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Using The Literary Theory of Structuralism To Analyze Short Stories Or Any Types Of Text With A Story

Topics

  • What is Structuralism as a Literary Theory/who it originated from
  • What is the general structure of any text with a story/or more specifically short stories
  • How do we go to analyzing of a short story in the Literary Theory of Structuralism
  • My analysis of the short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
  • What is the cultural relevency of the short story

What is the Literary Theory of Structuralism

The Literary Theory of Structuralism

Structuralism is the observation of the utilization of linguistics and semiotics to portray the major ideas in a piece.

Who made it?

Where it originated from

Structuralism is generally respected to have its roots crafred by the swiss phonetic scholar Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Saussure was a swiss linguist and semiotician whose ideas were crafted with the basic foundation of both fields.

The General Structure of a Short Story

Short stories have the capacities to reveal fundamental truths about the human and the human experience.

The General Structure of a Short Story

A short story writer must establish clear rules and a developed setting. If you can't picture the setting, aren't sure of the time period, can't get your bearings on whether the story's world is based on fantasy or reality, then the structure isn't solid

Action

Action is fundamental component of a stories structure.

Action

Central Conflict

A truly great story thrives on a well developed central conflict

Central Conflict

Climax

The climax is perhaps the most engaging and tension-filled moment of a story, and is the boiling-over point of the central conflict

WE'RE BORED BYE!!!

Climax

What do we have to do to start analyzing a text with Structuralism?

Read The Piece Of Text

Read The Piece

Read the piece and look for specific patterns, repetitions, and contrasts in characters, locations, objects, language used, and decisions made.

Find Similarities/Differences

Explore the similarities and differences that help with tying together the story's events.

Find Similarities/Differences

Formulate A Claim

Formulate a claim on what the texts function is, based off the observations made in the previous steps.

Formulate A Claim

Analyze Symbols and Signs

Analyzing text in structuralism also means that you have to analyze the symbols signs within a text because all of those hidden meanings are what make up the bigger picture and overall structure of the story. This basically allows us to determine what the function or purpose of the text itself is.

Structural Analysis of "The Story of An Hour"

Analysis of "The Story Of An Hour"

Structural Analysis of "The Story of An Hour" Pt. 1

"She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new life"

Part 1.

The trees "aquiver with new life" are the symbols that act as a contradiction to Louise Mallard's husbands death. The line is arranged to the location the main character starts to begin to come into terms with the sudden death of her husband. As Mrs. Mallard gazes out the window and she sees the life surrounding her. Which would then give her the realization of a new life that begins to dawn on her. The symbolism in this line is fairly important in the development of the purpose of the story itself.

Structural Analysis of "The Story of An Hour" Pt. 2

"There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window."

Part 2.

Chopin the author, shows the inner thoughts of the protagonist through the use of setting. "The patches of blue sky" shows that Mrs. Mallard is trying to look or discover the actual silver lining of her current situation. She then gets closer to the realization of herself, and the setting is helping her get there. The inclusion of this description. Shows another stepping stone that would lead us toward the climax (her actualization)

Structural Analysis of "The Story of An Hour" Pt. 1

"There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. ...she felt it, creeping out of the sky reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air."

Part 3.

The chosen diction for this sentence shows Mrs. Mallard's fear and hesitancy towards the mix of emotions she's feeling and experiencing. This sentence explicitly shows connection between her feelings and the setting, saying that the cheerful images and sensory appeals from outside the Mallard's house begins to positively affect her. This "something" that she was staring to experience was her realization of liberation, and the author structure of this section and her whole piece to show how setting directly affects the epiphany of Mrs. Mallard

Conclusion Of "The Story of An Hour"

The setting of the story provides the structure for the overall mood and the themes of "The Story of An Hour". By including the descriptions that we just analyzed, Kate Chopin has given us insight on the process that Mrs. Mallard was having to go through by the choice of setting and descriptions, which supports the plot line towards the "feminist awakening" at its climax. This story follows a structure where the main female character would experience a sense of liberation from a repressing/oppressing marriage and a function where repression in housewives is very important.

Conclusion

What is the cultural relevancy of "The Story of An Hour"

Why does "The Story of an Hour Matter?

At the time of the story being published (1894), culture had its own constructions on marraige and the treatment of women. Women were supposed to be domestic, submissive, innocent, and full-time managers of the home and children. They were the ones confided to the private spheres to the point of madness. They had no rights and no opportunities for education or advacement. They also didn't have any laws that protected them in divorce or in times of domestic violence. Even worse, the moment a woman made a negative comment about these treatments, or doubted their status as a citizen, she was considered crazy, depressed, and in need of the "rest cure." With this explanation of women and their lives in the 1800s and the 1900s, it makes more sense why Mrs. Mallard acts in the way that she does. She had loved her husband, and was stuck in a marraige true to the current "norms" of society at the time . She saw the death of Brently Mallard as a way to escape the marriage and her husband, and the mental/physical chains that had secured her. When she saw that her her husband was actually still alive, the pain of knowing that her chance of independence is gone was too much for Louise to handle and with this she died only having faintly tasted the taste of freedom.

Sources

  • https://literariness.org/2016/03/20/structuralism/amp/
  • https://www.aresearchguide.com/structuralism.html
  • https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/structuralism
  • https://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_structuralism.html
  • https://www.wikihow.com/Analyze-a-Short-Story
  • https://penandthepad.com/analyze-structure-short-story-writing-3321.html
  • https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage#:~:text=The%20women%E2%80%99s%20suffrage%20movement%20was%20a%20decades-long%20fight,threatened%20to%20cripple%20the%20movement%20more%20than%20once.
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