After Chopins' death, she became recognized as one of the leading writers of her time by taking steps that no other twentieth century writer had ever dared to take. Claiming to be neither feminist nor suffragist, Kate Chopin believed women had the ability to be powerful and she displayed this throughout many of her short stories especially, "The Story of An Hour."(Kate Chopin). In this short story, we see the reaction of widowed Mrs. Mallard when she finds out her husband has suddenly been killed. Her unique reaction led me to believe that women during this time had a different perception of men. Through further research, I came to the conclusion that women during this era viewed men as more of a setback in their lives rather than a partner that will help them better themselves and grow through each other. Once women became prominent in society we see a change in how men viewed women, but even after researching the women rights movements during this time we see that women still have much farther to go before they are equally respected in society. 

When Mrs. Mallard originally found out her husband had died, she immediately began to weep. A reader like myself, when reading this for the first time, would assume that she was devastated by the news of the death of her husband. However, after her initial breakdown she resided to her bedroom alone where her perception of her original emotions drastically changed. It surprised her almost as much as it surprised me. She suddenly felt relieved as if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders; conscious that she could do anything in the world now that she was unbound from the imposition of her husband. "There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination." (The Carolina Reader). This is where I came to the interpretation that women during this time felt like their husbands were holding them back from living their lives. Even though Chopin was not a feminist, she implies through her work that men held women to certain, low standards and women followed them and were only unbound by them upon the death of their husbands or themselves.  

In Gilmans work, The Yellow Wallpaper, women were held to such low standards that if they exerted any type of knowledge of any type of information they were said to be medically insane. The narrator in the yellow wallpapers husband restricted her from doing anything humane. She could not read, write, socialize, or exercise. This lack of regular and normal health progressing activities made the woman physically and mentally ill. Her husband, who is also her doctor, belittled her illness and kept her locked in a room where she hid a journal and kept her imagination and ideas quiet for as long as she could. This story influenced my interpretation of Chopins work, by confirming the fact that men during this time restricted women from living normal lives like they should and how they do now. The husband in the yellow wallpaper took it to extremes by keeping his wife in a small room with locked up doors and windows and no social interactions for long periods of time. But the concept that men held women back is confirmed through this example. He had certain standards of his wife and the only way out of this cycle was either the death of the wife or her husband. The narrator is unable to live the life she deserved to live just like Mrs. Mallard in Chopins story. (The Carolina Reader)

In a recent article from The Examiner, Debra Globoke states that "Women were considered "less than" in most every way. The main purpose of a woman, of the past, was to be a "helpmate to her husband." In this article, Debra discusses how women were given equal rights but is it still really equal? She acknowledges the fact that women have come a long way but still have much further to go. Globoke recites the same thing we've all heard a million times when learning or discussing women roles; "Women were to stay at home, take care of the housework, the cooking, the baking, the laundry, and teach the children by raising them with chores, discipline, and help with their homework. Husbands were expected to come home from work, have dinner on the table, and the house neat and clean for them." Today we see women who are more successful than their husbands which would be appalling to men in the nineteenth and even twentieth century. Now that the standards for women are much higher, they are making names for themselves and becoming just as or even more successful than men (Globoke, Debra).

Even though Chopin was not a feminist nor a suffragist, I believe that the standards of women being that they are just here to cook and clean go along with their roles in society. This piece was written in 1894 and 1895 and the Progressive Era, which was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, was from the 1890s to 1920s. The progressive era was a time where women's roles were expanded throughout society and into politics. This was a time when the issue of woman's suffrage became a part of mainstream politics. It started off as an industrial movement but quickly turned into a political movement. Once women became more prominent in society, they became more respected. However, in some cases, men became more threatened by women because they were moving up to positions that normally men would have or they were surpassing women in the political world. This also caused problems in the home. Instead of men being condescending towards their wives, some were now threatened by them. Even with the progressive era and women rights emerging, women still have a far way to go before they are fully respected and viewed as equal in society. I did not incorporate this research because I believed that it influenced the text, I incorporated it because I pieced together woman's roles in society and how that affected their level of respect from men. 

Now that women are no longer held to such low standards, they are living lives like regular people. Men aren't as dominant over women as they used to be and this has caused a surge of professional jobs being acquired by woman at an extremely high rate just in the past 50 years. In just the past two centuries we have seen women's roles and standards do almost a 360. Even though they have much farther to go, this efflux of independent women have put an end to mens dominance, allowing women to make  names for themselves and live up to their own standards and not the standards that men have set for them. After doing research using a primary, secondary, and historical source, I formed a new understanding of the Chopins piece, "The Story of An Hour". As women's roles in society increased so did the level of respect they received. Even though we were all created equally, somewhere along the road men thought they were above women and created the domestic system that has been going on for hundreds of years. Thankfully women have come along way in society and continue to make a way for themselves to this day.

