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The story of an hour by Kate Chopin
The story of an hour by Kate Chopin
The story of an hour by Kate Chopin
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An Hour of Freedom December of 1894 Kate Chopin published "The Story of an Hour". The main character Louise Mallard is a wife during this time period and could be described as a suppressed, fragile, and unconfident woman due to the world she lives in. Mrs. Mallard lives in a male-dominated world where it is difficult to find female independence. Once Mrs. Mallard hears that her husband has supposedly died, "The Story of an Hour" becomes a Person versus Person as well as Person versus Society tale. Chopin undoubtedly gets her point across throughout the development of Mrs. Mallard in the only hour the readers know her.
Considering the story is only an hour long there is much development in Mrs. Mallard who starts out as a repressed and unconfident housewife that was typical for this time period. Considering she has a heart condition, Mrs. Mallard is viewed as a fragile creature. When she is told that her husband is dead Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room to mourn her husband as was deemed appropriate for the times. During the next hour, readers enter Mrs.
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Mallard's thought process but by using the conclusion of the story as well. The theme is made clearest when she does not die of grief over the supposed death of her husband; but instead, grief over the loss of her independence and freedom when her husband death proves to be untrue. Once Mr. Mallard came back, Mrs. Mallard knew that everything she had just discovered would be gone. She knew that he would not allow her the freedom she had just discovered. The loss of that new found freedom broke her heart more than the death of her husband. Freedom was her true desire. Mrs. Mallard had accepted the joy independence gave her and recognized the strength that freedom gave her. The realization that she truly wanted that joy and strength hits her once she sees her husband. She would rather die than live without this newfound
Mrs. Mallard in 'The story of an hour', is a woman that has had to live her life composed and in control as the wife of her husband, Brently Mallard. Chopin details Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the news of her husband's death with convolted emotions that were considered appropraite and yet horrifying to the reader. At the end of the story, her death came as no surprise.
Mrs. Mallard is sad, when Richards tells her that her husband has been “kill”, but when she is by herself she realize that she is free. She is happy and she stars murmuring to herself about the body and the soul being free. Before she starts murmuring the narrator describes her as she notices “something coming to her,” and she tries “to beat it back with her will.” This an
In her room Mrs Mallard sinks into a roomy armchair, and when she looks outside her window she sees “the tops of trees in the open square before her house, and they are all aquiver with the new spring life”. “The delicious breath of rain was in the air and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves”. This indicates that Mrs Mallard isn’t mourning at all. She senses positive vibrations and starts to taste her freedom. Freedom is an unfamiliar feeling to Mrs Mallard. But suddenly she begins to recognize the feeling and she is repeting the word “free” to herself over and over again.
Mrs. Mallard’s happiness was in fact, the cause of her death. This death, arrived out of shock that her weak heart could not handle. The arrival of her husband who was the cause of her new-found freedom caused her death. Mrs. Mallard’s death could be seen as the ultimate freedom from her unhappy marriage. Though her life ends in an extremely ironic manner, Mrs. Mallard does in fact finally escape the restrictions of her old life, not merely upon the hour before Brently Mallard’s arrival but in the end for eternity.
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.
In the story, The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard and all her actions and surroundings are used as symbolism .At the beginning of the story; Mrs. Mallard had heart conditions, so what they did to explain the tragic death of her husband to her. Was that they kept her as comfortable as they could and released the news to her little by little, and also gave her hints in order for her not to know by the harsh way, notified by the newspaper office in which the husband of her sister worked at currently.
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 is and unusual character, therefore it makes since that she would develop an unusual response to a situation, such as, her husband passing. Mrs. Mallard states that she is free after receiving the news of he husbands death. This response to me is shocking in the sense of what marriage is about and what it is supposed to mean to both people connected to the relationship. Mrs. Mallard most likely acted in this manner because she was unhappy in her marriage and this was an easy escape for her. This story took place and was written in 1894, which was in the time period of not getting divorce. If you married someone you stayed with them until one of you passed away. The death of her husband is relieving because it is a way out of her painful
At the end, Mrs. Mallard was in sudden shock about her husband not being dead killing her with joy. The ironic part about the story was that she was relieved to be free from the thought husband deaf. And later knowing about his falsify death an hour of meditating gave her a heart attack of “joy” freeing her still of her marriage from over thinking about no longer seeing her
Throughout Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” there are different amounts of settings that are revealed as more of the plot is revealed. A setting can and does exists in every form of fiction such as in this short story. They represent place, elements of time and social context. These elements that I just mentioned create particular moods, qualities in characters and different forms of themes. This particular short story deals with the ying and the yang of the emotions of a young woman. She discovered her independence in her husband’s death, then it was the “tragic” discovery that in reality her husband was still alive. There are certain factors of the setting that reveal certain characteristics about Louise Mallard, whom is one of the main characters. The meat of this story takes place in the spring of the 1890’s, in a timeframe of about an hour, and in a house that belonged to the Mallards. This is extremely significant to the meaning of the story.
Mallard and her husband to present how true feelings are hidden. This is shown to tell the reason why Mrs. Mallard feels glad and free as a result of her husband's death. After realizing her freedom, she senses that
Mrs. Mallard does not like this type of relationship but stays. One day Mr. Mallard is said to be dead to his wife by her sister and his friend. Mrs. Mallard does not act the typical, sad and weeping as she cries, but instead she cries excitedly because she is so happy that she has finally found her freedom from her despiteful marriage. The thought of doing things herself, making her own decisions, and have no responsibilities make her feel happy even though it feels surreal. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression.” At this time, Mrs. Mallard had disbelief that her time to freedom has come. She was so surprised that she was emotionless of it all. There is a huge sock that eventually kills Mrs. Mallard that they tried to prevent at the beginning of the story which is that Mr. Mallard is indeed, still alive. She is not free and she dies from the shock and unhappiness she will continue to be. She died from the despair of her husband still being alive which caused her to have a heart attack. In the late 1800s, women were still looked down as belongings to the men. Mrs. Mallard played the role of belonging to her husband. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” Her husband made all of her decisions for her and she did not like it but did not have a word in this type of relationship. Mr. Mallard was
I read a story, after I finished reading it my mind was still reeling over what I had just read. Stories like this are quite impressive magnificent; they draw the reader into the story and leave them with a strong impact. How we interpret a text is in itself impressive, as every person is different, every interpretation is too. As I read “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, I could not help but notice that Kate Chopin uses the window to symbolize the future that Mrs. Mallard has been pinning for all her life. Chopin also uses Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition as a symbol of Mrs. Mallard’s marriage. The short story is consequentially the story of an oppressed woman who had to confine herself to the social norms of marriage. Through Formalism Criticism, we will explore the various symbols that Chopin uses to describe how Mrs. Mallard yearns for freedom, and through the Feminist Criticism, we will explore how the institution of marriage oppresses our heroin.
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.
We, as the readers, only get a glimpse at these people’s lives. But we can see the story behind it. Mrs. Mallard had loved Mr. Mallard at some point, she admits as much. At some point that love was lost because Mr. Mallard suffocated his wife’s will/her emotions. We don’t see how he did this but the sister, the friend, and everyone else seem oblivious to this. But it wasn’t all ultimately for nothing. Her weakness, her poor health saved her. The whole story focuses on her heart and how it can’t be overburdened, but the thing that kills her is the thought of freedom to choose her future getting taken away from her. It is that behind the scenes, between the lines, relationship that is so important. It was a pain that was so horrible and so hidden that everyone mistook it for joy. All of this makes her death freeing because once her husband is shown alive that is her only way