Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin was born in 1851 and died in 1904. She was an American author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century.


From 1892 to 1895, she wrote short stories for both children and adults which were published in such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century and Harper's Youth's Companion. As well as The Story of an Hour her other famous pieces include, Bayou Folk (1894), A Night in Acadie (1897), The Storm (1898) and Desiree's Baby (1893). Within a decade of her death, Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time.


Kate Chopin had different lifestyles throughout her life which provided her with insights, understanding and allowed her to analyse of late 19th century American society.
Many of her stories and sketches were about her life in Louisiana and her less than typical portrayals of women.


Her seemingly different writing style emerged from an admiration of Guy de Maupassant.

''...I read his stories and marveled at them. Here was life, not fiction; for where were the plots, the old fashioned mechanism and stage trapping that in a vague, unthinkable way I had fancied were essential to the art of story making. Here was a man who had escaped from tradition and authority, who had entered into himself and looked out upon life through his own being an with his own eyes; and who, in a direct and simple way, told us what he saw..''

She, however went beyond Maupassant's technique and style and gave it a flavor of her own. She put alot of concentration and emphasis on women's lives and their continual struggles to create an identity of their own within the boundaries of the patriarchy. In The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard allows herself time to reflect upon learning of her husbands death. Instead of dreading the lonely journey ahead of her, she stumbles upon another realization all together.

 "She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome"

Not many writers were bold enough to address such subjects during the mid to late 19th century.