Question

What is Naturalistic about Chopin's two stories, "The Story of an Hour" and "A Pair of Silk Stockings"? Provide textual evidence to support your claim.

Answer 1

Answer:

Both of the texts talks about the female protagonist's inability to control what her fate brings on her. Mrs. Mallard's society where women were presumed or taken to be inferior to the men led to her subordinate nature of her existence. Mrs. Sommers, on the other hand, likewise suffers from a reality where the shopping experience led to her spending all for herself instead of the pre-planned things to be bought and needed.

Explanation:

Naturalism is the idea that a person's fate or destiny is controlled by his/ her surroundings, be it the society or even the domestic sphere. This naturalism can be demonstrated by a person's characterization which shows him/her being constrained by the external elements in the society, especially women in a patriarchal society.

Kate Chopin's two short stories "The Story of An Hour" and "A Pair of Silk Stockings" both revolve around the theme of women being suppressed in their societies. Mrs. Mallard was happy in her heart to hear of her husband's death for that means she is finally free from his "powerful will bending hers". Likewise, Mrs. Sommers life revolves around her family. So, when she go the money, she had planned don buying things for everyone. But the external forces in the market, when she went to shop, led her to spend not in the ways she had planned. She instead indulge on her needs and wants, leading her to spend contrary to the original plan. Chopin wrote "Her stockings and boots and well fitting gloves had worked marvels in her  bearing—had given her a feeling of assurance, a sense of belonging to the well-dressed  multitude."