Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Malorie Mitchell
1:35 MW
Professor Menchaca
Literary Analysis
WC = 1,325 What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

The expectation in society from two hundred years ago for women had a habit of making sure a woman was not a woman but always a lady like the most delicate flower instead of a womanly goddess or feminism, that is, to underestimate the needs of women past their ability to have a baby and make a home. Mrs. Mallard's "heart trouble" might have came from an internal struggle where she had over and over again ignored her own wants and needs so she could be that delicate flower I talked about earlier. When Mrs. Mallard’s heart was able to be "set free" after hearing about her husbands death, she could
finally have her life back and not just be what she needed to be but who she wanted to be. When her husband walked through that door and she realized there had been a mistake and that her husband was indeed alive, her "bad heart" which had only moments ago been set free didn't want to go back to that internal place it had been hidden. Consequently, she then dies supposedly "of joy" in finding out her husband was not dead. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin depicts one of the negative views of marriage by showing the reader Mrs.
Mallard a woman who is clearly overjoyed that her husband is dead. Chopin shows this through the language in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin used to describe Louise’s state of mind as she wavers between wallowing and indescribable joy about her newfound freedom. The narrator of “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin relays what she sees in a followable structure, but the way her feelings are described, the words are strong and resonate, leaving a powerful interpretation. One could suggest that Louis had a real internal struggle that is not noticed by her husband or friends and when she locks herself in her room to find her feelings is critical. The setting outside of her room is not even detailed, but the setting inside of her thoughts is animated and well worded by the narrator. The window looking outside is detailed like her thoughts, while everything about her doesn't
exist. Most of author Kate Chopin’s work is known for its seminal feminist stories and novels in the Western canon. “The Story of an Hour” is one of those short stories. In “Story of an Hour”, Chopin writes about many of the real life concerns that are a focus to feminism, not limited to the purpose and views of a woman’s inability to have an identity outside of her family and the right of a woman to have her own interests. Even though this story is controversial that Mrs. Mallard feels excited after learning that her husband is dead, the reader can still relate with Mrs. Mallard’s and support her. Mrs.
Mallard's has a heart condition and all of her family and friends constantly tiptoe around her like a delicate flower. When her sister and her friend find out that her husband Mr. Mallard has been killed in a freak accident, they have to gently break the news to Mrs. Mallard about her husbands death. She then cries her eyes out and goes up to her room to be by herself and locks everyone out. She doesn't know how she is supposed to feel or react to losing her husband but in that moment of unsettling grief she finally realizes that she now can be free and do anything her heart desires. Even though she and her husband loved each other, and she's truly saddened by his death but at the same time she feels like herself and free for the first time. She begins to daydream about her new lease on life now that she can live like the woman she had apparently been suppressing. During Mrs. Mallard epiphany she comes out of her room all resolved and makes her way downstairs where her sister and friend are waiting and suddenly, Mr. Mallard comes home alive and when Mrs. Mallard sees him she for real just stops breathing and
dies. In "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman had settings similar of the Victorian Age which was against women and their simple freedoms, freedoms in which women belonged to their husbands and had no real purpose no money of their own, they had children, and kept house. Both of the protagonists inChopin's and Gilman's short stories are victims almost held hostage by society’ customs. These customs caused an inability for these women that they became mentally broken. When she finds out her husband is dead, Chopin's Mrs. Mallard face has "lines [that speak] repression," even tries to deny that she can now be free of all of the things she felt she had been denying herself from doing because she was a wife a because of her fear. Only after she locks herself in her room that Mrs. Mallard is able to escape her madness, saying repeatedly under her breath, "free, free, free!" The blank look and the look of hope that had followed after this realization from her eyes. Her heart had beaten fast but she was calm but when she goes down the stairs and Mr. Mallard walks through the door her short-lived freedom and undeniable joy is gone. Her freedom was so exhilarating and so extreme that she ultimately died from the realization of its total loss.
Just like Mrs. Mallard the unknown narrator in Gilman's story has the same subduing of her life. She was living with postpartum depression and was subjected to the unprecedented therapy offered by Dr. Weir Mitchell and confined to a tiny room away from any and everybody. The isolation is meant to cure her of her melancholia but the extroverted and whimsical mother is so isolated that she develops an even more dangerous side effect because psychosis and is destroyed mentally. Due to the secondary cause of their social repression in both of the stories settings, Mrs. Mallard and the woman of "The Yellow Wallpaper" are now mental prisoners and because of this even more damaging shock, Louis Mallard suffers a heart attack and the woman has becomes mad. Knowing that Louise Mallard had followed all of society's expectations put upon her because she was a girl in a mans world was the source of conflict in "The Story of an Hour".
Louise Mallard does everything expected of her by getting, keeping up the house and chores, by being submissive, and by appearing to be the perfect wife. The way in which she does NOT comply with her expectations is that women in that situation were thought to be blind lovers of their husbands: they were supposed to be their husband's biggest fans and lovers, putting the men of the household in an even higher position than society itself would place them. This was not the case with Louise. In fact, so much miserable she feels in her marriage that even her heart has been perhaps psychosomatically affected by the lackluster in her life. I know she had no other option. Society doesn't care about the wants and needs of women. The reason she was probably so miserable or not is not for society to fix, but for Louise to accept and live with. This is why, when Brentley was thought to be dead, Louise felt that moment of freedom. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. Therefore, we find in Louise a silent rebel who silently rejoiced in the possibility of her husband's death because her condition as a woman in her society was literally killing her softly.