Symbolism: Catherine O Flaherty, By Kate Chopin

Research Paper
Kate Chopin was named Catherine O’Flaherty in St.Louis, where she was born on February 8, 1850. Chopin was brought up in a home dominated by women. Her father, a successful Irish businessman that died when she was five years old. Her mother was Eliza Faris came from a old French family that lived closely to St.Louis. Chopin spent her childhood in a attic constantly reading new books as well as being told stories about her great-great-grandmother who was a very successful person. Chopin had high hopes as being as or more successful as her great-great-grandmother.After attending an all girls school and moving on to college, she met Oscar Chopin, a french born cotton factor. They married in 1870 and had a total of six children.
The very beginning of the story gives the reader a strong depiction of who the protagonist of the story is, “in one definition”mallard” means male duck: Mrs.Mallard’s identity is certainly determined by the socially sanctioned prerogatives of the male, particularly the defining power to name.”(Emmert np.). When the death was diagnosed by doctors at the end, they said she had died of heart disease--”of joy that kills”(Emmert np.). Throughout the story, it is the thought of freedom and happiness that made her want to live past her husband's death, but when she finds her husband alive, it causes a grievance that kills her because of her heart
In “The Story of an Hour” there is much foreshadowing and metaphoric language that gives the reader a sense of what is going to happen later on in the story. Vivid imagery plays a big role too, it keeps the reader entertained and wanting to read more, it gives the characters more definition and the story more plot. The story has a dramatic ending that is caused by fatal self assertion, Mrs.Mallard is killed because the freedom she thought she has is abruptly taken away from her as soon as she gets