Introduction
In the world, people place themselves through names that are powerful for assumptions and making quick judgments. People describe who they are by identity and titles because it perceives who they are in the present day. As people grow, new experiences do alter individual character and name. Status is self-chosen because it comes from within people even though other individuals may label and give names such as society and parents. Identity signifies how people want others to perceive them and how they see themselves. Based on stereotypes of people, a description given to them is a label, and the most significant connection to individuality and own identity is by a person's name. A name is a way to recognize people with a sign of courtesy to get the person's attention. In a group, people hold and play specific social positions identifying their character and role in society. In The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, the unknown narrator refers to two distinct names to the main character that emphasizes gender roles.
The story by Chopin revolves around bondage and marriage themes. The name Mrs. Mallard at the beginning of the story tells that she seemed an older woman with the heart issue, but surprisingly, Chopin notes in the eighth paragraph that she was young (Chopin 1). Mrs. Mallard depicts the old age by the description as having a fair, calm face. The social situation of the time that Chopin is showing is a woman being a husband prisoner. At the time, it was more often as the case of the writing by Chopin that between two people, mutual love was not always about marriages with gender roles. Even though Mrs. Mallard was young, the story's description notes that she was trapped for a long time in her marriage. Marriage was all about possible love, and in the story, acceptance of it was about monetary, social status, and comfort. From her heart, Mrs. Mallard, despite what she may want to do, was coerced by her society into marriage and was forced to take the husband's name. It is interesting that she most feels free after hearing of the companion's death, and here is where her first name is only available. She is referred to as a wife before this point and after the return of the husband. Leading back to the label of woman as a wife, something exciting is that she assumes her name with a new one and loses her identity when she becomes Mrs. Mallard by Louise marrying Bently.
It seems average and reasonable in marriage with gender roles that a wife takes the husband's name but to put it harshly in that time they become men's property. A particular part of the self is lost that causes her to feel unavoidable and enjoy freedom when Mrs. Mallard thinks the husband is dead, but he was alive. The story demonstrates that in gender roles, women are beneath husbands, and their status and gender identify them. A wife's identity is no identity at all, and wives like Mrs. Mallard rather than being a woman in a man's world chooses death over life. Status of a wife is a creation of gender expectations and roles as seen by her identity; she cannot call her own because she is Mrs. Mallard in all her life. As a protagonist, she lacks a specific name defining her by relation to the husband and gender. Mrs. Mallard knows that the days are gone forever of repetitive domestic tasks, and that is when and why she learns freedom. Mrs. Mallard imagines distinct seasons in her mind off spending all by herself summer days and spring days (Chopin 3). People feel the depth of servitude when they dream of days becoming their own, and this must be to be a woman similar to Mrs. Mallard's case. A free woman in an hour transforms into Louise. Mrs. Mallard is no longer becoming a wife to someone else, she is her own woman, and one can pick up the idea from the symbols of empowerment in the narrative.
Louise remains a product of gender, and her name comes from Louie's word a woman meant to serve her family and a servant to men to do housework in all her life. Mrs. Mallard finds no prominence in social identity by becoming Louise lacking love for the husband. Outside the window, there is a development of new senses by Louise as she begins to relax from the years as a married woman where she was in a lock to a freedom new world. Louise thinks of a song representing freedom whereby it was coming from birds and someone who faintly was singing in the story (Chopin 1). Sparrows signify symbols of autonomy and freedom while the song is of bondage and liberty. Mrs. Millard was a traditional woman, but Louise's new name was far from conventional gender roles with the flutter of using wings and flies away. The state of sadness and dismay wears off after Louise grieves and shows high emotions for her reportedly dead husband. She shuts the door behind her and now does not need to pretend a false emotional state any longer. Louise's inner emotions are restricted and character her not to be a caring wife and a warm-hearted woman. She is yearning for freedom in recognition of her secret wish that stays with her when she realizes the greater importance of self-assertion than love. Traditionally, the codes of conduct with gender roles demand the restriction of freedom to women. The character reveals that even if she was unhappy, she was not to show it publicly.
Louise co-exists a new self, finally giving away the old with recognition of her two characters. Beyond severe effects and ideological strictures of love, Louise eventually reveals her self-fulfillment with monstrous joy to live by herself, unlike Mrs. Mallard. The latter for the husband will grieve because he had loved her. Gender roles upon a fellow being accept as accurate to have a right to impose private will, but Louise, in this blind persistence, believes there would be no powerful will to bend hers. In a brief moment of illumination, the act she looked upon seems no less crime for the cruel intention of a kind intention because she often had not loved the husband, yet sometimes she did love him. Louise sees a long procession of years to come after momentary grief loss as a person of her husband. A day before shading a thought, Louise conveys herself like a goddess of victory when she leaves a room to join her sister (Chopin 3). Louise hopes for a long experience in welcoming the new life when entering the place, not as the same woman. Chopin lacks to reflect on man's intentions and plans toward a relationship as she notes that marriage bends the will and represses women. Chopin articulates the major theme of gender roles in terms of relationship whereby women's treatment is in neglect as well as to a certain extent to the whole society.
Eventually, Mr. Mallard was not dead, his entrance in the opening of the door brings the death of Louise, and end of the story as her heart gives out. Mrs. Mallard's heart fails as the doctors explain because of joy and not since the husband was alive, causing overwhelming happiness. In the eyes of a critical reader, her death seems audacious because the doctors assume a record of death for Mrs. Mallard. There are several open possibilities in Chopin's wording with the doctor's decisions of Mrs. Mallard's death to speculate the real causes of death. Possible focus can be because of the emotional explosion that somehow destroys and eventually kills her. Louise's up and down emotions could have weakened her heart, and the gender role expected of women in the society with her inner rebellion could have caused her death. Wording choice, particularly enormous joy in the story, could additionally direct society convention that Louise was a victim as a woman, and in truth, she was emotionally and physically sick. The narrator in Chopin's story should be a female if it is not her personally in insight. Louise's character descriptions come from a person who apprehends her position and is merciful. As seen in the story, Louise struggles with guilt that she overcomes, yet she finds joy out of the husband's death. From a female gender standpoint, one can argue that the narrator's unhappy marriage to death was the ultimate freedom experience.
Gender roles are a remarkable topic to study in modern society because they can reduce the marriage rate. In today's society, incline in people's wants for compatibility declines marriages. Chopin's story expresses a down look upon women as a hidden resentment towards men. Since she was free and rejoiced about her partner's loss, Mrs. Mallard is evident, whispering, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 2). Mrs. Mallard outlines that if it were not the chains of marriage, she would have been able to do something with her life. Women in society today can venture the world alone with a sense that if their gender role fails, there is the security that they will not play a role. In the story, marriage and oppression motifs reveal symbols such as irony in gender when due to happiness as the doctor's state did cause her death. The new sense of life was a catalyst that destroys the life of a person looking for freedom. The story tends the ability to grow together between two people of different genders with the ideal of love and marriage. Love in gender roles creates a strong relationship that is not simple but a calculus of the heart. Mrs. Mallard is evidence of this with Mr. Mallard's return besting upon her heart condition.
Conclusion
In The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, the unknown narrator is referred by two distinct names Mrs. Mallard and Louise, as the main character to emphasize the theme of gender roles. Back in the 19th century, in considering gender roles, home-keeping was work for women to take of the family and stay home while men were to leave the houses to go work. Chopin believes that in a patriarchal society without resistance, women would not quickly realize selfhood and freedom. The protagonist seems to rebel against notions of domesticity and femininity in times of male domination by making her choices of freedom. The setting of the story is perfect; thus, a reader can see through the omniscient narrator's eyes. The extreme decline of gender role conduct shows overall growth in human societies, and today studies are proving the benefits of cohabitation and marriage.
