Preview

An Hour Meaning

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
510 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Hour Meaning
The underlying meaning
“The Story of an Hour” is about a woman who receives bad news that her husband is dead. She finds the light in this situation and seems to be coping with the news. Then her husband walks thru the door and now the tables are turned. Mrs. Mallard is now the one who is dead. This Story is not just what you see on the outside. The story must be taken apart piece by piece to find the underlying meaning. In the short story Mrs. Mallard is going through some complicated things, her husband dies and she has heart troubles. The story shows right off that Mrs. Mallards heart is going to be a main focus in this story. It is so important that it is mentioned in the first sentence of the story. The hear trouble could be a symbol
…show more content…
The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The note of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering the eaves.” This is ironic because she is admiring the fresh spring life as an aftermath to her husband’s death. This contradicts the mood of the story. Then she could now be seeing a new life for herself now that her husband in no longer with her. This would make since, because as previously stated, her heart trouble could mean that she is unhappy in her life. This event of her husband dying could be opening new doors and that is why she is seeing light out of all this darkness happening around her.
Next in the story Mrs. Mallard kept whispering “Free! Body and soul free!” This is ironic as well because many people who have a loved one who is now dead feel as though part of there self has died along with that individual. That is not the case for Mrs. Mallard. She feels that she is her own new self because her husband is dead.
In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin shows that there are more things to the story. This was not a story that could be read one time. The whole topic to the story was that even when something negative comes, light at the end of the situation can always be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “Story of an Hour” is structured short and very detailed to portray the emotional journey and realization Mrs. Mallard goes through while in her room. Kate Chopin illustrates the transition Mrs. Mallard undergoes as she stares out the window and observes the "new spring life, a delicious breath of spring rain is in the air, the clouds are parting to show patches of blue sky, and there are even the birds singing the bees" (115). In this moment Mrs. Mallard feels liberated from the chains society expects from her. Realizing she no longer has to love her husband and live her life next to him, she remembers that she is “young, with fair calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (115). As with Sammy, watching the girls break the rules releases his true feelings about his life. He realizes that there exists a life outside of the normal sheep he sees walking in the same direction down the aisle everyday. The thirst for a life that is unknown to them both excites…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mallard is given the news of her husbands’ death from her sister, Josephine. She reacts just as anyone else would, she weeps immediately, and is stricken with grief. She falls into her sister’s arms for comfort. Then as she composes herself, she goes to her room alone. It is at this point that the story takes a strange twist. Mrs. Mallard sees the blue sky out her window. She feels the breeze flowing in from the outside. She smells the rain that was still in the air. We are told that she feels something coming towards her. She waits fearfully. It is “too subtle and elusive to name.” What could it be wonders the reader? Then it hits us unexpectedly. The thing coming towards her is her freedom. She whispers free, free, free. She is described as having a monstrous joy. Her husband would no longer repress her. She was free at last. She prayed that her life would be long, something that she had not wished for since her marriage.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mallard does acknowledge that she will cry at her husband’s funeral when she sees his “face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead” (Chopin 129). In the same paragraph she also acknowledge the future “that would belong to her absolutely” which she welcomed with arms wide open (129). This paragraph can give insight into two different perspectives, one perspective is that Mrs. Mallard is “arguing her case for the right to feel liberated” (qtd. in Evans, “Story” 99). She is arguing that she will remember her husband’s kindness before she indulges in her new found independence and bright future found from her husband’s death. On the other hand, this paragraph can also suggest yet another internal conflict “between competing perspectives within her own mind” (98). One part of her conflicting mind can be understood through words such as “tender hands” (Chopin 129) and “face that had never looked save with love upon her” which suggest she was contempt with her married life (qtd. in Evans, “Story” 98). The other part of her mind was gently introduced with “transition” (98) words such as “fixed and gray and dead” (Chopin 129). This part of her mind is the new single Louise Mallard, her real name, that is excited for the “years to come that would belong to her absolutely”…

    • 2338 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many different tones, themes, characters, and symbolism in the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin explains the story of a negative view of marriage by showing the reader with a woman who is overjoyed that her husband has died, also the characters in the story itself goes through multiply changes from fear to depression to finally freedom. The lone character, who goes through the most change be far throughout the entire story is the main character Mrs. Louise Mallard. This transformation doesn’t just help change the character of Louise Mallard, further the themes of the story and solidify the tones that the author are trying to set for the story.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Story of an hour is about a lady with heart troubles finding out her husband is dead. She doesn’t react the same way any wife would, she goes up to her room and sits up there looking out the window at all that is below. She sits up there and thinks about how she is now free. Free from having someone tell her what to day and night, about how she can now go and do all the things she wanted, about how it would be a long and happy life. She then starts to walk downstairs to her sister, who is the one who told Louise of the news. Then as she is walking down stairs her front door starts to be unlocked. She then sees her husband walk in. she screams then falls down dead. She died from a heart failure. The joy that kills.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    1) Chopin heavily utilizes symbolism in her story. Describe three symbols in detail, making sure you discuss their relevance to the story's themes.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Story Of An Hour Theme

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The theme of “The Story of an Hour” to me is sad, there is a moment of joy, also there is confusion in the story. I think it’s sad because there is death in the story. Nobody likes death! Mrs. Mallard has a moment of joy, she feels free. She has freedom from her husband's death. I find it also confusing how Mrs. Mallard celebrated her husband's death. She didn't seem sad one bit. I feel these are the reasons these are the themes of “The Story of an Hour”…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." The unexpected twist that a distraught widow would notice such a radiant image as "new spring life," atop the trees outside her window serve to represent Mrs. Mallard herself. An important reference to the time of the year is made, spring, which is associated with new life and growth. As she breathes in a "delicious breath of rain," she is being reborn without the oppression in her past. In the next paragraph, Mrs. Mallard notices "patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds." This imagery is bursting with metaphorical connotation. The blue sky, symbolizing her serenity, is starting to appear through the clouds. The storm of the story is coming to an end and blue sky can be seen just as Mrs. Mallard's happiness beginning to show through her preceding anguish. Chopin continues to strengthen her illustrative ties in the eighth paragraph, describing Mrs. Mallard's "dull eyes whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story of an hour Mrs. Mallard is a women in the nineteenth century and she comes to find out that her husband died in a train accident. When she gets this terrible news she is devastated. She goes to her room to grief by herself. While in her room grieving, she starts thinking how her her life would be without her deceased husband.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An Hour Response

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When Mrs. Mallard hears the new's about her husband's death she is appalled and surprised. The passage states, Mrs. Mallard "did not hear the story as many women have heard the same with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." She wept in her sister's arms with wild abandonment, and once the storm of grief had spent…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Furthermore, at the end of the story it shows how she wanted to be free that the result was that she died. She had an unexpected reaction to her husband being alive. For example, Mrs. Mallard started whispering, "Free! Body and soul free!" (paragraph 15) This shows that she wanted to be free and have individuality so much that she did not think so much about her husband's death, but how much she wanted to have a new life of being an individual.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    We are made known that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble. While being gently informed of her husband’s death it turns out to be that her husband was never involved in any accident and did not even have any recollection of any tragedy that had occurred. Upon walking down the stairs with her sister beside her, Mrs. Mallard is face to face with the surprise of her husband arriving at her door. She is at the same time coming face to face with end her freedom she dreamed of and the life she would live for herself. Despite her heart troubles the sudden end of her new found…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story of an hour is a classic example of literary fiction that uses symbolism and themes to tell the story. In the first sentence, Kate Chopin introduces the main character Louise Mallard as having heart trouble. Louise’s sister and friend came to tell the disturbing news that her husband died in a train wreck. They take great care to relay the news gently, so as not to upset her heart condition. Chopin does not go into detail about the heart trouble, leaving the reader to think what they will. The heart trouble mentioned in the first line is symbolic and has double meaning. It refers to not only the actual physical condition of her heart, but also to the pain she feels being trapped in a marriage. It was not uncommon in Chopin’s time that married women felt oppressed by their husband’s power and social status. (Shmoop Editorial Team)…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Free, free, free!" that had echoed from Mrs. Mallard's breath came to a crashing halt when she was confronted by her husband. After seeing her husband alive, she knew that all her dreams that were envisioned was never going to happen. And death was better than the repression that had occurred through the marriage.…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Short Story and People

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The short story Story Of An Hour is all about the series of emotions that the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard showed to the readers. With the kind of plot of this short story, it actually refers to the moments that Mrs. Mallard knew that all this time, her husband was alive. For the symbol, I like the title of this short story because it actually symbolizes the "time" where Mrs. Mallard died with "joy." And with that moment, it surely is considered a story of an hour.…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays