More handpicked essays just for you.
Symbolism used in the story of an hour
Symbolism used in the story of an hour
Literary analysis outline of the story of an hour
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” might be a short story, but by no means is it a story that will end shortly after you read it. Chopin’s use of vivid imagery and subtle irony will capture the reader and leave one’s mind reeling long after the last sentence. When reading “The Story of an Hour” much controversy arises as to why the woman dies upon seeing the return of her thought to be dead husband. By using textual evidence one can conclude that she dies from shock and disappointment once she realizes her new found freedom came to a screeching halt after seeing the all too familiar face walk back through the front door.
Though a powerful story the setting only takes place in her bedroom, the stairwell, and by her window. This could symbolize how limited Louise is and how much she is controlled in her own life. She is a trapped in her own home and in her own mind because she cannot speak to anyone about how she is feeling. She is stuck in a marriage with someone she does not want to be married to. Consequently, she feels trapped in her own house, and her only way of seeing the outside world is through her window. When Louise looks through the window the reader can begin to feel the longing for freedom in tune with her. From the story the reader can begin to feel a sense of claustrophobia forming. Who would want to be trapped in her situation? The limited freedom she does have is still restricted because she is not her own person in this marriage.
One’s bedroom is normally considered a safe haven against a cruel world where they can be themselves without anyone throwing stones. But what if the person who is the storm in life is living in the same house? How can one deal with that? When reading “The Story of an Hour” the reader ...
... middle of paper ...
...re twittering in the eaves. “This is not the depiction of the world around someone who is grieving. The way Chopin describes the way there is “new spring life” is as if Louise has been given a fresh start. The way the world looked for her before was bleach and opaque. Now it is vibrant and full of rich color that she never knew existed. The weight of the world she was trapped in has been lifted off her frail shoulders.
Though she is very optimistic of the new life she has received, she still mourns the death of her husband. Although it was not the life she wanted, she still cared for him. His love just wasn’t enough. Their marriage was too constricting and hefty on her heart. She couldn’t force herself to love him, though she did in moments.
The overwhelming sensation of freedom enveloped her. She was so elated that she was not quite sure what had come over her.
The scene neatly encapsulates Edna’s rage at being confined in the domestic sphere and foreshadows her increasingly bold attempts, in subsequent chapters of the novel, to break through its boundaries. At first glance, the room appears to be the model of domestic harmony; “large,” “beautiful,” “rich” and “picturesque,” it would appear to be a welcoming, soothing haven for Edna. However, she is drawn past its obvious comforts to the open window, a familiar image in THE AWAKENING. From her vantage point in the second story of the house, Edna (who at this point in the narrative is still contained by the domestic/maternal sphere – she is “in” and “of” the house) gazes out at the wider world beyond.
To start off, first, the narrator thinks that the house her and her husband John are renting for the next three months is haunted or it wouldn’t be as cheap as it is for being such a beautiful place. Another thing is that she unhappy in her marriage. Her husband doesn’t listen to her, tells her she’s wrong and laughs at her. She is feeling very unwell and all he says is she has temporary nervous depression and only tells her to stay in bed and do nothing. The way she describes things is very bleak, dark, depressing. She keeps going back to thoughts of the house being haunted and gets anxious. She becomes angry with John for no reason sometimes and thinks it’s from her ‘nervous condition’. Something the reader may not catch onto when she talks about how she doesn’t like her bedroom is how she took the nursery, so right away, we know she has a baby. She feels trapped with the barred windows and not being able to go anywhere, having to just lay down and look at the most revolting yellow wallpaper shes ever seen. Writing the story alone makes her extremely exhausted and she says that John doesn’t know the extent of her suffering. Eventually, it’s made known that she can’t even go near her own child and it makes her increasingly nervous. She has unwanted thoughts throughout the entire story of the terrifying ugly yellow
She whispers, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin). Though her situation is sad, she does not have a remorseful response. She locks herself in her room and reflects upon her new reality. She instead comes to find a form of liberation for herself from her husband’s death. As she looks out the window, Chopin writes, “…she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window,” (Chopin). Chopin is stating Louie’s newly found greatness for her life. She is now able to live for herself and not behind her husband as society has told her. She can be different and gain more from her life now because she does not have to follow or live for a man, as many woman did in society. She feels exonerated from her bondage, which is marriage, and she now feels she can have a life for herself. In the end, her husband is actually found to be alive as he walks into the room. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills,” (Chopin). From seeing her husband, Louise dies. It was joy that had killed her. Readers can easily believe that she died because of the shock that her husband was still alive, but in reality she died from the loss of her new found greatness. The joy that killed her was her own
In addition, she always talks about the moonlight during these times of night. When the moonlight is not present, the narrator is not active. Her husband comes to visit and she does not do much. But at night, when her husband is sleeping, the narrator wakes up and starts walking around the room. The protagonist believes that there is a woman trapped by the wall, and that this woman only moves at night with the night light. The allusion to this light is not in the beginning of the story, but in the end. “She begins to strip of the wallpaper at every opportunity in order to free the woman she perceives is trapped inside. Paranoid by now, the narrator attempts to disguise her obsession with the wallpaper.” (Knight, p.81) In the description of the yellow wallpaper and what is seen behind it there are sinister implications that symbolize the closure of the woman. It implies that any intellectual activity is a deviation from their duties as a housewife. Her marriage seems to be claustrophobic as her won life, a stifling confinement for a woman's creativity. As imaginable, such treatment and "solitary confinement"(Knight, p.86) will do nothing but worsen her condition, affecting
The bars on windows, bedstead nailed down, and a gate at the top of the stairs suggest an unsafe place. The narrator’s preference for living in the downstairs room is undermined by John’s control over her. Furthermore, John puts his wife into an environment with no communication, making her socially isolated. The protagonist is home alone most of the time while John is at work. She is not allowed to raise her own baby, and Jennie, John's sister, is occupied with her job.
The windowless room symbolizes the almost perfect Eadith identity; living in this identity, s/he feels safe and that is why s/he likes the room. The children represent h/er other identities; being forced to hide under Eadith identity, they feel uncomfortable and that is why they insist on getting out of there. This is the problem of fragmented identity.
This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
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.
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.
Kate Chopin’s story “The Story of an Hour” focuses on a married woman who does not find happiness in her marriage. When she hears of her husband’s death, the woman does not grieve for long before relishing the idea of freedom. Chopin’s story is an example of realism because it describes a life that is not controlled by extreme forces. Her story is about a married nineteenth-century woman with no “startling accomplishments or immense abilities” (1271). Chopin stays true to reality and depicts a life that seems as though it could happen to any person.
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.
In “The story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard learns from Josephine and Richards that her husband, Brently, has died. She confines herself to the upstairs room. While Josephine and Richards believes that she is upstairs grieving, Louise is actually rather happy that she is finally free from being contained by her husband. Louise looks out the window at a big and beautiful world. She has a completely new view of the world now. The adventitious death of her husband allows her to start thinking about making decisions for herself and seeing things without his opinion. Much like Louise’s situation, the husband constantly contains the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to one room. She is enclosed in a large, yellow room because her husband says she is sick. The narrator is physically in need of human interaction. His keeping her inside this room is leading her to become more ill than she already is. Both of these women have been living with completely despondent spirits. As depicted in these two stories, Dorothy Hartman stat...
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” focuses on a woman named Louise Mallard and her reaction to finding out about her husband’s death. The descriptions that the author uses in the story have significance in the plot because they foreshadow the ending.
...egaining her husband and all of the loss of freedom her marriage entails. The line establishes that Louise's heart condition is more of a metaphor for her emotional state than a medical reality.” (Koloski) It is ironic that she accepts the death of her husband and is joyous and free, and then he ends up being alive after she walks out of the room with a sense of power. The ending of The Story of an hour by Kate Chopin implies that maybe the only true resolution of conflict is in death.
Kate Chopin's story, "The Story of an Hour", focuses on an 1890's young woman, Louise Mallard. She experienced a profound emotional change after she hears her husband's "death" and her life ends with her tragic discovery that he is actually alive. In this story, the author uses various techniques-settings, symbolism and irony- to demonstrate and develop the theme: Freedom is more important than love.