A Comparison of The Story Of An Hour by K. Chopin and the Red Room by H.G. Wells
I have read two short stories from the nineteenth century which both
contain tension and suspense. They both lead up to a sense of the
unexpected at the end however it is achieved in different ways that
they are told.
The Story Of An Hour is the shorter of the two. The story starts
suddenly and a tragedy is introduced immediately. The opening
paragraph is very short as it is only one sentence but a lot of
information is given to the reader. It is written in third-person
narrative, which shows that the reader will be able to know things
that other characters don't. Two characters are brought into the
story, Mrs Mallard and her husband. We are also told that her husband
had died and that she has been suffering with 'heart trouble', 'Mrs
Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to
break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death'.
This builds up the tension and suspense and makes the reader think
that something is going to happen to her or that she could have more
trouble following his death. The reader is drawn into the story as the
tragedy shows that there could be sadness or misery. The detailed
opening encourages images and ideas of how the story is going to
progress, making the reader feel that a tragedy is to follow.
The Story Of An Hour is set in Mrs Mallard's house and as it continues
the setting is moved to her room for a large section of the story. At
the beginning, the setting is not obvious as the action starts
suddenly without an explanation as to where the characters are.
However in the third para...
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...ich give a biased view of them.
The narrator in The Story Of An Hour does not express their views on
the characters or events.
The other characters are not named, there is a 'man with the withered
arm', 'the old woman' who had 'her pale eyes wide open' and 'a second
old man' who was 'more bent, more wrinkled', 'more aged' and had a
shade over his eye. The narrator presents these characters to be
mysterious and disturbing, such features add to the sense of mystery.
These characters try to give him advice but he acts against it.
After reading The Red Room, I prefer The Story Of An Hour because,
although The Red Room is more surreal and mysterious, The Story Of An
Hour has a more satisfying ending. The Red Room is much more
descriptive and H.G Wells exaggerates the characters and the setting
to add to the tension.
After reading The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin, Daniel Deneau remarkably breaks down and analyzes the most intense aspects of the short story. Deneau acknowledges simple things such as “the significance of the open window and the spring setting” along with more complex questions including what Mrs. Mallard went through to achieve her freedom. He also throws in a few of his own ideas which may or may not be true. Almost entirely agreeing with the interpretation Deneau has on The Story of An Hour, he brings stimulating questions to the surface which makes his analysis much more intricate.
The “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and ‘”The Hand” by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette are similar in theme and setting. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Kate Chopin create the theme of obligatory love and the unhappiness it entails. Both stories illustrate the concealed emotions many women feel in their marriage yet fail to express them. The two stories take place in a sacred room of the house and both transpire in a brief amount of time. The differences between the two stories are seen through the author’s choice of characters in each story. In “The story of an Hour” Kate Chopin involves other characters in Mrs. Mallard’s life, whereas, “The Hand” deals with marriage and togetherness and only involves the husband and wife. Symbolism is seen all throughout “The Hand” not so in ‘The Story of an Hour.” The similarities in “The Story of an Hour” and “The Hand” is portrayed in theme and setting. The differences are illustrated in the choice of characters involved in each story and the amount of symbolism depicted in the different stories.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. DiYanni Robert. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986. 38-41. Print.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Eds. Elizabeth M. Schaaf, Katherine A. Retan, and Joanne Diaz. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1997. 12-14. Print.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Backpack Literature. 4th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson: 2012. 168-170. Print.
An Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." Heritage of American Literature. Ed. James E. Miller. Vol. 2. Austin: Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1991. 487. Print.
Kate Chopin’s story “The Story of an Hour” focuses on a married woman who does not find happiness in her marriage. When she hears of her husband’s death, the woman does not grieve for long before relishing the idea of freedom. Chopin’s story is an example of realism because it describes a life that is not controlled by extreme forces. Her story is about a married nineteenth-century woman with no “startling accomplishments or immense abilities” (1271). Chopin stays true to reality and depicts a life that seems as though it could happen to any person. Frank Norris comments that realism is the “smaller details of every-day life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper, small passions, restricted emotions…” (1741). “A Story of an Hour” tells the tale of an unhappy married woman which is not an unrealistic or extreme occurrence. Chopin conveys in her short story the feeling of marriage as an undesired bondage to some married women in the nineteenth century.
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. 11th . New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 476-477. Print.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 4th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: St. Martins, 1997. 12-15.
In Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" the author portrays patriarchal oppression in the institution of marriage by telling the story of one fateful hour in the life of a married woman. Analyzing the work through feminist criticism, one can see the implications of masculine discourse.
“The Story of an Hour” is the story of Mrs. Louise Mallard who suffers of a weak heart. This being the first we know of Mr. Mallard, she is carefully being told that her husband had just passed away in a train accident. As every good wife should, Mrs. Mallard breaks out in grief. At first, the story goes, as it should. Then Mrs. Mallard goes into her room where she begins thinking, and her first thought is that she is free. Mrs. Mallard after years of being in an unhappy marriage is finally free to do what she wants, with no one to hold her back. Yet everything is against her, when she finally accepts that her life will begin now, her husband enters his home, unscathed and well, not having known that everyone thought him dead, a...
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” focuses on a woman named Louise Mallard and her reaction to finding out about her husband’s death. The descriptions that the author uses in the story have significance in the plot because they foreshadow the ending.
The main theme in “The Story of an Hour” is a woman’s freedom from oppression. Mrs. Mallard does not react accordingly to the news of her husband’s death; in the third paragraph it states, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment.” After her initial wave of shock and sadness has passed, however, she becomes elated with the thought of finally being free of her husband. Originally, she is described as being “pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body” and having lines that “bespoke repression”; in an attempt to be a perfect wife to a man whom she did not even love, Mrs. Mallard has been masking her true self. Once she realizes that she has finally gained the freedom that she has been longing for, Mrs. Mallard begins to