The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

Kelly Tran
Professor Newcomb
English 2201 Section 016
October 8, 2014
One Dramatic and Tragic Hour of a Woman
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin In this short story—literally because the story happened within an hour, Kate Chopin manages to let her readers contemplate on the roles of women, more particularly in a marital status. Chopin delivers her point by creating a story about how a woman deals with the death of her spouse. This situation gives readers a prediction, and that is how the widow will mourn for her husband or how she cannot live without him because a woman needs a man to be structured, simply by the way society depicts women. The story takes an unexpected turn when the woman feels a slight and strange joy that overwhelms
her. As Chopin describes it, “a monstrous joy” that will soon be the death of her (Kate Chopin). Chopin left her audience with a sense of irony; moreover, she included many symbols, imagery, as well as themes in this story. The story starts off by foreshadowing the death of the main character, Louise Mallard of having heart trouble. Death is a theme that circulates throughout the story and lasted to the very end. During the story, Louise is grieving over the news that her husband had died; however, minutes later she looks at his accident as a good thing. With her new and altered perception of death, it seems as though she thinks that death is the answer to her dreadful obligation of a marriage lifestyle. Louise says, “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” (Kate Chopin). Louise felt trapped as a wife and because her husband has died, she can now be free. Although some may argue that she is not oppressed because of her husband, but because of her heart disease. This restricts her and prevents her from being fully independent. Freedom is a relevant topic discussed in this story because she repeats the word free through half of the story. “She said it over and over under her breath: free, free, free” (Kate Chopin). She began imagining and fantasizing her independence and how it would be like years later. Louise has a deep passion for being her own self at her own will. There are many objects Chopin used to symbolized Louise’s little to none freedom.
For example, the open window that Louise stares out of while she soaks in the horrible news that she had just received. The window shows how enclosed she is within her own home, and it seems that she spends most of her time at this window. While she observes the outside world, she saw “tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life…delicious breath of rain was in the air…patches of blue sky showing here and there” (Kate Chopin). This immediately refers to how Louise will cope with her husband’s death. The rain indicates that the atmosphere was gloomy or the idea of death; however, the setting has changed when the blue sky appears which is the acceptance of her husband’s death or inner peace. The trees that are moving with new life are symbolic of Louise’s soon to be changed life that she has now proclaimed. Chopin merely touches on youth when she describes Louise’s realization of her chance for a new life. This is an important detail because Chopin wants to emphasize that since Louise is young, she should not waste it on being aidless and inferior. She can have a whole entire life to herself and to live however she wants to
live.
During the story Chopin never explained why Louise’s husband didn’t die how he was supposed too, and she has left it opened for interpretation for her audience. As a reader, it could be that he was cheating on her. Usually in society, when a woman has grown ill, the man grows less attractive to the woman and would eventually cheat on her. It may not be the case, but it was odd that he was not on the train and there were no explanation. In addition, his friend even checked twice before confirming that Louise’s has died.
Furthermore, because this story was written in 1894 during the time where women had minimal rights and they were considered the inferior gender.
They were not allowed to marry whom they want nor did they had a voice to say what they pleased. It may have been why Chopin chose to kill off Louise how she did because Louise had died right when he let her sister in her room—dying before she did say anything. Louise never got to say what she wanted to say. This explains the vibe of Chopin’s story. Louise may have wanted to explore more of her life, but in the 18th century women were mostly secluded to being a housewife. Chopin was alive in this era, and the story may have been influenced by her own feelings on women rights. As a reader, it seem normal that married women sometime feel that death is the only solution to break free other than divorce, but divorce can mean shame and disgrace. Especially in the 18th century, divorce can give a bad reputation for a lady. Louise she may have been too scared to divorce because of how society will judge
her.
In the end, she spent her last 20 minutes or so visualizing about her future until she collapsed in her sister’s arm and died. However, in that same time frame, it turns out that her husband did not did in the train wreck and was at the door the very second she collapsed. When doctors came they said that Louise had died from joy. Her sister, friend, and husband is either left to wonder if she had died because her husband had died or that he had come home alive.

Work Cited
Chopin, Kate, and Kate Chopin. The Story of an Hour. Logan, IA: Perfection Learning, 2001. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.