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Prompt Two Choose one short story and one poem from the 19th century. Write to compare the ways in which each of these may be considered representative of American culture during the time period in which it was written. Cite specific evidence from the literature to support your ideas.
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<span> Women have been hungering
for human and equal rights since the first visible divide between man and
woman. Kate Chopin’s The Story of an
Hour, is an exemplified written piece on the struggles women faced in the
19th century. During this time, women were hindered or shunned from
divorcing their husbands and often trapped in marriages based on family interests.
Whether the wife was abused, neglected, or perfectly content in her marriage
did not matter; only her performance and faith to her partner would suffice 19th
century standards. If a wife proclaimed to be unhappy with her husband or
lifestyle, then she would be blamed and held under the persecution of God’s
commands and society’s demands. </span>
<span> Mrs. Mallard, the tragic
protagonist in The Story of an Hour, appears
to be stuck in a rocky relationship with her husband, until she receives word
of his death. Although the idea of abuse never comes to light, the reader can
infer from Mallard’s thoughts “</span>the face [of her
husband] that had never looked save with love upon her” that her spouse
did not display affection or passion to his wife in a healthy manner. Upon
hearing the passing of her husband, Mrs. Mallard is met with a mixture of conflicting
emotions. Eventually, these feelings split into one signature breath of “free,
free, free” in which she elates with “monstrous joy” of her lover’s death. At
this particular paragraph, it appears Mrs. Mallard had been waiting for a
moment she had thought would never arrive: liberty from the bonds of marriage
to an unloving husband. Chopin’s story portrays the fictional yet relatable
ideas of a young lady struggling to understand and establish her freedom in a
time of oppression.
<span> Further evidence of the time period’s concepts and of Mrs. Mallard’s
entrapment surfaces near the end of the piece. Mr. Mallard returns home, alive
and well, and upon seeing his living face, the wife drops dead. In the 19th
century, Americans would have believed “she had died of heart disease--of the
joy that kills” meaning society would have thought the wife had a heart attack
from excessive joy at seeing her husband safe. However, readers know from
Chopin’s prior paragraphs that Mrs. Mallard likely had overexertion due to
having a newfound sense of freedom and, being profoundly disappointed with
shock from viewing her husband’s breathing form, collapsed into a state of
despair in which the result was death. </span>
