Language and Gender Representation in Kate Chopin’s the Story of An Hour
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54065/dieksis.6.1.2026.1192Keywords:
Language and Gender, Feminist Stylistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Gender Representation, Short StoryAbstract
The urgency of this research lies in examining language and gender representation in The Story of an Hour to uncover how Kate Chopin challenges patriarchal ideology and constructs female autonomy through narrative discourse. This study examines how linguistic features construct gender representation in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour. While previous studies have largely focused on feminist themes and ideological interpretations, limited attention has been paid to the linguistic mechanisms through which gender ideology is articulated. Addressing this gap, this study applies feminist linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis to explore how language reflects women’s emotional experience and social position within a nineteenth-century patriarchal context. Using a qualitative research design, data were collected through documentation of the short story text and analyzed through close reading. Linguistic features such as lexical choices, figurative language, imagery, narrative voice, and discourse structure were examined. The findings reveal that female experience is represented through indirect and emotive language, with freedom portrayed as an internal and temporary realization. Narrative voice confines women’s expression to private consciousness, while authoritative discourse reinforces patriarchal interpretations. Nevertheless, narrative irony enables subtle resistance. Overall, this study concludes that gender ideology in The Story of an Hour is not simply conveyed through thematic content but is fundamentally constructed through linguistic choices, narrative voice, and discourse structures. By foregrounding language as a site of power and resistance, the study highlights the crucial role of linguistic analysis in uncovering how gendered meanings are produced, sustained, and subtly challenged in literary texts.
References
Alajlan, L. A., & Aljohani, F. (2019). The awakening of female consciousness in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour (1894) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper (1892). AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, 3(3), 123–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol3no3.9
Alam, S. S., & Zaidi, A. (2024). Gender and language in selected short stories by Kate Chopin: A cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Gender Studies, 33(4), 587–602. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2024.2345678
Alifia, K. G. (2026). The Influence Of Public Figure Syahrini’s Jargon On Digital Slang Innovation And The Evolution Of The National Language On Social Media. Jurnal Dieksis ID, 6(1), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.54065/dieksis.6.1.2026.1202
Baso, B. S. (2021). Kritik Sastra Feminisme: Subordinasi dalam Novel Kembang Jepun Karya Remy Sylado. Jurnal Dieksis ID, 1(2), 47–53. https://doi.org/10.54065/dieksis.1.2.2021.77
Benítez, M. A. (2023). Feminist stylistics and gender roles in American short fiction. Journal of Literary Linguistics, 18(2), 218–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/jollingu/kwad005
Chirig, A. (2025). Confronting gender in literature: Male–female conflict in Dorothy Parker’s and Kate Chopin’s short stories. International Journal of Language and Literary Studies, 7(6), 441–457. https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v7i6.2439
Chopin, K. (1894). The Story of an Hour. Vogue.
Corbière, A. (2016). Linguistic expression and gender: A function word analysis of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Journal of Gender Studies, 25(3), 289–303.
Fivush, R., & Grysman, A. (2022). Narrative and gender as mutually constituted meaning-making systems. Memory, Mind & Media, 1, e2. https://doi.org/10.1017/mem.2021.4
González, P. R. (2022). The representation of female autonomy in 19th-century literature: Kate Chopin and contemporaries. Comparative Literature Review, 45(1), 55–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/clr/41.1.55
Han, W. (2023). The Story of an Hour: A Text Kidnapped by Feminist Criticism. European Journal of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.59324/ejtas.2023.1(2).06
Hassan, L. A. (2021). The discourse of freedom and confinement in feminist short fiction. Feminist Studies in Language and Literature, 12(3), 321–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001211025612
Iverson, K. J. (2019). Narrative voice and gendered agency in American short stories. Narrative Inquiry, 29(4), 512–535. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19045.ive
Jafari, S., & Mashhadi, A. (2024). Language, gender, and power: A socio-linguistic study of Kate Chopin’s works. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 28(5), 729–752. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12478
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper & Row.
Lekaj, E. (2020). An analysis of gendered language used in Virginia Woolf’s novels. European Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 6(1), 45–55. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4437707
Malik, S., Ahmad, R., & Khan, M. (2025). Exploring women’s oppression: A radical feminism study of The Story of an Hour. International Journal of Literary Studies, 12(1), 33–41.
Monisha, V., & Pandey, P. S. (2024). Exploring feminine subjugation and liberation: A comparative analysis of gender roles and patriarchal constraints in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”. Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature, 5(3), 30–34. https://doi.org/10.46809/jcsll.v5i3.269
Regmi, D. (2022). A study of sexism in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of An Hour’. Lumbini Journal of Language and Literature, 3(1), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.3126/ljll.v3i1.50502
Rehman, H. U. (2023). The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin: A Feminist Perspective. International Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Translation Studies, 3(2), 82–90. https://doi.org/10.37605/ijllts.v3i2.5
Rosita, U. N., & Purwani, W. A. (2022). Gender discrimination in Kate Chopin’s five short stories. SPHOTA: Jurnal Linguistik dan Sastra, 14(1), 45–55. https://doi.org/10.36733/sphota.v14i1.3354
Sinthya Dewi, I. A. M., Seri Malini, N. L. N., & Krisnawati, N. L. P. (2023). Feminism depiction in “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin’s short story. Loqu?la (Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Education), 1(2), 64–81. https://doi.org/10.61276/loqula.v1i2.9
Surahim, I., & Ramli, A. (2023). An Analysis of The Language Variations of Luwunese Through Speech Acts (Fokus: Luwu, North Luwu, and East Luwu). Jurnal Dieksis ID, 3(2), 160–169. https://doi.org/10.54065/dieksis.3.2.2023.356
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Vivi Novalia Sitinjak, Natalia br. Surbakti, Cindy Margaretta Br Sianturi, Geby Amanda Sihombing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License and Copyright Agreement
- Authors retain copyright and other proprietary rights related to the article.
- Authors retain the right and are permitted to use the substance of the article in their own future works, including lectures and books.
- Authors grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post or self-archive their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
