Feminist Perspectives in a Story of an Hour A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time, by Ann Bail Howard, discusses the nature of the female characters in Kate Chopin¡¦s novel¡¦s and short stories. Howard suggests that the women in Chopin¡¦s stories are longing for independence and feel torn between the feminine duties of a married woman and the freedom associated with self-reliance. Howard¡¦s view is correct to a point, but Chopin¡¦…showed first 75 words of 954 total…

…showed last 75 words of 954 total…inevitably elevates the woman¡¦s position to the highest status, while the men are made to look silly and unaware. When Howard asserts that ¡§it is the woman who demands her own direction and chooses her own freedom that interests Chopin most¡¨ (1) she is right on target. Howard only fails when she chooses not to expand that vision to include the truly feminist perspectives that differentiate Chopin as a woman far ahead of her time.