Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a well written story about a fragile woman’s grieving process after she had received news of her husband’s death. Yet, it also depicts the role of women in the late 1800s and how they yearned for freedom. As you read, you can not only see, but you can feel the connection between women without freedom in the 1800s and the protagonist’s emotional stages. Chopin’s use of highly descriptive word choice, metaphorical statements, and intense imagery help the reader understand the character on a more emotional level.
When I read the title, I had little, if not any, clue about what the story was actually about, that’s what intrigued me to find out. This reading starts by introducing a woman by the name of Mrs.

At first, she begins grieving. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment.” She’s heartbroken at the thought of her lover being gone. As you keep reading, though, you find that she isn’t actually all that heartbroken. “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” A powerful feeling submerges from within as she begins to realize what she had received in her loss. “Free! Body and soul free!” No one can keep her from doing anything, she’s free and she enjoys it. Nearing the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard comes to find out that her husband never died, drops to the floor, and takes her last breath. This dramatic change of tone is so important is because it depicts exactly how almost all women may have felt circa 1800s and why we cannot let another time period like this repeat

You have to think about their lives beyond what’s written and think about any external forces. As I reread the story, I noticed that it never really says that she loved her husband, or how their relationship was. So, is it possible that Mrs. Mallard didn’t love her husband in the first place? What if her afflicted heart trouble first began upon marrying Mr. Mallard? Apart from becoming free after the loss of her husband, maybe his spousal mistreatment no longer existed as well. That could be another reason as to why she felt free. Asking questions similar to these will engage you into the story much more and help you to develop an even greater