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Rebecca

English- Anna Goldstein

2002

This is an analyze of character between two short stories we read in class

 
Similarities of character
In both "The Story Of An Hour", by Kate Chopin and "Swaddling Clothes", by Mishima Yukio, the female protagonists spend time exploring their feeling about their unsatisfying marriages. Toshiko, the protagonist from Swaddling Clothes, lives in Japan after World War II. She is married to a very Americanized actor who is often occupied by work or other social events, leaving less time for his family. Louise, the protagonist from The Story of an Hour, lives in nineteenth century Louisiana. After the death of her husband Brently, she questions weather or not she was happy with, and explores the idea of living on her own. Both women live in cultures where they are considered property of their husbands and where they have very few rights. Therefore neither can express these feelings openly.
In Louise and Brently's lives Brently made the decisions and Louise resented it. When Louise hears of her husbands death, her natural reaction is to burst in to tears. After the tears pass, she thinks about weather or not she should be sad and what it meant now that she was without him. She repeats to herself "fee, free, free...Body and soul free!" this indicating that her husband was in a way holding her from freedom physically and emotionally. The narrator says "there would be no one to live for her during those coming years: She would live for herself"(page 8). Louise felt her husband was too powerful in their relationship but she never spoke She held back her feelings for a long time and never expressed her opinions "She was young, with a fair, calm face, who's lines bespoke repression (pagan)." The lines of repression on her face tell the reader she held her feelings in for a long time. One gets the idea that her husband never asked for her opinion and she was too timid to express it on her own. This was not good for the relationship because things could never have changed to a more comfortable lifestyle, a good relationship needs communication.
Toshiko' s husband also makes the decisions in their relationship, she resents it too. and her husband do not spend much time together. Her husband is very absorbed in his work, spends his time at clubs with other actors and in meetings "No doubt she had been foolish to hope that he would spend the evening with her" (page 132).Toshiko is afraid to express herself to her husband if she wants him to spend the night with her she should have said so. She withholds information and feeling afraid of criticism and she is shy so she already has difficulties expressing herself "It would have been difficult for her to put her thoughts into words"(page 134). He is not very comforting to her, their home is not a place where Toshiko enjoys spending time in fact she wants to avoid it if possible , the house is described as being westernized, as is her husband. Toshiko not wanting to go home is a sign that she doesn't want to go to and be near things of her husband. Also she felt her husband was insensitive he tells the story of the nurse, she describes the house as being "unhomely"(page132) the house being "unhomely" not somewhere she could go for comfort as with her husband who is not sensitive and she can not go to him for comfort either.
Both Toshiko and Louise are in similar situations where their husbands are at power in their marriage, and they both resent it. They are afraid to express themselves out loud but when in thought alone discover their feeling for their husbands. Louise is faced with living on her own and had and open out look on that, but Toshiko is very traditional and could not live on her own. Toshiko and Louise are knowingly unhappily trapped as prisoners of their marriages. When Louise thought of her future with Brently it gave her a chills and a feeling of  turmoil. Then she learns of her husbands death and sees how she could be living her life making her own decisions and she looks forward to it. Toshiko is still stuck in her marriage, she looks for ways out of the marriage and takes risks that night she goes somewhere else that home, and she lets herself be taken by a stranger, maybe life will be better then.