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.…
This short story describes the main character, Louise Mallard, as we see her “metamorphosis” throughout Chopin’s work of fiction. “The Story of an Hour” refers to Mrs. Mallard’s life where she gains her liberty. This scene, where Mrs. Mallard will supposedly grieve for her husband, deliberately exposes a lot on her character and her new discovery of living. “The Story of an Hour” makes us see some perspective on a married woman who opens up herself and shows her true feelings deep down there, for what we called “inner-self”. Chopin’s use of foreshadowing and irony gives us a look of what is to come in the story. One specific example of this is when Chopin portrays the character so calm after the death of her husband. Chopin portrays this conflict to be very wearing on the…
In “Story of an Hour,” Chopin explains that a train accident has occurred and the husband was on the train and has died. Consequently, Chopin states “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” (2). This makes it clear that after she finds out that her husband is dead she is extremely excited to finally be free from her husband. Also, “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her” (1). During this part of the story, Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room so that she can achieve the physical and mental state she desires. It is believed that she wants to be alone so that she can “grieve” by herself but instead of grieving she celebrates finally having freedom and having the ability to do anything that she wants without the fear of her husband getting on to her. Also, Mrs. Mallard does not want to get lost in the crowd of the people downstairs that are actually grieving because then she may feel the need to feel sorry and began to grieve even though she has made it clear that she is not upset. She is glad to finally be free from the male dominance of her…
Kate Chopin’s,”The Story of an Hour,” is an ironic and symbolic story as it portrays an innuendo of repression through the example married women. Chopin’s short story begins with Mrs. Mallard becoming lurid as she hears of her husband's death. Consequently, Mrs. Mallard underwent changes from depressed to an elated state of emotion. Chopin displayed Mrs. Mallards’ grievances and attitude towards freedom through her diction. Just as Mrs. Mallard perceived that she gained her freedom, news was delivered to her stating Brently Mallard was alive. Without hesitation Mrs. Mallard died not only because her freedom was gone, but because she felt guilty when she happily reflected upon her husband's death. Presumably, the cause of Mrs. Mallard's death was heart disease, thus making Chopin’s…
In The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin the character Louise Mallard has to be gently told that her husband has died tragically. Her sister Josephine tells her that her husband Bentley died in a railroad accident. Louise Mallard cries and mourns her husbands death but in the back of her mind, she is thinking she will finally be free. Although Bentley was always good to her, she can now have a life of her own without feeling oppressed. She feels that men and women oppress each other even if they do it out of kindness. She fantasizes about how her life will be without her husband and hopes that she will live a long life. Suddenly the door opens and Bentley walks in. He is alive and was not in the accident. Louise mallard dies of a heart attack the doctors say it was from happiness.…
In the story of an Hour of time, Chopin gives new meaning to the age-old saying, ‘Till death do us part.’ If not by his death, then she would achieve freedom through her own death. Unsatisfied with the era’s fate for women, she couldn’t bear the idea of facing life in her husband’s shadow once she had gotten a small taste of new consciousness. Through the creation of Mrs. Mallard’s dual characters, Chopin emphasizes that one would go to any length to attain what they…
Reading Kate Chopin's 'Story of an Hour' leaves on reader's mind a strong theme of the gender disparity present in the institution of marriage. The narrative about a woman's sorrowful state and life under her authoritarian husband introduces Mrs. Mallard first in the exposition paragraph as having a 'heart trouble' which requires 'great care'(pg. 15). It is quite ambiguous as to whether the trouble is physical or emotional. Even so, Chopin uses this trouble as a way of symbolizing the suffering of the woman in the institute of marriage. This central theme is also replicated in Gail Godwin's 'A Sorrowful Woman' as well as Sidonie Collette's 'The Hand'. Godwin depicts the man as the one with the last 'say' and that the woman has no authority of her own. She is to obey her husband, even forcefully. I think Collette on the other hand tries to show the husband's authoritarianism in the institution of marriage from a traditional perspective. This is so because according to her, the inequality has always been clearly set up and the roles well defined such that the husband may not even be able to able to tell how strong his influence on his wife might be. The three stories share the misery of the woman under the man in the institution of marriage.…
The author, Kate Chopin uses marriage to show how powerless women were compared to men during the late eighteen hundreds in her short story entitled, “The Story of An Hour “. At the beginning of the story the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard has a heart condition. Due to her illness, her sister Josephine and her husband's friend Richards has the hard task to tell Louise that her husband Brently Mallard has died in a train wreck. During this first hour Mrs. Mallard experiences the sorrow of her husband's death and the loneliness she would feel, but also the conflicting and exciting feelings of being able to feel alive and the freedom she will have in the future being alone without her husband.…
The traditional outlook on life has dissipated in modern years. Men were usually the ones who worked to support the family and maintained a steady income to make the family financially stable. On the contrary, women were expected to raise the children, prepare meals and keep a tidy house. For most, this was the ideal life style that worked effectively. Throughout Gail Godwin's short story, "A Sorrowful Woman", the character is a component of a troubled family. Furthermore in the short story, "The Story of an Hour" written by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard is notified with information that is life altering. A characters motivation drives a story towards the authors intended theme through the actions taken and emotions that are depicted.…
Kate Chopin was able to amaze her readers, as well as paralyze their emotions. In Kate Chopin’s story “Story of An Hour” she was able to take you through sadness, relief, surprise. The main character Mrs.Mallard who was presumed to be a loving housewife was told her loving husband was kill in a tragic train accident. Through this news, Mrs.Mallard begins to feel abandoned, fearful. As she further digested the news of her husband death Mrs. Mallard also began to feel independent, free and happy. Her mournful cry turned into joyful tears. Seems to be that Mrs.Mallard was finding herself again, I believe it is not that she did not love her husband but rather she wasn't in love with her husband. She could withstand that thought of being without…
Chopin used various ways to view feminist criticism in the short story. One way Chopin used feminist criticism to write “The Story of a Hour” is that in marriage women are viewed as property. They are restricted to numerous conditions. It made Mrs. Mallard physically and emotionally unstable. She was very fragile with the fact knowing she was a widow.…
‘The Story of an Hour’ takes place in Louise Mallard’s home, the focus is on the family that lives there, and the topic of the story is the loss of Louise’s husband Brently. Louise had heart trouble and with her sister’s careful delivery of bad news, Louise reacts with obvious grief. However, she begins to realize that she is now an independent woman, a realization that excites her. She sees her life as being absolutely hers and is happy thinking about her new sense of independence. The Author, Kate Chopin somewhat suggests that all marriages are naturally overwhelming. Despite the love between husband and wife, Louise views Brently’s death as a release from oppression. She never names a specific way in which Brently oppressed her instead she hints that marriage in general holds back both women and men. The role of family…
The setting of this story justifies why Mrs. Mallard’s feels the way that she does. One would assume that the thought of losing a husband or wife would have been tragic, however for Mrs. Mallard it was liberating. The story was set in the late 1800’s in which women’s reason for existence was to solely take care of their home, husband, and children. Kate Chopin was raised by her mother and grandmother since her father died when she was four years old. I thought that since she did not have a father in the home that her stories would reflect the opposite of what she felt in “The Story of an Hour”. She did not seek the security of a male figure; in her case she became a feminist writer that fought for women to be able to be their own person. This story simply demonstrates that women have what it takes in order to make it and have a right to be free. In this story, Chopin states, “there would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature.” (Chopin 654.)…
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin depicts the struggles women have to endure, and their emotional outcome. In the story, Mrs. Mallard struggles with her husband’s death, a death that supposedly happened in a rail road disaster. She deals with injustice and unhappiness from being a wife in 1894. The sorrow she feels for her husband’s death quickly fades away when she realizes she is now free; free to live for herself and not others. “The Story of an Hour” explores the complexity of death and the wonderful beginnings of freedom, and how nothing guaranteed.…
In "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, the author depicts how someone can be trapped in an unproductive and unsatisfying reality because of other's thoughtlessness, exploitation, and domination. When combined with the contemporary society's belief, presumably the later half of the 19th century, a further understanding of Chopin's thoughts and feelings can be realized. Mrs. Louise Mallard, the victim and messenger of this story, is the image of such a person. Her relationship with her husband is so oppressive and limiting that even death is considered a reasonable means of escape. The condition of life for Mrs. Mallard is terrible, yet for some reason she doesn't seem to come to the full realization until her husband death. This leads one to believe that was a common place for women to be unhappy in their marriage and have no conventional means of escape (divorce). However, Chopin doesn't directly make that point. Many women are in search of freedom from their marriage and they believe the only way to be free is to experience the death of their husband.…