The main character in Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” is, despite the lack of rich background details about her situation, quite obviously a typical married woman of the late noneteenth century, living under the thumb of her husband without much freedom to think or do things for herself. However, not only is the general plot of “Story of an Hour” representative of hope on the horizon for women living under the repressive influence of a male-dominated society, the story’s tragic conclusion is symbolic of the fact that the metaphorical “new day” sees outside of her window is still something that cannot be fully lived; it will be a long time before freedom for women is possible completely. The trajectory of the plot creates a metaphor of the possibility of a new day versus the current reality and this symbolizes changes in the coming century for women.

The general plot of “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is important to the metaphorical meaning of the new day for women approaching. At the beginning of the story the reader is presented with a female character who is treated quite typically for the time; she has a condition that makes those around her fear for her health and thus she is treated like a child whom they fear leaving alone as she might succumb in a physical way to her emotions. Secondly, no one outside of the confines of her room might guess that after the initial wave of shock and tears, she looks outside to see new life budding and humming all around her. This realization of a world outside of her window awakens her to the host of possibilities offered by the outside world as she is now free, both “body and soul, free!” In short, the main character, after only a short spell of shock over the death of her husband, looks outside with what appear to be new eyes at the life that surrounds her outdoors.

This new life, this bright blue sky offers promise of a new day both for the main character and, in terms of a larger metaphor, this fresh new day is the dawn of a new century when women are able to have control of their lives and live for themselves according to their own passions. However, although she can see and understand the meaning of the now fresh outside world, the fact that she is still cloistered in behind a window is important in a metaphorical sense as it means that she is not out taking it in just yet—it is still not within her reach despite the clarity of her view.

The trajectory of the plot of “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin further emphasizes the fact that the possibility of rebirth offered by the spring day just outside is still just a vision rather than a reality because not only is she still viewing it behind glass, he comes back home as if nothing happened. Not only is she merely glimpsing the possibility of rebirth from behind the glass of a window—an “elixir of life” that she still cannot quite breathe in, the fact that it is all false hope delivers a rather hopeless message to counter the many hints at hope for a new day.

In short, this is a story about a vision for the coming century for women rather than a story representing the arrival of that new day. She dies, not because she is so overjoyed as the final lines might suggest, but, as the reader might imagine, because of the shock of finally seeing her entrapment fully at the moment she realized the extent of its existence.

Grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood” (para. 14). While this observation may seem fatalistic, many people who have lived long enough might be willing to concede that there is at least a small grain of truth in this philosophy.

 

It is in O’Neill’s “The Hairy Ape,” however, that the sense of isolation and naturalistic fatalism is most evident. Compared to Crane’s and Anderson’s works, “The Hairy Ape” is certainly the bleakest of the three. Yank, who has been obsessed with experiencing a sense of belonging throughout the play, loses his grip on reality and sanity as he realizes that he never really fits in with other people or surroundings. O’Neill’s naturalism is blatant, and his attitude about humanity is rather dismal. O’Neill does not merely put Yank in touch with his base and primitive self; he all but converts Yank into a beast by guiding him to the primates’ cage at the zoo. Yank can only experience the empathy and identification that he has yearned for so deeply by offering that empathy to the ape. As Yank begins to talk to the ape, the stage directions indicate that “YANK begins to talk in a friendly confidential tone, half-mockingly, but with a deep undercurrent of sympathy” (Scene 8, ll. 5-6). The sympathy soon turns into “genuine admiration”  (Scene 8, l. 10), but then Yank becomes so lost in his own misery that the ape senses his rage and restlessness, and responds in kind. The gorilla crushes Yank cruelly, throwing him to the ground, where Yank dies. It is not only the finality of the death that makes this tale the bleakest; rather, it is that Yank was not able to experience any profound understanding of his condition or, more importantly, how to change his situation. He allowed himself to be completely subjected to his environment, rather than making his environment his subject.

“The Open Boat,” “Winesburg, Ohio,” and “The Hairy Ape” are all bleak stories that convey an attitude of naturalistic determinism that is so rigid it borders on the utterly fatalistic. Crane, Anderson, and O’Neill all seem to contend that humans are almost entirely subject to their conditions, circumstances, and environments. The correspondent in Crane’s “The Open Boat” and the old man in Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio,” however, are able to wring some small lesson, even if it’s almost too late, from their ordeals and observations. By contrast, in “The Hairy Ape” there is no such psychological transformation. Man is completely subject to his circumstances, seemingly born into bad luck and fated to die with bad luck and poor insight into himself and others. The sense of isolation among the characters, and that which is provoked in the reader, is profound. The authors do not, however, rescue the reader from that solitary sense of despair by offering a neat ending. It is up to the reader to discern the lessons buried in the grim stories and to apply them in his or her own life.

Works Cited

Anderson, Sherwood. “Winesburg, Ohio.” Retrieved April 1, 2007 from http://www.bartleby.com/156/

Crane, Stephen. “The Open Boat.” In The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter  Sixth Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. 1721-1738. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.

O’Neill, Eugene. “The Hairy Ape.” Retrieved April 1, 2007 from http://www.eoneill.com/texts/ha/contents.htm