Essay On The Value Of Communication In Kate Chopin's Cathedral

671 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Demerits of effective communication

The value of good communication in relationships is very important. A story written by Kate Chopin known as, “The Story of an Hour” reveals a relationship between two people that can be interpreted unhealthy. The beauty of the story is that Chopin leaves out the details of their relationship and just shows the wife’s reaction to her husband dying. Chopin leaves you to make your own interpretation about there relationship. Another story written by Raymond Carver known as “Cathedral” takes a little different perspective on the value of communication. In this story we see a woman that seems to have a closed minded husband and he eventually opens up at the end of the story. In the story Cathedral the couples relationship together grows. These two stories, as much as they are different they are also similar in their own ways. Each story has it’s own unique way of showing the value of communication within a relationship. In “The Story of an Hour” The wife dies from the returning of her husband …show more content…

When Mrs. Mallard finds her husband passes she was only sad for a short time. Part of the idea that her relationship was unhealthy because she begins chanting after a short time, “ Free! Body and soul free!” (477). She starts seeing opportunities that she could have without him. The story notes that, “Yet she had loved him –sometimes” (477). Mrs. Mallard seemed to be taking her husbands death to well. When it turns out her husband was not dead and he comes through the door she dies of “Heart Disease” (477). It can be assumed several things. She was really excited he was back or she had already looked so far beyond him when he came back she could not make herself live with him. Him dying was her way out and an easy way that she would not have to confront him herself. The connection between the two individuals was not a very strong one. A relationship that made her wishes he was

Show More
Related

  • Archetypal Lens In The Story Of An Hour

    481 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard’s husband is thought to be dead, and since she has that thought in her mind she goes through many feelings

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Dialectical Journal

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    They hear the key turning in the front door and Mr. Mallard walks in the door. He was not on the train that he was always on, so he did not die, and it was only speculation from Richards that he had died. Mrs. Mallard was in shock when she saw her ‘dead’ husband walk through the door, and she died right then and there. The doctors said that she died from the “joy that kills”(Pg. 280). But it seems that is not true because she became glad that her husband had passed

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's The Storm and The Story of an Hour

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard?s freedom did not last but a few moments. Her reaction to the news of the death of her husband was not the way most people would have reacted. We do not know much about Mr. And Mrs. Mallards relationship. We gather from the text that her freedom must have been limited in some way for her to be feeling this way. Years ago women were expected to act a certain way and not to deviate from that. Mrs. Mallard could have been very young when she and Brently were married. She may not have had the opportunity to see the world through a liberated woman?s eyes and she thought now was her chance.

    Read More

  • Marriage And A Woman's Role In The 1800s

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    Back then, women had a no say in things and were not allowed to work. The men made all of the money, so marrying the only option for women. Divorce was not an option because with no money and no job, running away would prove to be pointless. Therefore, when her husband dies, she can finally break away from the role she is forced to play which is that of the perfect wife, and can stop holding herself back. In fact, after a brief moment of sorrow she is overjoyed with the sense of freedom and just as she is going to open the door and leave forever, Mr. Mallard opens the door very much alive.

    Read More

  • Story of an Hour

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the beginning of the story, we know that Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble. Why the author builds the central character with a heart disease? The heart trouble of Mrs. Mallard seems to be just an excuse, a reason for her death at the ending of the story. Is it really a physical disease or through the image of the heart affliction, the author wants to imply an inner suffering of a woman in her marriage life?

    Read More

  • Chopin’s The Story of an Hour

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard is an ill woman who is “afflicted with heart trouble” and had to be told very carefully by her sister and husband’s friend that her husband had died (1609). Her illness can be concluded to have been brought upon her by her marriage. She was under a great amount of stress from her unwillingness to be a part of the relationship. Before her marriage, she had a youthful glow, but now “there was a dull stare in her eyes” (1610). Being married to Mr. Mallard stifled the joy of life that she once had. When she realizes the implications of her husband’s death, she exclaims “Free! Body and soul free!” (1610). She feels as though a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and instead of grieving for him, she rejoices for herself. His death is seen as the beginn...

    Read More

  • Comparing The Lottery And The Story Of An Hour

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    She realizes that this is the benefit of her husband’s death. She has no one to live for in the coming years but herself. Moments after this revelation, her thought to be deceased husband walks through the front door. He had not died after all. The shock of his appearance kills Mrs. Mallard.

    Read More

  • Emotions Of Mrs. Mallard's The Story Of An Hour

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard was at first overjoyed with freedom because her husband was supposedly “dead,” yet at the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard comes face to face with Mr. Mallard. A whole new wave of emotions overcame Mrs. Mallard as she laid eyes on her husband instantly killing her from “a heart disease-of joy that kills.” It is ironic how Mrs. Mallard is overjoyed about her husband’s death, and she ended up dying because she found out he was alive instead. Her joy literally was killed, killing her on the inside as

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Analysis Essay

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • The Story Of An Hour

    512 Words  | 2 Pages

    “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arm’s”, shows that the tone was of despair and heartache. Though, as the sights and sounds of spring reveal themselves through the window, the tone dramatically changes to a tasteful, newfound youth. The thoughts of “delicious breath of rain” or “notes of a distant song” bring the feeling of livelihood to one. Then, the words “Free, free, free!”, express Mrs. Mallard’s realization that her life from now on is her own, and will not be succumbed to the needs and wishes of her husband. Her pulse increases and her chest rises with fervor, as she “recognizes this thing that was approaching to posses her”, which depicts how the tone, once again is about to change.

    Read More

  • The Secretary Chant's The Story Of An Hour

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    These stories were written well over a hundred years apart from each other, but still shine light on some of the same topics. The Story of an Hour features a woman married to a man who has just unexpectedly been killed. It details her immediate public and private reactions, while implying continuously how fragile her life is itself based on a medical condition involving her heart. It takes place in a society where the husband is very clearly in charge of all family matters and a woman without one has no place in society. Similarly, though written many decades later, The Secretary Chant thoroughly describes the apparently monotonous life of a secretary who has become her role entirely to the point of physically being of the office, rather than

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Realism In The Necklace And The Story Of An Hour

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mallard is unhappy with her marriage and feels as though she cannot fulfill her life while with her husband. This is evident when she suddenly feels relieved after hearing the news from her sister saying “Free, free, free!” (157). At first she tries to will the feeling away, but eventually welcomes it. This then leads to her discussing how she will go about the rest of her life now that her husband is ‘dead’. As an example, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will on a fellow creature” (158). This quote describes how marriage can feel oppressing as partners feel obligated to act in particular ways while married. So, it is evident that she feels weighed down by her husband and as if she has been weighing him down as well. The fact that this theme is common and relatable is why this work is in the category of

    Read More

  • Analyzing Kate Chopin's 'The Story Of An Hour'

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, once she retires to her own quarters she continues to decipher the rest of her feelings and in them she discovers joy and freedom. So strong was the overwhelming feeling of joy and freedom that she dies. Of course those feelings weren’t enough to kill her, Mrs. Mallard had a heart disease.

    Read More

  • Mallard's Irony

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” (7) Mrs. Mallard is sad about her husband's death but she is able to see the joy in the situation. “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.

    Read More

  • Three Readers Response to The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Essay On The Value Of Communication In Kate Chopin's Cathedral

Open Document