atmosphere are shown to conform to each other. The feeling of liberation had just set in when her 'dead' husband returns home and seeing all her dreams of being free shattered, she comes in a state of shock and dies from a heart attack.

The Necklace

De Maupassant's story 'The Necklace is an account of the desires of a woman to have a higher place in society that she presently has. Married to a clerk husband, living in an apartment, she aspires for jewelry and clothes that would show her to be charming. She feels these things to be essential and having them will make her stand as a women belonging to high class and will be envied and sought for. She is not happy with the middle-class lifestyle she is leading (Clugston, 2010). Her husband is aware of her discontentment and tries his best to provide her with whatever he can. The turning point in the story arrives when they get an invitation to ...