“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” By Michel de Montaigne. This quote explains the idea of belonging to oneself and no one else. This is the same as being independent. Just like in the fictional short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (1894). Within the time span of one hour, Louise Mallard changes drastically. Louise is afflicted with heart trouble and had to be told gently about dreadful news. Mrs. Mallard is informed that her husband died. As soon as she heard this information, Louise began to grieve. However, this did not last very long. Mrs. Mallard the locked herself in her room and faced an open window. Staring out the window made her think further more about the situation she was currently …show more content…
in. She now felt that she was now independent and free of her marriage. After being begged, Mrs. Mallard comes downstairs to the sight of her alive husband who ironically was far from the disaster. This means that her independence and freedom were now gone. From all of the corrosion, Louise Mallard died from too much impact on her heart. An analysis of dynamic character like Louise Mallard, (the protagonist) of “The Story of an Hour”, illustrates a central theme of the story, independence is sometimes a prohibited satisfaction we behold within all of us. In the beginning of the story, Louise Mallard is informed of her husband’s sudden death and begins to feel depressed and inundated. Since Louise is afflicted with heart trouble, her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards told her this news about Brently (her husband) very gently. Supposedly, he died in a railroad disaster. Once hearing this news, Louise could not bear it. She began to change her mood very quickly. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms.” (3). This part is significant because louise rapidly started to show signs of depression. She was overwhelmed with this disastrous news. So she had to go somewhere else on her own to process it. “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.” (3). This is another example of the author's use of dynamic character. Louise locked herself in her room to be away from everyone else and reality. A person can only grieve so much. Facing an open window, Louise had a roomy armchair in her room. “Into this she sank, pressed down by physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” (4). This shows all of the feelings Louise had kept inside of her, made her exhausted. Louise sat alone, staring out of the window. Toward the middle of the story, Louise Mallard starts to feel uncertain on how she really felt.
Louise just sits in her armchair, alone. She had all of the time she wanted to think about what was happening and how she felt about it. Inside her room, “She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.” (7). So, as you can see, Louise still feels sorrow. At this point, Louise had nothing to do but stare out of the window that she was facing. She began to gaze far off yonder. “It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.” (8). In this case, Louise is looking out of this window just thinking. Her depression and grief are now starting to get pushed aside. As she was sitting there, something hit Louise. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully.” (9). Now, Louise’s feelings are uncertain. She feels as if something is coming to her. She feels fearful and confused of what's to …show more content…
come. By the end of the story, Louise Mallard starts to feel like the death may not be a bad thing and she can be free and independent.
She had went from depressed, to fearful and uncertain. Louise thought something was approaching her. She then figures out what it was. “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will- as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.” (10). This is showing how she started to change emotionally. Meaning her emotions were all twisted up from just staring and thinking. As time passed, Louise began to think that Bentley's death may not be so bad after all. She thought to herself, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” (13). This scene particularly shows that Louise is starting to see the bright end of this disaster. She would be free of her marriage. Now, she would be on her own. “And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not.” (14). Louise did not love him the way that a married couple should. She did not seem like she was happy in her marriage anyway. His death now allows Louise to be on her own. “‘Free! Body and soul free!’ she kept whispering.” (15). This is what Louise told herself after she had finally figured out how she felt. Louise happy and almost excited to live the rest of her “long life” taking care of
herself. Unquestionably, Louise Mallard obviously demonstrates that the idea of being on your own is sometimes a hidden elation we all consider. Primitively, Louise is told and begins to grieve about Bentley's death. Later, she becomes uncertain about how she really felt about being alone. Equally important, towards the end, Louise is starting to enjoy the freedom and independence that she had just received. Louise shows the idea of knowing “how to belong to oneself” as she changed throughout the short story. Louise is an example to those struggling to find joy in being dependent on others. She proves that sometimes you do not need someone else to make you happy throughout your life.
The best example is Lena Lingard, an immigrant worker who aspires to become a designer. As she says so herself, “‘ For Mrs. Thomas, the dressmaker. She is going to teach me to sew. She says I have quite a knack. I’m through with the farm. There ain’t any end to the work on a farm, and always so much trouble happens. I’m going to be a dressmaker’” (Book II, Part IV). In this passage, one sees her making her aspirations clear— she wants to become a dressmaker, and she does this so by accepting a job at Mrs. Thomas who in return will teach her how to sew. This shows independence as she is not afraid to chase her dreams unlike the stereotypical 19th century woman who would marry, have a family, and never have the will to follow their dreams. Her path to independence does not stop there as she states that, “‘...I don’t want a husband. Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn to cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what’s sensible and what’s foolish, and want you to stick as home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody’” (Book III, Part IV). In this passage, Lena thoroughly explains why she does not want to marry which reflects her independence even more. Here, she states that she does not want to be told what to do and what not to, showing her desire for free will. She also states that she does not want to be accountable to anybody which does not show loneliness, but shows her individualistic capacity, making her a strong and independent female character in the book. As the book progressed, Lena progressed and her independent nature became fruitful as Jim entails, “...Lena Lingard, for whom people had always foretold trouble, was now the leading dressmaker of Lincoln, much respected in Black Hawk… she kept her head for her business and had got on in the world” (Book IV, Part
Analysis of Hemingway’s Narrative Technique as a Short- Story Writer. For many years, the narrative technique of Hemingway has been under debate. Writers before him had already achieved works that bear the characteristics of the modern short story, and many of their works could stand today, with those of Hemingway and of writers like Faulkner, as representative short stories of modern times. What distinguishes Hemingway both from his predecessors and from his contemporaries, however, is the theory he produces to deal with the challenge of spatial limitation which every short story writer has to face: how can he say more than his space actually allows him to say?
Early in the novel, the roots of Louise’s issues are easy to trace to her resentment of her sister and the attention she commanded, resulting in my initial disregard for her as, to use a colloquialism, a whiner. Indeed, I did not at all identify with this other than my experience with younger siblings (I am the oldest.) whining in much the same way about me. This certainly made it easy for me to create an objective distance from Louise and in fact, made it possible for me to tolerate listening to her since I could see nothing in her like me -- she was no threat and even though I didn‘t like her, it was more a matter of taste than sensibility.
Brently opens the door at the end of the story, and Louise is surprised to find her husband alive. She was shocked and died of a heart attack. Ironically, the doctor declares “she died of heart disease--of the joy that kills” (Chopin). In the movie we saw, it was different. Louise was kept in the house because Brently is afraid that she might die or because he is afraid that seeing the world could give her an idea to rebel against him.
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.
In “The Story of an Hour,” after Louise is informed of her husband’s death she goes to her room. From her room Louise describes what she sees out the window as a new spring life representing her new found freedom. Then she sits down and during that time discovers her freedom.
Louise left the country to go stay with Albert Hardy and his family in the city, so she could attend school. Louise was very lonely growing up, her mother died when she was an infant and her father never showed her much love. When moving to the city she found herself to be even lonelier than before. Although she was living with the Hardy family which consisted of Mr. Albert, his two daughters, and his son John Hardy. Louise craved some type of companionship. Louise had a plan to make John Hardy her new companion, she
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).
She seemed to have felt free for the first time in who knows how long. “She was drinking in the very elixir of life through the open window.” [18] Louise’s seemed to be getting a fresh start at life and she seemed so relieved to be able to enjoy it. Her marriage sounded problematic in her eyes. She could have been a house wife who grew bored after countless years of the same song and dance. I see marriages all the time that seem to have “stood the test of time” and both the husband and the wife seem miserable. The death of Brently may have opened up a door to a new life that Louise was anxious to
Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" proves to be a timeless short story. Although this story was written in the nineteenth century, it is still reflective and relevant of today's society. It is still popular in many high schools and college classrooms. A critical examination of this piece of literature can be done using character analysis. This is an important tool in analyzing the meanings "between the lines" in this story. Mrs. Mallard is the main character and therefore plays the most important role in the story. This makes it necessary to examine her character in order to gain insights into the story's meaning. Several key elements relating to her personality surface in the story. These elements give insights into her feelings and her thoughts. The character analysis shows Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as insensitive, selfish and a wishful thinker.
Although Louise was loved by her husband and she at times loved him, it was her deep need for self-reliance that turned this otherwise somber occasion into one of joy. The repression of her marriage was over and it was this comfort that allowed Louise to recover from the news quickly. At her sister’s insistence, she comes out of the room, appearing calm and serene.
“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
Louise has turned into a little girl that must depend on man to take care of her. Louise pleads with Brently to go to the gardens of Paris. She begs like a child begging for something that is impossible to give. Brently must lock her up in their home to protect her from her curiosity and need to see the world. The filmmakers do not give her the commonsense to realize the dangers she would face in seeing Paris and all the other places she would like to visit. Louise remains the little girl in the flashbacks and Brently has replaced her dead father as the soul keeper of her world. Brently must protect her from the world and herself. She is made to be completely dependent on him from her everyday needs to being her only window into the outside world. There are no female positions of authority in her life. Aunt Joe is left in the background and Marjorie must ultimately answer to Brently. Louise is left to see men as the only authority in her life. She herself as a woman must feel powerless to the will of men. Brently even chooses the destinations of their daily visits to far off and exotic places. These excursions are Louise's only escape. Brently is made to be her captor and savior at the same time. Her fate is completely dependent in his yet she is given no control of either.
Louise is trapped in her marriage. The lines of her face "bespoke repression" (paragraph 8). When Louise acknowledges that her husband is dead, she knows that there will "be no powerful will bending her" (paragraph 14). There will be no husband who believes he has the "right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature" (paragraph 14). Louise knows that her husband loved her. Brently had only ever looked at Louise with love (paragraph 13). This tells the reader that Brently is not a horrible ma...
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