The mysteries of love, hate, and compassion are all part of marriage. The mysteries of the heart are felt in the short story, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin (Clugston, 2010, sec 2.1). This story pulls you in with the suspense of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition and the idea of her husband’s death. When you first begin to read this story you get a feeling of compassion for Mrs. Mallard having a heart condition. As the reader you receive sadness within you to know the revealing of her husband’s death may harm her in some way, only to find out that love isn’t that simple and maybe it was the news of her husband being alive that killed her.
In this story the narrator focuses on how Mrs. Mallard copes with the death of her husband. The plot defines to the reader what happens in a story by how she reacts to the news of her husband just being killed in a train accident. Looking deeper into this story the theme shows you her underlying feelings demonstration of the impression behind the story by showing almost relief and freedom, through the utilization of different symbols and tones. On the surface you see details such as the phrase “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same” (Clugston, 2010, sec 2.1). This phrase sets a tone of sadness and question of why she took the news so differently than many other women.
When first reading this short story the character of an older woman comes to mind only to find later in an important passage “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength (Clugston, 2010, sec 2.1). This passage finally gives the reader a detailing idea of the woman in this story and defines her as a younger woman rather than an older one. This may l...
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All readers will read and interpret this story in their own way based on their life and their knowledge of marriage. One thing that is indisputable is the emotions which carry through all people and the empowerment in which marriage has on these inspirations. In life love can renew one spirit as well as kill the passion of a person.
References
Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/h2.1
Daniel P Deneau. (2003). Chopin's, The Story of an Hour. The Explicator, 61(4), 210-213. Retrieved October 6, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 419206431). http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=3&did=419206431&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1317923613&clientId=74379
Deneau, Daniel P. "Chopin's the Story of an Hour." The Explicator 61.4 (2003): 210-3. ProQuest. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
described from the outside quite differently since she is “young with a fair, calm face” and has “two white slender hands.” (Choplin 15). Now that Mrs. Mallard has lost her own life and is truly freed from all the world , that doctors would say that the powerful feeling of happiness overpowered her struggle for freedom.
Kate Chopin’s story, "The Story of an Hour," may seem to be about Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected and ironic reactions to the news of her husband’s untimely death due to a railroad disaster. At least that’s what I thought when I read the story. It seemed to me that she led a normal life with a normal marriage. She had a stable home life with a kind, loving husband who cared for her. She seemed to love him, sometimes. She had some kind of "heart trouble" (Chopin 25) that didn’t really affect her physically, until the very end. I thought Mrs. Mallard would have been saddened and filled with grief for an adequate period of time after her spouse died, but her grief passed quickly, and she embraced a new life that she seemed to be content with. Therefore I believe there is good evidence that Mrs. Mallard was an ungrateful woman who did not appreciate her husband or his love for her. That evidence is found in her selfish behavior after the death of her husband, Brently Mallard.
She is now told her husband died so she runs to her bedroom to be left alone. While her sister and family friend are downstairs feeling sorry for her and thinking she is destroyed, Mrs. Mallard comes upon an unsuspected feeling that she is now “free.” Since this story was written in 1894, which was a very tough ti...
Louise Mallard is a woman who enjoys freedom and independence. She feels soaring relief and fiery triumph upon realizing that, yes, she is finally free. She is free of the weighted ropes of marriage. She fantasizes of her days ahead, living for herself and only herself. “A kind intention or cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination” (Chopin 234). She views the imposing of one’s will on another person as a crime, no matter the intention behind it. She has a taste of freedom after Mr. Mallard’s death and can finally see days without stress ahead of her. Prior to her husband’s death, young Mrs. Mallard feels tied down and even oppressed. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 233). Despite the typical oppression of women throughout the centuries prior to the 1920s, Mrs. Mallard possesses a free spirit.
The struggle the other characters face in telling Mrs. Mallard of the news of her husband's death is an important demonstration of their initial perception of her strength. Through careful use of diction, Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as dependent. In mentioning her "heart trouble" (12) Chopin suggests that Mrs. Mallard is fragile. Consequently, Josephine's character supports this misconception as she speaks of the accident in broken sentences, and Richards provides little in the way of benefiting the situation. In using excess caution in approaching the elderly woman, Mrs. Mallard is given little opportunity to exhibit her strength. Clearly the caution taken towards Mrs. Mallard is significant in that it shows the reader the perception others have of her. The initial description the author provides readers with creates a picture that Mrs. Mallard is on the brink of death.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 4th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: St. Martins, 1997. 12-15.
Chopin, Kate. A. “The Story of an Hour.” Baym 1609-1611.
In conclusion the three themes of Freedom, Oppression and Repression are major factors in the two stories, all three of the themes appearing in distinct ways. By comparing the position of both Jane and Mrs. Mallard in the two stories both in their own particular way are oppressed or subjugated by other males, in this case their husbands, even though their husbands often want to do what they feel is best for them. This leaves both tales open to examination in terms of the issue of patriarchy and how often women are its victims. It is also sure to say that Freedom, Oppression and Repression were very much commonly seen in the 19th century since both stories were written in about that time and both share these
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.
In her stories "The Storm" and "The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin explores the theme of feminist women. The type of women in Kate Chopin’s stories would be considered protagonist women. Since the nineteenth century and today she has been explored more over time. Living in the south with family from French (Creole) with Irish background made it more interesting. Kate Chopin is a communal towards discrimination and sexual subtlety of the Cajun and Creole culture. Where she lived the majority of the time makes her one of the outstanding Southern fiction regionalist profound writer for feminist women.
Literature can be defined as large works of words and stories that have become classics over time. It comes from the Latin term littera, meaning letter, which is in support of Literature being written, although some are oral. Literature writings can be written in the form of poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. Those writings can include a specific type of language, period, people, particular subject, and even literary devices. Some examples of literary devices are irony, metaphor, mood, alliteration, and motif. So could The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, a fiction story, be defined as literature? Well this fictional story did become a classic over time having a particular subject(meaning) during a certain time period involving
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.
That shows us how love can turn on the insanity of human. In “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard felt joyful but not depressed after her husband died since she can get freedom from this. That shows us how love kill and bury romance of relationship. Therefore, people think marriage is the graveyard of the romance and I think this is true after I read these stories since there are strong examples in these stories and make me think why people still maintain this system even they afraid of