Feminist Analysis Of The Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, was published over a century ago in 1894, but even with its age the story manages to be relevant in modern times. Upon first glance the short story is fleeting at only two pages in length and lasts for only an hour and due to this it could be seen as simple. This short story tells the tale of Louise Mallard, who has heart issues, learns from her sister Josephine that her husband, Brently Mallard was killed in train accident. Upon hearing this terrible news, she immediately started to cry before retreating to her room. In her room Louise Mallard goes through a profound awakening. Sometime later, Josephine goes and gets Louise from her room and upon going down the stairs; Louise is shocked to see her reportedly dead husband coming into their home. Mrs. Mallard suddenly dies, which doctors attributed to her heart troubles. Although at first this story seems simple, but surprisingly “The Story of an Hour” is a deep and symbolic story, full of irony and feminist themes of freedom and self awareness.
At the start of the story we see a major ironic element of
Once Louis is aware that her husband is dead, she reacts impetuously brining out previously repressed emotions. With the emotional weight lifted off her shoulder Mrs. Mallard feels free. In “The Story of Hour” Louise Mallard “[weeps] at once, with sudden, wild abandonment” and goes through a “storm of grief”. As Louise goes through this experience her soul is freed, however a mysterious force only referred to as “it” starts to overtake her. This unnamed force remains inconspicuous throughout the story. In the story it only referred to as “it” or “something”. Because Chopin choice to make this force unknown, it seizes Louise’s emotions of sense of dread or even horror. As Selina Jamil states in her article,