Kate Chopin (1850-1904)

 Katherine O'Flaherty Chopin was born in February of 1850. Many events in her life led her to doubt religion. In A Biography of Kate Chopin by Neal Wyatt "Kate's grandmother died three days before Christmas in 1863, the same year Kitty was banished. Kate's half-brother, George, died in the war of typhoid fever on Mardi Gras Day. Her father had died on All Saints day, eight years previously, and these unhappy incidents combined to create a strong skepticism of religion in Chopin." Kate married Oscar Chopin at age twenty and birthed seven children. "By all accounts he adored his wife, admired her independence and intelligence, and "allowed" her unheard of freedom." However in 1882 Oscar died of swamp fever and left her in huge debt to run a store. She tried for a bit to run it but eventually took her family and moved back in with her mother. Her mother died that next year. In order to support her family she began to write. By 1899 "she was well known as both a local colorist and a woman writer, and had published over one hundred stories, essays, and sketches in literary magazines." When, however, she tried to publish her new story, The Awakening, they denied her because the content and message of the story caused an uproar in society. "She was terribly hurt by the reaction to the book and in the remaining five years of her life she wrote only a few short stories, and only a small number of those were published. Like Edna, she paid the price for defying societal rules, and as Lazar Ziff explains, she 'learned that her society would not tolerate her questionings...She was alive when the twentieth century began, but she had been struck mute by a society fearful in the face of an uncertain dawn.'" On August 8, 1904, Kate died from a cerebral hemorrhage. Towards the end of Kate's life we see that she was feeling oppressed. She saw that the society that once accepted her now became angry at her words. In her story, The Story of an Hour, Katherine portrays this feeling of oppression.

 

This Video below gives a short summary of that story:

 

"The reason of Mrs. Mallard's death “of joy that kills” can be understood as the real joy of freedom or the scare of getting back to the depressing life. Yet, as for me, the second thought takes priority over the first one. It is more persuasive to conclude that Mrs. Mallard died from shock and disappointment, rather than joy as the doctors diagnosed. Towards the reason of her death, the literary term “of joy that kills” implies a sense of irony which enhances the bitter sweetness of the ending."

I feel that this is what happened to Katherine Chopin. When she realized that the society would not tolerate her work and her questions, she was "struck mute by a society fearful in the face of an uncertain dawn" dying only a few short years later.