The Story of an Hour was written by Kate Chopin and published in a Vogue magazine in 1894. The short story is about a woman with heart disease, Louise Mallard, who is day dreaming about the death of her husband. Instead of falling into grief the way most new widows would, she is overcome with joy and new-found freedom. An hour later her husband comes home and she is over whelmed with the independence she created in her head that she dies. In this story Kate Chopin uses the literary devices of imagery, irony, and symbolism. Kate Chopin uses imagery throughout the whole story to paint perfect images in the reader’s mind. When Chopin is describing the scene of Louise Mallard being told her husband is being killed, the reader can vividly see the …show more content…
The main and most obvious one is the room Louise Mallard locks herself in when she hears of her husband’s death. In the locked room, it is only Louise and an open window. The room Louise has kicked herself in represents their marriage. In her marriage, she feels very trapped and locked in. When her husband passes, Louise finds a new freedom and independence in her husband’s death, this is represented by the open window Louise Mallard looks out of from the locked room. The only way the escape the room she is locked in is through the window and the only way for her to get out of her marriage is through her husband dying. Louise also listening to the singing birds outside and looking out all the trees and clouds outside. These things outside the window could symbolize all the new freedoms that are coming to her through her new-found independence. (Odell, 889) Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour uses many great literary devices including imagery, irony, and symbolism. Imagery was demonstrated through Chopin’s descriptions of the scenes of Louise’s husband’s death, the room Louise was locked in, and the view from the
Louis, Missouri. She married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and then they moved to New Orleans. Oscar died unexpectedly of malaria in 1882, leaving Kate a widow at the young age of 32. Embracing her new life, she moved back to St. Louis and began to write literature. In the story, the author and narrator are not the same. The narrator is only privy to the emotions of one character. Chopin inserts her personal opinions into the story, and the story mirrors her life. Chopin feels that women are oppressed by their husbands, and only when they are not longer under their husband is a women truly free. Kate Chopin uses repetition, and minimalistic style to tell the story. Repetition helps reiterate and emphasize the main themes. Chopin uses statements about Louise Mallard’s heart issue at the beginning and end of the story to show that Louise has a physical and emotional heart trouble. She also uses the word “free” throughout most of the story to emphasize her opinion about the oppression of women (Epperson 60). Chopin makes every aspect of this story minimal. The story itself only covers one hour. The story is also very short, with each paragraph only being 2-3 sentences. Another aspect that Chopin employs the minimalistic style is her use of a limited third person narrator. The narrator only clues the reader in on Louise’s emotions and of nothing else, leaving the reader with only a small part of the entire
Chopin had also used imagery a lot. The imagery she uses gives us a look into what the characters look like, and the way that Chopin describes the love life of Edna and how she looks at Robert. “Robert’s voice was not pretentious. It was musical and true.” Chapter XIV page 40.
In Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard, is going through a life changing event that is brought on by the news of the death of her husband’s death, grieves for a very short time and discovers that she will now be able to live for herself. The end of her last hour comes when she sees her husband walking through the door. Kate Chopin displays symbolism starting with Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble representing her dissatisfaction with her marriage and unhappiness, the open window represents the new life and opportunities that await her, and the patches of blue sky represents freedom and a tunnel of hope to show the emotions and changes of Mrs. Mallard after hearing of the loss of her husband.
Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, is about a woman, named Louise Mallard, in the late 1800s who is told that her husband, Brently, has died in a railroad accident. Initially, Louise is surprised, distressed, and drowned in sorrow. After mourning the loss, the woman realizes that she is finally free and independent, and that the only person she has to live for is herself. She becomes overwhelmed with joy about her new discovery of freedom, and dreams of all of the wonderful events in life that lie ahead of her. Louise’s sister finally convinces her to leave her room and come back into reality. While Louise is walking down her steps, her husband surprisingly enters through the door because he was actually not killed in the accident. At the same moment, Louise collapses and dies, supposedly from “heart disease-of joy that kills” (Chopin 706).
Written by Kate Chopin, the short story “The Story of an Hour” follows Louise Mallard, a woman from the nineteenth century who has just received the news that her husband, Brently Mallard, has passed away in a horrific train accident. Immediately Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief and sorrow, but her mood quickly shifts when she realizes the independence and free-will she will now have. At the climax of her elation for the future, her husband walks through the door. Mrs. Mallard, shocked and speechless, dies of a heart attack. In the short story, "The Story of an Hour," author Kate Chopin utilizes symbolism, diction, and irony to emphasize the effects of Mrs. Mallard's newfound sense of freedom, and how that ultimately results in her death.
As the story progresses it becomes evident that she suffered from more than one type, physical and emotional. Common to the women of that day, Louise obviously did not go around complaining about her unhappiness with her husband and her life. Her sister and husband’s friend were worried that she might not even be able to bear the bad news. One of the aspects of “The Story of an Hour” that is compelling to the reader is the fact that Louise Mallard feels excitement after learning of her husband’s death. She anticipates the possibility of being a free woman and able to live for herself. “She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!”.(Chopin 236) Although her husband was not abusive, the reader intuitively understands that Louise felt oppressed in her marriage and now for the first time, she feels the possibility of constructing her own identity and identifying possibilities for her own
Several symbols in Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" create a feeling of comfort, wellness, and wonderfulness within the reader's mind. The first symbol I will speak of is the "comfortable chair" which she sinks into after the news of her husbands' death. Then, I will speak of the open window, which she sits in front of through which she sees many symbols of things that are good. Finally, I will speak of the description of Mrs. Mallard herself and her comfortable situation, which will tie together all the symbols that create the feelings of comfort and wellness in the reader.
Story of an Hour – A Big Story in a Small Space. Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" tells the story of a woman trapped in a repressive marriage, who desperately wants to escape. She is given that chance, quite by accident, and the story tells of the hour in which this freedom is given to her. The story is very short (only two pages), so is interesting to look at as a minimalist piece of literature, and the surprise ending offers an opportunity to look at Chopin's use of foreshadowing.
...giving it boundaries and distinctive characteristics about the situation. Setting preys upon reader stereotypes and preconceptions about the certain time frame or location in which the story takes place in order to bring out more meaning. In this work, Chopin develops the story based on the reader's knowledge and understanding of a woman's place in late nineteenth-century America. But the specific setting--the time of year and the structure of the Mallard house--also gives clues to help readers understand Louise and attempt to determine the cause of her death. Louise may die of heart disease, as the doctors say at the end of the story, but setting indicates that the disease was not "joy that kills" (14).
In "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin tells the story of a woman, Mrs. Mallard, whose husband is thought to be dead. Throughout the story, Chopin describes the emotions Mrs. Mallard felt about the news of her husband's death. However, the strong emotions she felt were not despair or sadness, they were something else. In a way, she was relieved more than she was upset, and almost rejoiced in the thought of her husband no longer living. In using different literary elements throughout the story, Chopin conveys this to us on more than one occasion.
In the story it states, “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair… She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin 22). Through this quote, Chopin describes two different places that are a part of the same setting. By using the adjective, comfortable, when describing the armchair, Chopin creates a symbol representing her marriage. Then when she uses the adjective new, she creates another symbol representing the start of a new life without her husband. By using these two symbols, Chopin illustrates the new possibilities Louise has now that she is free. Due to the two symbols, and their context in the story Chopin further supports the main idea of the
The descriptions in the story foreshadow the tragedy that ends the story. The author believed unexpected things happen often. In the case of this story, Louise Mallard believed her husband to be dead, having been told this by her sister, Josephine. However, when it is revealed that her husband had been alive the whole time, she is unhappy to see him and suffers a fatal heart attack. While she did have heart trouble, Richards and Josephine thought that the news of her husband’s death, not her seeing him again would be detrimental to her health, possibly even fatal. Chopin succeeded in getting this message across.
This irony supports the theme of how humans value their freedom above most other factors in life. Chopin also uses imagery to describe the scene outside Louise’s window. Louise could see “the open square . . . the tops of trees that were all aquiver
Kate Chopin’s short story "The Story of an Hour," utilizes superb symbolism and elucidating points of interest with a specific end goal to differentiation Mrs. Mallard 's everyday and dreary life. Chopin utilizes symbolism and expressive subtle elements to differentiate the rich conceivable outcomes for which Mrs. Mallard longs with the dull reality of her regular life. The main theme of this story is “the quest for identity” because Louise’s sudden self-discovery shows that she had been seeking her own identity in a male-dominated world at the time. Kate Chopin wrote this in the 19th century when males were “dominate” and females were “passive.” Mr. Brently’s "death" was what initiated her “quest for Identity” without him “dying” she would have never thought about how
Chopin uses settings to convey particular moods, character qualities and features of theme. Firstly, the author uses time setting to reveal Louise' inner desire and her restrictions. The entire action happens in the "spring" (Chopin 69) of a year in the 1890's. Spring means hope. But woman are restricted by the society in 1890's. The two time settings create a conflict between Louise's expectation and reality. Secondly, the author uses a lot of place setting. The story happens in the house that belongs to Louise Mallard. Most of the time, the author focus on the upstairs of the house- Louise's bed room and the room is closed. We can see Louise is trapped in her house. Her bed room is the only place that belongs to her. So when she heard about the"death" of her husband, she goes to her upstairs bed room, and close the door. "free, free, free" (69), that her true feeling." "She would have no one follow her." (69) that is her desire.