How Does The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin Use Diction

Christine Kittrell

Professor Gokey

HUM 111

23 September 2014

The Story of an Hour

Identity is having a sense of independence and freedom for yourself. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is a short story about a sick wife who learns that her husband is “dead” and begin to reflect on her life with having her own freedom until she dies because of the return of her husband is a shock. Chopin uses symbolism and diction to show the importance of someone having their own identity.

Kate Chopin uses diction once Mrs. Mallard finds out the death of her husband. She realizes that it is time for her to develop her own identity. “Spring days, summer days and all sorts of days that would be her own (paragraph 16). There is diction in the words “spring”

and “summer”. Chopin uses these words to give off the sense that Mrs. Mallard is beginning to bring out her own identity because during winter and fall, she lived in her husband’s shadow which was a rough patch of her marriage. “Spring” and “summer” represents Louise’s fresh start without her husband being there to control her every move. Diction is also seen through the title of the story “The story of an Hour”. We as readers don’t know what the story was, what hour or whose hour and whose story it is. This short story isn’t just about Mallard or the death but more so the conflict of having freedom and being in a marriage unhappily.
Although the open window is a symbol itself, there are other symbols within the open window such as the comfortable, roomy armchair facing the window, the top of the trees, someone singing along with the birds singing and the rain that was in the air.

The open window represents Louise being open to a new change in her life and with the window being open it shows warmth which suggest new life instead of the cold from winter which signifies death. “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable roomy armchair.” (Paragraph 4) The arm chair in front of the window exemplifies Mrs. Mallard feeling the love and warmness she has been yearning for from her husband because he never showed her that. Through the window “she could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.” (Paragraph 5) which embodies something new happening in her life now that her husband is “gone”. This is Louise’s new life without Mr. Mallard there beginning to come to the light. The scenery of “the delicious breath of rain…” (paragraph 5) signifies the calmness after the storm when the sun finally returns with the storm being Louise’s marriage. Kate Chopin is using this to refer to the “death” of Mr. Mallard and the new joyous life Mrs. Mallard will have now that she is free of him. Heard through the window as well was “the notes of a distant song which someone was singing” (paragraph 5) and the “countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves”.

Both symbolizes an approaching feeling of wellness, a build up to her recognition that she is now free of the authoritarian rule of her husband.
Another symbol was Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble. A heart is supposed to symbolize an emotional care and heart problems means her emotional heart problems as it relates to her being wed. Her troubled heart was mentioned because it indicates her passionate hatred towards her marriage and the sorrow she endures from being married. When Mr. Mallard “died”, Mrs. Mallard's declaration was "free! Body and soul free!" (paragraph 14) and whispers of "free, free, free." (paragraph 9). This shows how unhappy she was being with Mr. Mallard. She felt as though she was being held back from her own independence as a woman and the two statements from paragraph nine and fourteen symbolize her joy for freedom. The heart trouble that bothers Mrs. Mallard was both toward her misery and the lack of freedom she had in her. As Mrs. Mallard sits down and reflects over her new found freedom from Mr. Mallard, her hearts starts pumping and the delight of joy takes over her body.
“The story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was about a women trying to find herself instead of always living in the shadow of her husband so much. The significant of this short story is that it teaches us that you can die trying to find yourself and freedom. Even when you die you develop a sense of freedom and being independent.