Published Paper Details:

This article re-examines Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour through the theoretical frameworks of ecofeminism, particularly Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies, alongside contemporary critics. While the story has frequently been interpreted as a feminist critique of marriage and patriarchal confinement, its ecological dimensions remain underexplored. This study foregrounds the overlooked role of nature as an active liberating force that enables Louise Mallard's fleeting moment of autonomy. Through a close reading of Chopin's imagery of springtime, open skies, and atmospheric vitality, the analysis demonstrates how natural symbolism disrupts patriarchal control and situates Louise's consciousness within a continuum of renewal and selfhood. By converging gendered oppression with ecological symbolism, the article highlights how Chopin encodes feminist agency within environmental metaphors. Building on recent ecofeminist scholarship that links nature to resilience and embodied freedom (Rahmatullah, 2025a; Rahmatullah, 2025b), this reading expands Chopin studies beyond domestic or psychological frameworks to emphasize her ecological imagination. The findings contribute to broader debates on how literary texts articulate ecological consciousness and feminist liberation, underscoring the need to integrate ecofeminist critique into canonical short story analysis.