The "Story of an Hour," is about a woman's marriage around the mid 1800's. The main character finds out her husband is dead from a train accident. At the end of the story, the husband is not dead because he walks in to the house. Through characters, plot, and setting, Kate Chopin's story "The Story of an Hour," develops the idea that freedom is not what it seems.
First, Kate Chopin expresses the story through character. At the beginning, Mr. Mallard died a train accident, so Mrs. Mallad's friends came over to confront her over her husband's passing. At first, Mrs. Mallard was sad about her husband's death, but happiness came when she realized she was free from her husband. According to Chopin's story, Mrs. Mallard states, "Free! Body and soul free!" (62). Mrs. Mallard thought she was free, but when she saw her husband at the front door she suddenly died because shockingly she knew she was never free.
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The plot of the story shows how freedom is a very powerful force to women during this time. In the exposition, Mrs. Mallard has heart troubles, so her family and friends came to see about her over her husband's death. In the rising action, Mrs. Mallard was sad over her husband's death. In the conflict, Happiness came over Mrs. Mallard after his death because she knew she was free from him. In the falling action, Mrs. Mallard was making herself ill because she was obsessing over the fact that she was free and did not think she would ever feel that way. According to Chopin's story, the author states, "He had been far from the scene of the accident and did not even know there had been one." (62). In the resolution, Mrs. Mallad watches Mr. Mallad walk through the front door. She suddenly dies because she knew she was not free
The first sentence of the story clearly states: “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband 's death.” (REFERENCE) Consequently, she has a weak heart and the unexpected news could cause a dangerously deadly reaction. Also, while referring to the statement: “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.”(REFERENCE), gender relation is present. To elaborate, when Chopin wrote the story in 1894, women were submissive to men. Consequently, a woman could not be independant of her husband, thus being confined to her relationship, which foreshadows Mrs. Mallard’s death because her husband, who is considered more important and the head of the family, is already dead. Given her reality, Mrs. Mallard’s faith is
Mallard’s excitement towards her recent discovery of her deeply embedded desire for freedom accentuates the importance of women’s freedom in society. During the 1890’s, the time period in which this piece was written, most women experienced limited amounts of freedom in their lives, as they were bound to their husbands and other loved ones, and many of them were never truly able to extinguish their inner flame to pursue their dreams and live an unconstricted life. Luckily, today, many women are exceptionally independent, and very few struggle to realize their desire to live freely. Throughout the short story, “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Murray’s unhappiness towards her husband’s return and her realization for her longing for freedom exhibit Chopin’s desire to change women’s limited freedom in their relationships and general lives. As Tennessee Williams wisely noted, “Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long
Kate Chopin wrote a short story about women’s liberation in the 19. century. In “The Story of an Hour” we are introdused to Mrs Mallard who is told that her husband is dead. Mrs Mallard has got heart troubles, and therefore the sad news are brought to her carefully by her sister and her husband’s friend Richard. Mrs Mallard reacts with grief and she wants to be alone, so she locks herself into her room. At first, I got the impression that Mrs Mallard was sad because of her husband’s death. But as I kept on reading I understood that this wasn’t the case at all.
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, it talks about marriage and a woman’s life in the 1800’s. This story illustrates the stifling nature of a woman’s role during this time through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death. When Mrs. Mallard obtains news that her husband is dead, she is hurt after a brief moment and then she is delighted with the thought of freedom. This story shows how life was in the mid 1800’s and how women were treated around that time.
Mankind has been doing this since forever ago. Mrs. Mallard, although fictional, is one of those people. Chopin has made the reader think about what happened in the story and how it ties into real life. By Chopin using tone and imagery, the story gives off a certain feeling that a person can relate to. Mrs. Mallard is and will always be trapped in a terrible marriage that only in death, she will be free.
The perspective from which a story is told is crucial to the way the reader will interpret the main purpose. Kate Chopin goes on to explain that Mrs. Mallard has carefully been informed by her sister Josephine, about her husband’s accident and is now coming to the realization that she has obtained her freedom
Upon examining Freytag’s pyramid, I can see that the narrative does follow this diagrammatic representation of the story structure. From the inciting moment (Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble, and Mr. Mallards “death”) to the climax (Mrs. Mallards becoming of a free independent person) to the catastrophe (Mrs. Mallard’s death) we can follow Freytag’s design. The most interesting element to the story, following Freytag’s pyramid, is the reversal; Chopin surprises us in Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death. The reversal is Mrs. Mallard’s joyful acceptance of his death, her realization of freedom; the narrative twists the story to the exact opposite of what the reader was expecting. The reversal of the readers expectation is a much more effective way for Chopin to express her message. The element in the reversal also has the role of a function (an act defined by its significance for the course of action in which it appears). A death would usually be thought of as a tragedy, but once we start to gain insight on Mrs. Mallard’s character we can see why she responds with the opposite reaction. Another function within the story is the “joy that kills” it makes sense in this story, but in most you would see an immense joy at Mr. Mallard’s return, these circumstances would not often see a wife dying from, what I assume is, a miserable shock.
...Mallard’s death up to the reader’s own interpretation, but it seems that she is trying to secretly prove that women do not have to be dependent upon men. Chopin demonstrates throughout the literary work that women can possess joy without having a man by their side, which contradicts the beliefs of the 1800’s society. Chopin’s use of an ambiguous death and irony successfully create an entertaining story that courageously takes a stand for women’s freedom.
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
Kate Chopin's story, "The Story of an Hour", focuses on an 1890's young woman, Louise Mallard. She experienced a profound emotional change after she hears her husband's "death" and her life ends with her tragic discovery that he is actually alive. In this story, the author uses various techniques-settings, symbolism and irony- to demonstrate and develop the theme: Freedom is more important than love.
Mallard through the acts of forbidden joy and the oppression of marriages contributes to the understanding of the work and the time that it was written. The story opens with the reader knowing that Mrs. Mallard was, “afflicted with heart trouble” (Chopin, 15), suggesting a more symbolic notion that she is ambivalent towards her marriage and expresses her unhappiness towards he lack of freedom. Mrs. Mallard ultimately throughout the story questions the meaning of love and rejects it as meaningless. It is arguable to say that Chopin was influenced by women’s roles and other writings at the time, which contributed to her understanding of the meaning of love and courtship. This understanding could be said that it was altered and became more dejected. When Mrs. Mallard dies in the end of the story, it is ironic that she was to die of “heart disease.” This particular death proves that Chopin’s claims of the loss of joy and the return to oppression would kill a woman in this time since independence was a right to be given through the death of their husbands. Another symbolic figure that Chopin uses is the use of the open window, which Mrs. Mallard sees, “blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” (Chopin, 15). The window is Mrs. Mallard’s salvation, ultimately concluding that Chopin doesn’t see any other way for women to be free of their prison during this time. This window acts as a barrier between life and death itself. Once Mrs. Mallard turns away
Written by Kate Chopin, the short story “The Story of an Hour” follows Louise Mallard, a woman from the nineteenth century who has just received the news that her husband, Brently Mallard, has passed away in a horrific train accident. Immediately Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief and sorrow, but her mood quickly shifts when she realizes the independence and free-will she will now have. At the climax of her elation for the future, her husband walks through the door. Mrs. Mallard, shocked and speechless, dies of a heart attack. In the short story, "The Story of an Hour," author Kate Chopin utilizes symbolism, diction, and irony to emphasize the effects of Mrs. Mallard's newfound sense of freedom, and how that ultimately results in her death.
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
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin expresses many themes through her writing. The main themes of this short story are the joy independence brings, the oppression of marriage in nineteenth century America, and how fast life can change.