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Dr. Norman Cary
English 251.1
10 February 1998
This paper received an A and is not intended to be used by other students unless properly documented. Plagerism is a serious problem on the internet, let's not compound the problem. To correctly reference this work, please e-mail me at [email protected] for my name

The Antagonist of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

In "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, the main character is unable to perceive her own dissatisfaction until she thinks her husband has died. Her joy at this death initially confuses the reader about her role within the story. The main character is the protagonist, if she is to be perceived in a positive manner, an antagonist is expected. No character, however, is seen as an antagonist, including her husband. It may be this lack of an obvious villain which makes it difficult for some readers to view Mrs. Louise Mallard as a character with whom one can be sympathetic. Louise Mallard can be seen as a positive figure in the story when the reader realizes that the setting, personified, is the antagonist.

A protagonist is defined as, "the chief character in a work on whom our interest centers" (Abrams 159). This character can be positive (a character the reader can identify with), neutral, or negative (a character the reader sees as evil or bad). The central character of "The Story of an Hour" is Louise Mallard. No character other than Louise can be characterized as important by their actions or by the number of their appearances within the text.

If the protagonist is, "pitted against an important opponent, that character is called the antagonist" (Abrams 159). No character in this story appears to be antagonistic towards Louise Mallard. Examination of each character shows their actions and individual importance to advancing the action of the story are all minor.

Brently Mallard, the main character's presumably dead spouse, is described by his wife as having a, "face that had never looked save with love upon her" (Chopin 13). Louise admits to having loved Brently and she knows that, "she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death" (Chopin 13). Although Brently's "death" is a turning point for Louise, he has not directly caused or intended her any harm.

Richards, Brently Mallard's friend, rushes to Louise Mallard's home in order to, "forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message"(Chopin 12). Richards is seen checking and rechecking the report from the rail office before taking the news to Louise. He appears to be a minor character whose main purposes is to introduce the event of Brently Mallard's death.

Louise's own sister Josephine actually breaks the news of Brently's death to her, "in broken sentences; veiled hints, that revealed in half concealing" (Chopin 12). She then worries about Louise from outside the closed door, "I beg; open the door – you will make yourself ill" (Chopin 13). Josephine has the same lack of antagonism as any of the other characters as Louise finally exits the room and "claspe[s] her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs" (Chopin 14).

The only other characters in the story are not seen directly but are reported to be doctors who diagnosed, "she [Louise] died of heart disease – of joy that kills." The reader immediately understands that this ironic twist is caused by a distinct lack of understanding of the situation. A lack of understanding is a trait shared by all of the secondary characters.

The actions and characterizations of the secondary characters indicate people who are not being "pitted" against Louise. None of these characters appear to be disliked by Louise, nor is she directly harmed by any character. The reader still can find reason to see Louise as a positive protagonist if the setting is reviewed.

Louise Mallard can best be characterized as a positive figure when the society she exists in, the setting itself, is placed in the role of antagonist. "Setting is the context in which the action of a story occurs. The major elements of setting are time, place, and social environment that frame the characters" (Meyer 118). In "The Story of an Hour" the setting is an important "opponent". All of the major elements of setting are parts of that antagonistic "opponent".

Time frame for the story can be discerned by information about the author, Kate Chopin, who was born in 1851 and wrote from her experiences in Louisiana during the late 1800s (Ewell). "The Story of an Hour" was published in 1894, and it is reasonable to assume that the time in which the story is set, is the late 1800s.

Place setting can also be assumed to be Southern United States, although not necessarily Louisiana, also by the information about the author. In "The Story of an Hour", the reader can infer from descriptions of sights and sounds, "in the open square before her house…. a peddler was crying his wares," (Chopin 13), certain things about her location. Louise sees and hears, "trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life" (Chopin 13), from her window. These descriptions tell the reader that her home is located near the center of a town or small urban area.

Social environment, another element of setting, is very important and is indicated by descriptions of the furnishings of the home, "a comfortable, roomy armchair" (Chopin 12), the lack of servants, and by the description of her, "two white slender hands" (Chopin 13). Louise Mallard does not appear to be responsible for any difficult labor in her comfortable home. Her husband, Brently Mallard, is important enough to travel by train and is, "composedly carrying his gripsack and umbrella" (Chopin 14), as though this is common for him. These elements indicate people of the upper middle class.

Knowing that Louise Mallard was a married woman in the late 1800s, in the upper middle class, in the South, the reader also knows that she was obligated to perform certain duties and follow particular roles. Women were not given the right to vote until 1920 with the Nineteenth Amendment. Social expectations of a woman of this class and period were to care for the home, produce children, and generally be decorative. Happiness within marriage was not as important as social standing and duty to ones family. One of the, "earliest institutions authorized to grant degrees to women [was] the Wesleyan Female College at Macon, GA, founded in the [18]30s" ("women" 707). Education for women was available at the time of this story but could be considered unusual at best. Society would have looked down upon a woman who had aspirations outside family and home. Only poor woman worked, and then only from necessity. In fact, "laws and regulations which prohibit a woman from working for as many hours during the day as a man" ("women" 707), were still in place in the United States as late as 1945.

The elements of setting; time, place, social environment, all combine to create a very powerful opponent for Louise Mallard. The idea of any kind of dissatisfaction in this "normal" setting is so foreign to Louise that when her husband is presumed dead she is held almost catatonic by, "something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name." (Chopin 13). Louise Mallard was constrained by her environment to the point that she did not even realize her own dissatisfaction in it until,

When she realizes her own freedom she lets herself think, "along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long" (Chopin 13-14). This moment of thought is clearly a realization of, "an important opponent" (Abrams 159), her role as a married woman. As a widow with no children she sees that there, "would be no one to live for her 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" (Chopin 13). Louise is finally overcome by her foe, her society, when her husband reappears alive and well. Louise's antagonistic setting closes the loophole she has been taunted with.

Works Cited

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