Mrs. Mallard receiving news that her husband has passed away does not have the typical response the reader would think she will have. Just by reading this story the reader could tell that Mrs. Mallard is a bit strange, maybe it is because of what could have been happening in her marriage behind the senses or even something she could have been fighting senses her childhood. A critic states, “A woman with heart trouble dies — not when she hears of her husband’s death but when she discovers that he is still alive.”(Harris). Her character seems very unnatural and odd especially because of the conflict she is going through in her life. First of all, Mrs. Mallard does not have the same feelings/character some other women have when they hear about …show more content…
The story states, “She was young, with a fair, calm face… but now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought”(Chopin 2). Now reflecting on this quote I think that Mrs. Mallard was a young beautiful woman with pale and pretty face. Back in the Middle Ages they referred to a woman with a pale face as fair face, indicating that this story’s setting is from a while ago. Mrs. Mallard does not have the same feelings as the other women; instead she feels a form of suspense and intelligence which means she felt that something is possible and that she can start to apply knowledge to her own life without letting her husband or another human being control her. The story also stipulates, “She did not stop to ask if it were or were not monstrous joy that held her…But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely”(Chopin 2). The quote is pointing out that Mrs. Mallard is feeling a joy inside her she has not felt before. That Mrs. Mallard is looking into a future with happiness and joy seeing beyond the bit of sorrow she has for the death of her …show more content…
Mallard has a strange character; the conflict Mrs. Mallard is going through is quiet hard on her, its hard physically and emotionally as well. Mrs. Mallard sister Josephine informed Mrs. Mallard as gentle as possible, “knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her… The news of her husband’s death”(Chopin 1). The conflict Mrs. Mallard is going through is that if the news surprises her to much she could have a heart attack and die. Also the fact that Mrs. Mallard husband is dead is hard on her as well on her emotionally. The sad part is that Mrs. Mallard dies out of surprise, “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered… when the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills” (Chopin 2). What makes this quote so interesting is that the doctors have an enormous misunderstanding saying that Mrs. Mallard has died from the happiness of seeing Mr. Mallard, but in fact she dies from the surprise of not wanting to see him again. Mrs. Chopin says “Of the joy that kills” My understanding of this phrase is that Mrs. Mallard was feeling such an amazing feeling that when she comes back down to earth and sees that the thing that was hunting her kills her in an
The struggle the other characters face in telling Mrs. Mallard of the news of her husband's death is an important demonstration of their initial perception of her strength. Through careful use of diction, Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as dependent. In mentioning her "heart trouble" (12) Chopin suggests that Mrs. Mallard is fragile. Consequently, Josephine's character supports this misconception as she speaks of the accident in broken sentences, and Richards provides little in the way of benefiting the situation. In using excess caution in approaching the elderly woman, Mrs. Mallard is given little opportunity to exhibit her strength. Clearly the caution taken towards Mrs. Mallard is significant in that it shows the reader the perception others have of her. The initial description the author provides readers with creates a picture that Mrs. Mallard is on the brink of death.
Mallard, like anyone in a dependent relationship, felt trapped. Particularly in nineteenth-century America, when it was seen as a person’s social calling to find a spouse and settle down rather early in life, many of those people (especially women) did not have lives outside their own, and would have been shunned if they divorced broke away from the social norm. Even Chopin, as cavalier as she was for her time, couldn’t resist the compulsion to marry young, at twenty years of age, and settle down. The last line of “The Story of an Hour”, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills” (Chopin 3) highlights this point with the poignant use of irony. Mrs. Mallard did not die from the “joy that kills”, the bliss of seeing her husband once again, as society would have mandated. Instead she died from her unwillingness to return to the day-to-day drudgery of living as the lesser half of one married
Another example of how Mrs. Mallard was more uplifted than brought down by the news of her husband?s death is the description of the window. As Mrs. Mallard looks out, Chopin explains?she could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all a quiver with new life?. This is telling the reader about the new life that Mrs. Mallard can see in the distance, that symbolizes the new life she saw that lay ahead of her now that she was free of her husband. This thought was supported by Hicks in saying "The revelation of freedom occurs in the bedroom"
Mallard had a love/hate relationship with her husband. She loved him dearly, but it was very apparent that in some ways she did not always like him very much and that showed in her actions after she found out he died. “She knew she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her; fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” (Chopin in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl & Schakel, 2013, p. 60-61). That clip leads you to believe that the husband sometimes looked at her as if he did not love her also. Mrs. Mallard makes it very clear that is sad that he has died, but is not sad that she is “free” from him. “And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! “Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.” (Chopin in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl & Schakel, 2013, p. 61). From the story you cannot tell why Mrs. Mallard feels the way that she feels about her husband, but whatever the reason is, she was very happy to get away from it and start her new life, husband
is also oppressed by the circumstances within her marriage. Mrs. Mallard however suppressed her feelings and of unhappiness and in which the story implies puts stress on her heart. The announcement of her husband death brings on conflicting feelings of grief and joy. Mrs. Mallard paradoxical statement about the death of her husband changes her perception about life. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
The story begins on a very sad note especially in the eyes of a reader. Mrs. Mallard is said to have a “heart
Mrs. Mallard was at first overjoyed with freedom because her husband was supposedly “dead,” yet at the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard comes face to face with Mr. Mallard. A whole new wave of emotions overcame Mrs. Mallard as she laid eyes on her husband instantly killing her from “a heart disease-of joy that kills.” It is ironic how Mrs. Mallard is overjoyed about her husband’s death, and she ended up dying because she found out he was alive instead. Her joy literally was killed, killing her on the inside as
Kate Chopin’s story, "The Story of an Hour," may seem to be about Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected and ironic reactions to the news of her husband’s untimely death due to a railroad disaster. At least that’s what I thought when I read the story. It seemed to me that she led a normal life with a normal marriage. She had a stable home life with a kind, loving husband who cared for her. She seemed to love him, sometimes. She had some kind of "heart trouble" (Chopin 25) that didn’t really affect her physically, until the very end. I thought Mrs. Mallard would have been saddened and filled with grief for an adequate period of time after her spouse died, but her grief passed quickly, and she embraced a new life that she seemed to be content with. Therefore I believe there is good evidence that Mrs. Mallard was an ungrateful woman who did not appreciate her husband or his love for her. That evidence is found in her selfish behavior after the death of her husband, Brently Mallard.
Mallard states that she is going to live her new life independently now that Mr. Mallard is gone; she accepts her newfound freedom and believes that she is now an independent woman. Mrs. Mallard was oppressed by Mr. Mallard, and Chopin hints at this oppression: “Chopin seems to be making a comment on nineteenth-century marriages, which granted one person - the man - right to own and dominate another - the woman,” (“The Story of an Hour” 266). The men and women should be treated equally in marriage and should be free, which relates to Mrs. Mallard feeling oppressed by Mr. Mallard. She realizes that she was below her husband her whole married life: “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (Chopin 645). Her inferiority to her husband controlled her; his death allows her to start over as an independent being. Mrs. Mallard is known to have heart trouble, but readers do not understand what that trouble is until they soon find out: “Later, when we see Mrs. Mallard ‘warmed and relaxed,’ we realize that the problem with her heart is that her marriage has not allowed her to ‘live for herself,’” (Hicks 269). The readers find out that Mrs. Mallard’s mystery heart trouble dealt with her being confined by Mr. Mallard in marriage, which she soon turns away from. Mrs. Mallard’s internal struggle is caused by rushing into marriage; she did not develop herself before developing a relationship with someone else, such as Mr. Mallard: “Love is not a substitute for selfhood; indeed selfhood is love’s pre-condition,” (Ewell 273). Mrs. Mallard may have felt constrained by Mr. Mallard in her marriage because she did not know herself before. If she had known herself before the marriage, she would have known her own constraints and opinions, instead of feeling oppressed by Mr. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard accepts her freedom and independence. She decides to live
Not attempting to hide, Mrs. Mallard knows that she will weep at her husbands funeral, however she can’t help this sudden feeling of seeing, “beyond [the] bitter moment [of] procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin, 16). In an unloving marriage of this time, women were trapped in their roles until they were freed by the death of their husbands. Although Mrs. Mallard claims that her husband was kind and loving, she can’t help the sudden spark of joy of her new freedom. This is her view on the release of her oppression from her roles of being a dutiful wife to her husband. Altogether, Mrs. Mallard claims that, “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” (Chopin, 16). This is the most important of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, as she never officially states a specific way when her husband oppressed her. However, the audience can clearly suggest that this is a hint towards marriage in general that it suffocates both men and women. Marriage is an equal partnership in which compromise and communication become the dominant ideals to make the marriage better. It is suggested that Mrs. Mallard also oppressed her husband just as much as he did to her when she sinks into the armchair and is, “pressed down by a physical exhaustion
Mallard’s emotions over the presumed death of her husband. The author used both dramatic and situational irony to mislead the reader and surprise them with a plot twist ending. By utilizing both external and internal conflict the author expresses the internal debate of Mrs. Mallard’s true feelings and those of the people around her. The author used symbolism to display Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom from her marriage. In the end it was not joy that killed Mrs. Mallard but the realization that she lost her
Mallard at the end of the story stands for the suffrage of women during this time to be free. She would rather die than lose her newfound freedom. Chopin’s biography before the story states “[t]he loss of her husband, however, led to her assuming responsibilities…Eventually devoting herself entirely to writing” (30). Her success was found only after she was free from her marriage; Chopin herself could have been hinting to the fact the she would have rather died than lose her own freedom. Chopin also uses the heart condition to kill Mrs. Mallard. She writes “the doctors…said she had died of a heart disease—of the joy that kills” (32). The metaphor of the heart condition standing for the weakness put on women returns with her husband. She is no longer strong and free; she is weak and trapped by her marriage. Chopin uses this purposely to show that women are weak in marriage and need to be set
Mallard. Her self-assertion surpassed the years they were married and the love she had for him. She is beginning to realize she can now live for and focus on herself. The text insists “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. 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.” (Chopin 477.) Finally she can live freely and no longer worry about being confined in her marriage and inside her own home. She has come to realization that she is now independent and can think freely and achieves happiness and freedom. She is no longer held down or back by her marriage. She will no longer be someone’s possession she will be free and respected. Her husband Brently returns and he is alive the happiness and freedom she once possessed briefly with the mere image of her deceased husband were quickly torn away. “When the doctors came they said she died of heart disease of joy that kills” (Chopin 477). She was free but still confined without the knowledge of her husband who wasn’t dead. Chopin illustrates at the end that she was free because joy killed her. She was joyous because she was finally set free but she is now once again confined by the grief knowing her husband was not killed
Character Analysis of Mrs. Mallard in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour Mrs. Mallard Chopn’s main character in “The Story of an Hour”, has under gone the loss of her husband Mr. Mallard. The story depicts that she has been contemplating through different feeling about the situation. Mrs. Mallard may start off as a timed wife, however through the death of her husband sorrow and sadness turns to freedom and respite.
The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.