Control In The Story Of An Hour

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A male controlled every facet of a woman’s life in the Victorian Era; in marriage, it was the husband who held this control. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” it tells the story of an hour in a woman’s life as she experiences an emotional event. Louise Mallard is a woman who has been living under the control of her husband Brently Mallard in what she feels is an enslaved marriage. In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin compels readers to sympathize with Mrs. Mallard by depicting her feelings as she learns the news of her husband’s sudden death. From her first feeling of grief, to her surprising joy, and lastly to her long desired freedom, Mrs. Mallard is transfigured from a trapped housewife to a freed woman.
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Chopin writes “The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. The coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (116). Louise could relax because she was finally free from her husbands rule and dominance he had over her. Her heart is beating fast, showing that Louise feels her new freedom not only emotionally, but also physically. She spread her arms open, and says, “Body and soul free!” (116). She repeats this over and over to herself, showing that her new freedom is for her and that she is no longer dependent on her husband. At his point in the story, she is known as Louise, not Mrs. Mallard, her husband’s name. She can live totally for herself and be independent for the first time ever. Unfortunately, in a shocking twist of events, someone is heard at the door, and in walks her husband, alive and well. The sight of her husband causes her heart to stop. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills” (117). How sad it is that she could only be independent and free for one hour of her life. And even after she dies at the sight of her husband, they assume that she died from the joy of seeing him. No one will ever know the truth of how trapped she felt in her marriage and her life. It is a shame that she did not get to live her life the way she wanted “Free! Body and soul free!”

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