It is a common belief that a woman should love her husband at all times. However, this social norm is not always true. In the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard, a woman with known heart trouble, must be told by her sister and a dear friend of her husband’s death in a train accident. After being told the news, she retreats to her room on her own to process her thoughts. At first she sits and cries in sadness for a very long time. Then, she is overcome with happiness. She now realizes that she can live her life as a free person, only for herself. She does not need to live for her husband, she can now make all of her decisions on her own. When her sister comes to check on her, Mrs. Mallard shows her happiness …show more content…
Mrs. Mallard is breaking traditional gender roles by being happy to learn of her husband’s supposed death. The traditional gender roles of a marriage would have assumed that the wife would be overcome with grief after learning about the passing of her husband. A wife was not supposed to be unhappy in her marriage. This short story was first published in 1894. This was a time where women were treated as second class citizens. One way that this view is greatly expressed in history is through women’s suffrage. Women were not given the right to vote until the 19th amendment which was ratified in 1920, 26 years after “The Story of an Hour” was first published. At the time this story was written, women were expected lean on their husbands for support. The man was expected to be the head of the household, be the main source of income, and to have the final say in household decisions. Perhaps, this is what Kate Chopin was attempting to criticize by writing this story. She wanted to show how a married woman was not a free woman, as she would always be living underneath the shadow of her husband. In current times, these gender roles are not as pronounced. It is more acceptable in the modern day for a woman to live on her own, for her to be the dominant character in a marriage. These gender roles do, however, still exist. They are just not as strongly adhered …show more content…
After being overcome by sadness after learning about her husband’s passing, Mrs. Mallard soon felt happiness as she discovered the freedom she would soon receive. It is through this desired freedom that we can learn about the author’s supposed views on marriage. Kate Chopin used several literary devices as a way to truly help the reader to understand Mrs. Mallard’s feelings and emotions following the news of her husband’s death. The story’s interesting and paradoxical ending of Mrs. Mallard’s death is assumed to be caused by happiness, but instead must have been caused by something much more complex. By the end of this story, the reader will have a better idea of the author’s views on marriage, and on the importance of challenging gender stereotypes to seek personal
The narrator is confined to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institute of marriage ties the two women of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters. Their personal freedom was severely restricted. For Mrs. Mallard, marriage was a curse to be reckoned with. She knew inside that her marriage was wrong, but she could not express her feelings openly. Her husband was not a bad man, but he was in the way. After hearing about her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard comments, “now there would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men … believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature” (Chopin 72), Her husband definitely was a thorn in her
In the opening of this short story, “The Story of an Hour”, written by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard is identified as a woman with “heart trouble”. Although it is never specified in the story as being strictly physical, “heart trouble” alludes to the emotional distress Mrs. Mallard is in at the time according to the heavy burden her marriage lays upon her and her freedom. After her husband’s tragic death in a railroad incident, Louise realizes that now without the weight of a husband upon her, she is free to live her life for herself and as is satisfies her. By being circumscribed to a constricting marriage and not possessing the free will to express thoughts of her own, she is lead to a unique conclusion of her current condition. Louise is
Kate Chopin wrote stories of women in different states of independence from the men in their lives. She felt strongly about feminism and wanted women to be liberated from the dependence of men. By looking at Chopin’s stories we can see how the characters longed to be strong and independent women. In “The Story of an Hour”, when Mrs. Mallard hears of her husbands death she feels liberated and is described as:
A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time, by Ann Bail Howard, discusses the nature of the female characters in Kate Chopin’s novel’s and short stories. Howard suggests that the women in Chopin’s stories are longing for independence and feel torn between the feminine duties of a married woman and the freedom associated with self-reliance. Howard’s view is correct to a point, but Chopin’s female characters can be viewed as more radically feminist than Howard realizes. Rather than simply being torn between independent and dependant versions of her personality, “The Story of an Hour’s” Mrs. Mallard actually rejoices in her newfound freedom, and, in the culmination of the story, the position of the woman has actually been elevated above that of the man, suggesting a much more radically feminist reading than Howard cares to persue.
“Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin unveils a widow named Mrs. Louise Mallard in which gets the news of her husband’s death yet, the audience would think she would feel sorrowful, depressed, and dispirited in the outcome her reaction is totally unusual. Meanwhile, day after day as time has gone by Mrs. Mallard slowly comes to a strange realization which alters a new outlook over her husband's death. "And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!" (Chopin, 2). The actuality that she finds a slight bit of happiness upon the death of a person who particularly is so close to her is completely unraveling w...
Upon coming to the realization that her husband did not die in a tragic railroad incident as she was told by her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards, in the most delicate manner due to her heart troubles, Mrs. Mallard dies suffering from a heart attack. The doctors claim that the cause of her heart attack was from a “joy that kills”(Chopin, Page 3). Throughout this short story, the author Kate Chopin, focuses on visualizing the emotions and the role that the women of the 19th century had as wives. And so, Kate Chopin shows the role of women and what is expected of them by telling a story of a woman who experiences an emotional transformation as soon as she finds out she is a widow. The emotional transformation that Mrs. Mallard
“The Story of an Hour” expresses the difficulties of being a women in the late 1800’s in South America due to the issues of gender inequalities. This story, written by Kate Chopin, who was a married woman in late 1800’s, provides the perspective of a young married women who has limited freedom and is largely controlled by her husband. Throughout this story gender norms are clearly displayed in different ways. One clear example is when Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist, is expected to act a specific way when she hears the news of her dead husband, yet she feels the extreme opposite. The narrator then does a great job of expressing the reality of how Mrs. Mallard is truly feeling and uses that as a way to express the control as a conflict. The outcome
In conclusion, the short story deals and addresses the conflicts one might face as they join into the joys of marriage. Marriage as it is know in today's society is professed to be filled with happiness, romance and perfection. Kate Chopin uses this short story to show that even though entering into the institution of marriage is great. After the newness of romance is gone and the harsh reality of losing your identity settles, your life will now revolve around the imposition and care of another.
...Mallard’s death up to the reader’s own interpretation, but it seems that she is trying to secretly prove that women do not have to be dependent upon men. Chopin demonstrates throughout the literary work that women can possess joy without having a man by their side, which contradicts the beliefs of the 1800’s society. Chopin’s use of an ambiguous death and irony successfully create an entertaining story that courageously takes a stand for women’s freedom.
Mallard supposed to be with her husband by his side and giving him advice she was not. This also lead to the news that they gave her husband had died and she was happy , she felt free. Her sister thought Mrs Mallard was crying in her room or very sad but she was not. “She said it over and over under her breath: Free, Free, Free!”(Kate Chopin 's View on Death And Freedom in the story Of An Hour,1).This was unexpected and weird in many ways . It was expected that Mrs Mallard was going to react differently as she really did. This means that maybe the years she was with her husband she was going to get attached to him but she was not . “Her sister Josephine,reminded us of her conventional thought that women should attach themselves to their husbands”(Kate Chopin 's View on Death and Freedom in the story Of An Hour,1). After that Mrs Mallard wanted her time alone in the room nobody actually knew how she felt in reality. She had a conflict in her life. Mrs. Mallard had her own experiences and thoughts. Love , freedom, and marriage were her things. Maybe she was suffering and she stuck in her mind those ideas and felty all the peace she wanted. She was not really conscious it was between her world and the actual real world she had to face. This leads to her feelings sometimes she wouldn 't love her husband , and sometimes she would and it was all mixed up into different feelings and emotions. When she saw her husband in the door she cried , but it was of happiness not sadness and it was a rare death. We as readers consider that seeing her husband shocked her and anguish when she sees her husband. The doctor eventually said a different thing that the joy killed Mrs. Mallard .” The conflict between Mrs. Mallard’s life and death becomes so irreconcilable that she finally dies of heart disease when she is told that she will see her husband come home alive instead of death in the railroad disaster.”(Kate
... This woman suffers a tremendous amount from the commitment of her marriage, and the death of her husband does not affect her for long. A marriage such as this seems so unbelievable, yet a reader can see the realistic elements incorporated into the story. This begs the question of how undesirable marriage was during Chopin’s life. The unhappiness felt by Mrs. Mallard seems to be very extreme, but Chopin creates a beautiful story that reflects upon the idea of marriage as an undesired relationship and bond to some women in the nineteenth century.
“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.
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.
Marriage is seen as one of the most beautiful things that two people can agree upon. Marriage is where two people who are in love agree to commit to be together through thick and thin for the rest of their lives. Although marriage is a very beautiful moment in life it does not necessarily mean that the people in the marriage are happy. In American society marriage comes across a very beautiful moment but also it comes across of a tie down. In American society many people feel that in marriage you are not free or you will no longer be able to do anything you prolong wanted or simply you cannot be yourself. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard undergoes series of emotions once she finds out her husband had died. However one
My belief on marriage is a sacred vow taken by two people which joins them in union. Most people carry the belief that marriage should occur only when two people are in love; although this belief is common it is not always the case and people marry for a variety of reasons. In the short story "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin suggests that in the case of Mrs. Mallard and Mr. Mallard, love was not a deciding factor for their reason to get married. Though the response of three readers, one being myself, we will explore the character of Mrs. Mallard and the idea of love in her marriage. Kate Chopin has given little detail about the Mallards and therefore left much to the imagination of the reader. Although there are similarities in details between readers such as: point of view, setting, and character, each reader brings new perspective and ideas. This type of analysis of the text allows a richer and more knowledgeable outlook; not only by enhancing ones own ideas by introducing new ones.