chopin`s " the story of an hour " .

Kate Chopin is one of those authors who keeps the same ideas and themes throughout more than one of her stories. Chopin's stories, "The Story Of An Hour" and "The Awakening" both contain female protagonist who are questioning their independence, as well as their bit of hatred and love for the ones who they are married to.

In “The Awakening”, Edna Pontellier is the protagonist. Edna did not care about her family as a whole. She cared about herself and making herself happy. Mrs. Pontellier was not happy with the one she married and she did not love him. She thought that she would become happy by not feeling like she is counting on her husband and getting her own house called the Pigeon House, but her large amount of selfishness leads her to complete unhappiness and she dies of suicide.

The protagonist in “The Story Of An Hour” is Mrs. Mallard, who did not see whole reality of things, “her awakening”, until her husband died. Her selfishness included feeling of happiness when he died and feeling like she was set free. In the midst of all this, she could not figure out if she really loved him or not. She thought that his death was the beginning of a happy life for her, but she eventually found out that he was not truly dead. Because her thoughts of happiness were destroyed, Mrs. Mallard died.