Kate Chopin, “ The Story of an Hour”
To be inconsistent with traditional communities beliefs it is hard for many to accomplish. Nevertheless, writer Kate Chopin fights that conflict to deliver the readers a few of the greatest thought vexing literature that a human can get their hands on. Applying to her improvement reflections of narrative stories, such as plot control, irony, and character development, Kate is capable to take the reader towards a world of feelings that humanity would despise. Chopin shows her unbelievable literary ability in “The Story of an Hour” by joining character development and plot, with her use of thought-provoking vocabulary and narrative irony.
The plot itself is taking
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an action generally in the mind of Mrs. Mallard, which causes necessary that the reader comprehends her personality and where thoughts are derived from. First of all, Mrs. Mallard is characterized as having heart trouble, and being a tender woman (Chopin 121). It is necessary for the plot, as it describes why her sister had good responsibility to announce the news to her. Again, She is also characterized as being “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 121). This is an important bit of material in understanding why she mourns only temporarily. Mrs. Mallard’s marriage did not grant her to show herself over any setting of dispensation with the omission of her senseless. She was not ever allowed to be ‘natural’ with her feelings or, to demonstrate or show her normal strength, however rather she had to withhold them. In addition to, to the plot, Mrs. Mallard holds off the freedom she senses at the beginning, because of her distinctive character of being weak, and help less to prevent them (Chopin 122). At the time, the feeling of independence gets in her mind she starts to characterize herself as a “goddess of Victory” (Chopin 123). For the first time in her marriage, Mrs. Mallard started, to feel good looking and attractive in light of her achievement over the fight of attitude that she had been downtrodden by. In the story she has her first chance to demonstrate her recent formed strength and beauty though she allows her sister in, to see the “triumph in her eyes” (Chopin 122). The combine of personality growth and plot is not only obvious in the case of primary character, but is as well found shortly in the case of Mr. Mallard. Kate Chopin writes “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. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime.” (Chopin 122). This is apart that the reader gets into Bentley Mallard’s character. Still, there is plenty of telling through this passage. He was commanding and demanding his discipline on her. Mallard was forceful and sightless to the fact that he was harming his wife. All the other insignificant personalities are left to the imagination of the reader, as they do not perform a major part in the plot. Important characteristic of Realism its use of irony. Chopin entertains with irony to bring surprise to the climax, along to embellish the depth of the story. There are various instances of this: first of, that Brentley’s friend Richard takes the time to prove his name with a second telegram, and at the end of the story it becomes obvious that he is not connected in the accident (Chopin 123). One more example of irony: “Her pulse beat fast, and then the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 122). In this sentence, it is sarcastic that it was blood, the significant image of life, it was giving energy to her, and later on her life ends. Other ironic mark is made in Mrs. Mallard’s reflection process: “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” (Chopin 122). Mallard’s prayer was responded, and when she realized it, she right away had a deadly heart attack. Additional to this irony of life and death, reader is challenged with one more and possibly the most powerful use of irony in this short story, it is the use of the word ‘joy’. It is used in Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts as a “monstrous joy” of having freedom from enslavement, and enjoying the remedy of life that is now so valued to her (Chopin 122). Next, its used by the doctors in the last line who foolishly state that she has died “of heart disease—of joy that kills” (Chopin 123). It’s ironic that it was not the happiness of seeing Mr. Mallard alive that destroyed her, but that of the horrible loss that she would not ever sense the monstrous joy she had felt previously. Writer, Kate Chopin produced a wonderful example of realism literature with the use of irony in this short story. Kate Chopin doesn’t admit the use of irony as her only tool to improve the dynamics of “The Story of an Hour”.
Kate also includes a mixture of tools such as narrative style, metaphors, and also thought provoking vocabulary that brings this story to life. Mrs. Mallard is described as having heart trouble (Chopin 123). One could argue that her ‘heart trouble’ wasn’t a physical condition, but more of a psychological and emotional condition transmitted from a horrible marriage. Kate Chopin also uses a large array of expressive words to bring to life the feelings that Mrs. Mallard is having about the death of her husband. Examples are seen throughout the text: “new spring life” “delicious breath of air” “blue sky showing through the clouds” “drinking in a very elixir of life” “summer days”. (Chopin 121-122). She too, uses the metaphor of an open window that she sits Mrs. Mallard in front of during the rise of the plot. Window is not just part of the setting, a window inside the mind and heat of the main character. It was her approach to a new excitement, new hopes, and new access to the coming years without Brently’s powerful controlling on her. Chopin has used all of these tools to her improvement to show the world a controversial look at a woman’s
feelings. All in all, in my opinion it took lots of years after this story was written for its popularity to grow into what it is today. In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin connects characters, irony, plot, and narrative expressiveness to make a literary product that is conceivable priceless in our society today.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Kelly J. Mays, ed. Portable 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 278-280. Print.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Eds. John Schilb, and John Clifford. 5th. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 705-706. Print.
Chopin reflects her rejection of the “postures of femininity” through her character’s descriptions. She describes her as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression.” Describing her as young and calm are what men looked for in a wife in the 19th century. They wanted a submissive woman to tend to their needs as Chopin’s description suggests. Furthermore, Chopin says of her character Mrs. Mallard, “she would live for herself.” Her character believes she will now be free of her marriage, and won’t be “repressed” as aforementioned any longer by her husband. Wives had a natural servitude towards their husbands as husbands worked and went about their lives. All in all, Chopin displays her character as having a joyous moment after the death of her husband because she is let go of being forced into her “femininity.”
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.
Chopin first shows the struggle by telling how Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, and friend, Richards, expect Mrs. Mallard to react to her husband’s death. Chopin starts the story by saying, “[k]nowing the Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (30). The heart condition introduced in the first line of the story is actually the weakness
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.
Another example of how Mrs. Mallard was more uplifted than brought down by the news of her husband?s death is the description of the window. As Mrs. Mallard looks out, Chopin explains?she could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all a quiver with new life?. This is telling the reader about the new life that Mrs. Mallard can see in the distance, that symbolizes the new life she saw that lay ahead of her now that she was free of her husband. This thought was supported by Hicks in saying "The revelation of freedom occurs in the bedroom"
Freedom is one of the most powerful words in the world because of the feeling it gives people. This idea is evident in Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour.” In the story, readers witness the effect freedom can have when the main character, Louise, finds out her husband had passed away. The story begins when Louise’s sister informs her that her husband had been in a terrible accident and he was dead. Once she gets over the immediate shock, she finds herself overwhelmed with joy because she was free to live her life for herself and not her husband. At the end of the story, her husband walks through the front door, and Louise has a heart attack and dies. In the story "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the power of freedom through the use of diction, point of view, and setting.
“The Story of an Hour” was a story set in a time dominated by men. During this time women were dependent on men, but they always dreamed of freedom. Most people still think that men should be dominant and in control. They think that without men, women can’t do anything and that they can’t be happy. Well this story has a twist.
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.
Cody Palladino Professor Regis English 113 March 8 2016 Literary analysis essay In the short story “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin she does an exquisite job using structural and stylistic techniques to enhance the drama in the hour. The tone, theme, and use of figurative language such as irony and symbolism is what sets this short story apart from others and make it extremely powerful. The author presents an almost never heard view of marriage. Chopin main character Mrs. Louise Mallard is faced with an unprecedented event finding out her husband, Brently Mallard was tragically killed working on the rail roads.
Using the adequate literary terms allows the author to easily express a theme and make their ideas and lessons more powerful. “The Story of an Hour,” shows how crucial it is for an author to use the most efficient point view. The well execution of third person omniscient allowed information in the story to flow and set the right mood for the plot. The continuous use of symbolism allowed the author to facilitate communication and the identification of ideas and other concepts for the reader. The tools that Chopin chose to use in her story, allowed her to intensify how important freedom becomes to someone in a
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
"The Story of an Hour," written by Kate Chopin on April 19th, 1894. The Story of an Hour took place in the nineteenth century in Louisiana. Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850. At the age of twenty she married a wealthy man by the name of Oscar Chopin who later died in a railroad accident. She was left to raise her six children on her own.
Everybody has a dawn of realization at some point in their life, whether that be from finally understanding a math problem that you have been struggling with, or finally grasping how simple it is to ride a bike. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” does just this with our main character Mrs. Mallard, but I wonder what she finally understands?