Hour
Final Paper ENG125 Introduction To Literature October 8, 2012
The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by
James Thurber both captured my interest from the very beginning. These short stories represents gender roles and marriage. They both are about married couples with controlling mates. “The Story of an Hour” is about a young married woman and how she reacts to the news of her husband dying in a tragic train accident.
The story takes place in the home of the young woman, Mrs. Mallard. Several things took place within an hour but “the joy that kills” (Clugston, 2010) made me more interested to find out what was happening to Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard died from “the joy that kills” (Clugston, 2010) because she was happy after finding out about her husband and him coming home was the hour of her life. I believe she choose to die happy rather than live miserably with her husband because she was so happy thinking she had her life back only to go downstairs and see Brently walk in.
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was about a self-conscience husband who continuously daydreamed about a life he wanted. Both of these stories have symbolism of unhappy relationships that were being dominated by their spouse and the desire to escape it and get away. The difference in the stories is in “The
Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is dominated by her husband and she sees an escape through his death. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, has a controlling wife and escapes from her through his daydreams. In
The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by
James Thurber both captured my interest from the very beginning. These short stories represents gender roles and marriage. They both are about married couples with controlling mates. “The Story of an Hour” is about a young married woman and how she reacts to the news of her husband dying in a tragic train accident.
The story takes place in the home of the young woman, Mrs. Mallard. Several things took place within an hour but “the joy that kills” (Clugston, 2010) made me more interested to find out what was happening to Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard died from “the joy that kills” (Clugston, 2010) because she was happy after finding out about her husband and him coming home was the hour of her life. I believe she choose to die happy rather than live miserably with her husband because she was so happy thinking she had her life back only to go downstairs and see Brently walk in.
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was about a self-conscience husband who continuously daydreamed about a life he wanted. Both of these stories have symbolism of unhappy relationships that were being dominated by their spouse and the desire to escape it and get away. The difference in the stories is in “The
Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is dominated by her husband and she sees an escape through his death. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, has a controlling wife and escapes from her through his daydreams. In
References: Clugston, R.W. 2010. Journey Into Literature. Bridgepoint Education. San Diego, CA.