People may not understand but most have certain expectations of marriage and even of the death when a spouse is involved. Marriages in today’s society are expected to be full of joy and happiness. When a spouse passes, the other spouse is expected to mourn. But in Kate Chopin’s “Story of An Hour”, this story takes a different route and shows how a wife is not completely sad when her husband passes away.
Generally in marriages people have a lot of different expectations. Marriage is a life changing decision for anyone who decides to get married. Some people may expect marriage to be easy, while others are mindful of the responsibilities that comes with being married. In this story, Mrs. Mallard is not physically abused or mistreated in her marriage,
…show more content…
Mallard goes upstairs, there is a misconception that she is grieving about her husband, but she is truly admiring her freedom. A traditional wife would be crying, hurting, and thinking of funeral arrangements. But in this story, Mrs. Mallard quickly starts to think about her freedom after losing her husband. “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair” (1). The open window shows a breath of fresh air for Mrs. Mallard, and window symbolizes a new path. Back during this time, wives were submissive to their husbands. Anything the husband says goes, and the women did not have a voice. Mrs. Mallard was excited about her freedom. She says it “over and over under her breath: "free, free, free"(2)! This quote express how Mrs. Mallard deeply frees about her husband’s death. She realizes that she now has freedom and she does not have to answer to anyone. When Mrs. Mallard husband was alive, she had to do things his way because the husband was considered to be the dominant partner. Now that Mrs. Mallard husband is dead she would be able to do things her own way without the approval of her husband. Mrs. Mallard quotes, “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself”. This quote expresses how Mrs. Mallard is viewing the future because she no longer has to walk in the shadow of her husband, she can now live for
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.
“She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will” (Chopin 15). At this moment was when the main character in “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard, began to recognize that it was not so disastrous that her Husband, Mr. Mallard, died in a railroad disaster; beginning to feel a sense of freedom in her life that she had never felt before. In this story by Kate Chopin, the overcoming theme is identity and selfhood, which, Mrs. Mallard begins to identify after the tragic news; there are a variety of literary terms that utilize this theme, symbolism, irony, and imagery are a few that aid in better understanding this theme.
“The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin, published in 1894, tells a story of a woman who believes she will now experience freedom from her repressive marriage. Chopin records the rollercoaster of emotions Mrs. Mallard felt after learning of her husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard experiences strong emotions but not of grief or despre but rather freedom and joy. After the death of her husband she realizes the limitless potential of her own self-assertion. In the story, the reader sees the common view of marriage in the late nineteenth hundreds. Mrs. Mallard felt free from a redistricting and sheltering marriage and becomes self possessed. Later, when Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband still lives, she know that all hope of freedom is gone. With the use of symbolism and characterization, Chopin creates the under lining theme
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.
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 being supported by Hicks in saying "The revalation of freedom occurs in the bedroom"
In conclusion, it was no surprise when Mrs. Mallard is shocked when her husband is standing at their front door. He had missed his train; therefore, sparing his life. When she is making her symbolic descent down the stairs, she spots her husband and realizes that she can never reverse her progress. The “joy” that kills her is the joy that she refuses to surrender, but for one hour she gets glimpse of what true joy is (Jamil 219).
Kate Chopin wrote a short piece called “The Story of an Hour” about a woman’s dynamic emotional shift who believes she has just learned her husband has died. The theme of Chopin’s piece is essentially a longing for more freedom for women.
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
“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.
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...
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
Mrs. Mallard knows and understands the way how women should be treated like. Her thoughts and decisions are anything but just and ethically correct. She has not been fully experiencing the joy that marriage should have brought. She felt the death of her husband as the beginging of her new world.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.
The vision of a dream may be overpowered by a staggering truth, that of forcing a person to accept the exposed reality of destiny. In The Story of An Hour, author Kate Chopin gives the reader the story of Mrs. Louise Mallard. A widow who astonished by her husband’s death is paralyzed by the elusion of the future awaiting. Unwillingly, she is rejoiced as liberation comes into her life. Although Mrs. Mallard loved her husband, she couldn’t defeat the approaching feeling of freedom, the plea for a longer life of empowerment and the reality of a rumbled dream as she realizes her husband’s survival.
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.