Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

"The Story of an Hour" is a short story written by Kate Chopin one of the first feminist authors of the 20th century. In this short story she presents an exceptional view of marriage. Mrs. Louis Mallard is the main character after her husband’s dead, she only experiences freedom rather than misery and loneliness. Later, when Mrs. Mallard receives the news that her husband, Brently, still lives, her hope of freedom is completely gone. The devastating disappointment kills Mrs. Mallard. This story was published in the late eighteen hundreds and the harsh way of marriage in "The Story of an Hour" may well be a reflection of that era! Though the author (Chopin) relates Mrs. Mallard's story but she does not do that in first person.

This story was written in 1894 which during this time, being a woman meant being a housewife and being a housewife meant that you depend on your husband. The narrator makes us imagine how Mrs. Mallard life with her husband was. “There stood, facing the open window “(1). As she explains the view of the outside window is installing a new life a new era for her .Mrs. Mallard is held back in her marriage. The lines of her face; her expression “bespoke repression” (2). When Mrs. Mallard knew of her husband's death, in that moment she knew that "There would be no powerful will bending her"(2). There will be no men (husband) who trusts he has the "right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature"(2). Bentley had only ever looked at Mrs. Mallard with love.This information implies to the reader that Bentley is not a bad man; he only believes that it is his right to direct her in everything she does that was usual during that time. When Mrs. Mallard knew of her husband's death, she realizes that he will no longer be there to curb her; there will be no one, to direct her or love her, save her. At that point, in a devastating bowl, everything she has realized and begun to look forward to is stolen from her