Sun Set Case

Women's life at 100 years ago was much more different from today. Their behaviors were dominated by men and the society -- most women had to suffer a great oppression from men. The two stories, Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" and William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" are the typical stories that reflect the lives of women at that time. Both stories dramatize females who suffer great repression as a result of men, which eventually lead them to negative behaviors.

Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" emphasizes a woman, Mrs. Mallard's actions after her husband's death, which reflects that female at that time was strongly controlled and repressed by men. After being told of her husband's death by her sister, she weeps at once. However, when she realizes that there won't be any person who can give her oppression, she suddenly feels pleasure. Mrs. Mallard's whispers, "Free! Body and Soul free!" shows that both her body and her soul have been dominated by her husband for a long time. Believing "There would be no one to live for during those coming years" and "There would be no powerful will bending her", Mrs. Mallard turns overjoyed and feels liberated. All of Mrs. Mallard's deviant reaction to her husband's death depicts readers a society that blinds women and makes their personalities distorted.

Similar as "Story of an Hour", William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" dramatizes Emily, a woman isolated from the society as a result of an overly protective father, behaves perversely throughout her life. Emily's father is always seen in the "foreground" of Emily with "his back to her and clutching a horsewhip" reveals the excessive protection from Emily's father. In order to have Emily under control, Emily's father bans her from finding a mate. The town people "remembered all the young men her father had driven away". Emily's life is dominated so much by her father, which eventually makes her lose all social skills and isolate from the society. As a result, Emily remains in tradition and lives in her house while the town is experiencing a great change brought by new technologies. When she dies, the whole town goes to her funeral in her house, but most go "out of curiosity to see the inside of her house". Emily's life and situation that isolates from the society best suggests that women at William Faulkner's time were deeply restricted by men.

"The Story of an hour" and "A Rose for Emily" both show that women used to live under the restriction from men. They hardly had any chance to live for themselves. As a result of men's oppression, their characters are distorted. Mrs. Mallard is euphoric about her husband's death, and Emily isolates herself from the society, kills her lover and sleeps with the dead