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Essay analyzing the theme in the story of an hour
What are the themes of a story of a hour
What are the themes of a story of a hour
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“The Story of an hour” by Kate Chopin, is unique in its kind. The plot is as if M. Night Shyamalan might have written it. There are only four characters in the controversial story; they are, Mrs. And Mr. Mallard, Josephine, and Richards. Though this is a short story, every characters plays an important role. As the story unfolds it takes the reader down one road but in the end the reader finds him or herself facing a whole new direction. Comprehending a story is important, but in this story the reader must understand the underlining meaning that makes this story unique. The story starts off vague with the beginning of the first line saying “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her …show more content…
Mallard will react. The sentence says, “ She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept the significance” (Chopin 3). She does not accept the news when she hears it, once the news finally settles in the story says she “cried with wild abandonment” (Chopin 3) and goes into her room to be alone. Her room has a great significance in the story. The reader may assume that her room is filled with some of her husbands’ belongings and other objects that represent their marriage. This is where she has a revelation about how her new life without her husband will …show more content…
Women in that time were coached to be stay at home wives, “their sole purpose in life is to find a husband, reproduce and then spend the rest of their lives serving him. If a woman were to decide to remain single, she would be ridiculed and pitied by the community” (Smith). For some women that was not the life they wanted, but was the life the were forced to live. “Some even compare the conditions of women in this time to a form of slavery. Women were completely controlled by the men in their lives. First, by their fathers, brothers and male relatives and finally by their husbands”(Smith). Mrs. Mallard, in the story is discovered to be a woman who wants to be independent. “free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 16). She tries to ignore the monstrous feeling she gets from her husband’s death but she cannot help but have joy at hew newfound freedom. Mrs. Mallard, perceived to be in a grieving state by her sister, comes out of her room with “a feverish triumph in her eyes” (Chopin 20). At this point all she thinks of is the long life ahead she has to look forward to. One can suppose the feeling is as like a bird that has been freed from its cage. As her and her sister walk down the stairs Mrs. Mallard “Carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (Chopin 20). But little does Mrs. Mallard know, that her free life will be short
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 3rd ed. New York: Pearson, 2010. 261-263. Print.
Mrs. Mallard is the example of a typical housewife of the mid 1800’s. At the time, most women were not allowed to go to school and were usually anticipated to marry and do housework. During that time, the only way women could get out of a marriage was if they were to die or their husbands was to die. In that time period, the husband had control of all of the money, so it would not be wise if the wife were to leave the financial freedom that was provided by the husband. This is most likely why Mrs. Mallard never leaves her husband’s death, she is sad at first but then experiences an overwhelming sense of joy. This shows that she is not in a fulfilling marriage as his death means she will finally have own individual freedom, as well as financial freedom being the grieving widow who will inherit her husband’s wealth. In the words of Lawrence I. Berkove he states, “On the other hand, Chopin did not regard marriage as a state of pure and unbroken bliss, but on the other, she could not intelligently believe that it was desirable, healthy, or even possible for anyone to live as Louise, in the grip of her feverish delusion, wishes: to be absolutely free and to live totally and solely for oneself.” (3) Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death is Chopin’s way of expressin...
The story is very short, but every word has import in the story and each line has great depth of meaning. It is possible to infer a great deal about the woman's life, even though we are given very little on the surface. A telegraph and a railroad are mentioned in the first paragraph, so there is some idea of the time the story takes place. We are also given her married name and the full name of her husband. The fact that she is referred to only as "Mrs. Mallard", while her husband's full name is given, coupled with what we learn on the second page, gives some indication of the repression she's had to suffer through and the indignity society placed on woman in those times. We also learn in the first paragraph that she lives in a man's world, for, though it is her sister that tells her the news, it is her husband's friend who rushes over with the story. Even after his death, she is confined to the structures she adopted with married life, including the close friend's of her husband.
... 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.
Another example of how Mrs. Mallard was more uplifted than brought down by the news of her husband?s death is the description of the window. As Mrs. Mallard looks out, Chopin explains?she could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all a quiver with new life?. This is telling the reader about the new life that Mrs. Mallard can see in the distance, that symbolizes the new life she saw that lay ahead of her now that she was free of her husband. This thought was supported by Hicks in saying "The revelation of freedom occurs in the bedroom"
Kate Chopin provides her reader with an enormous amount of information in just a few short pages through her short story, “The Story of an Hour.” The protagonist, Louise Mallard, realizes the many faults in romantic relationships and marriages in her epiphany. “Great care [is] taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 168). Little do Josephine and Richards know, the news will have a profoundly positive effect on Louise, rather than a negative one. “When she abandoned herself,” Mrs. Mallard opened her mind to a new way of life.
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
This story mainly follows a woman with heart trouble. Her husband’s name appears at the top of a list of people killed in a railroad accident. The story than explains her reaction upon finding out about his death. At the end of the story, her husband (who never actually even knew about the accident) shows up at the door of their house. When she sees him, she has a heart attack and dies.
Mallard. Her self-assertion surpassed the years they were married and the love she had for him. She is beginning to realize she can now live for and focus on herself. The text insists “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” (Chopin 477.) Finally she can live freely and no longer worry about being confined in her marriage and inside her own home. She has come to realization that she is now independent and can think freely and achieves happiness and freedom. She is no longer held down or back by her marriage. She will no longer be someone’s possession she will be free and respected. Her husband Brently returns and he is alive the happiness and freedom she once possessed briefly with the mere image of her deceased husband were quickly torn away. “When the doctors came they said she died of heart disease of joy that kills” (Chopin 477). She was free but still confined without the knowledge of her husband who wasn’t dead. Chopin illustrates at the end that she was free because joy killed her. She was joyous because she was finally set free but she is now once again confined by the grief knowing her husband was not killed
Mallard through the acts of forbidden joy and the oppression of marriages contributes to the understanding of the work and the time that it was written. The story opens with the reader knowing that Mrs. Mallard was, “afflicted with heart trouble” (Chopin, 15), suggesting a more symbolic notion that she is ambivalent towards her marriage and expresses her unhappiness towards he lack of freedom. Mrs. Mallard ultimately throughout the story questions the meaning of love and rejects it as meaningless. It is arguable to say that Chopin was influenced by women’s roles and other writings at the time, which contributed to her understanding of the meaning of love and courtship. This understanding could be said that it was altered and became more dejected. When Mrs. Mallard dies in the end of the story, it is ironic that she was to die of “heart disease.” This particular death proves that Chopin’s claims of the loss of joy and the return to oppression would kill a woman in this time since independence was a right to be given through the death of their husbands. Another symbolic figure that Chopin uses is the use of the open window, which Mrs. Mallard sees, “blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” (Chopin, 15). The window is Mrs. Mallard’s salvation, ultimately concluding that Chopin doesn’t see any other way for women to be free of their prison during this time. This window acts as a barrier between life and death itself. Once Mrs. Mallard turns away
Since Kate Chopin has used different types of literary devices, it is good to know the definition to those word to better understand “The Story of An Hour”. This story uses a lot of irony throughout the whole passage as well as imagery and symbolism. Each literary device has been set within its own meaning in the story. Using these literary devices that Kate Chopin used, it was what helped make the story into a great one. it makes it be more descriptive in the way the reader views things while reading it.
From powerless to free Mrs. Mallard a new widow has rediscovered her independence. In the moment of the news about her husband’s death, she becomes inflicted with several emotions. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, we can conquer that Mrs. Mallard struggled with her independence but the feeling of something beginning to possess her leads us to believe her husband’s death brings her a sense of relief. Although the emphasis seems to be on how weak and heart broken she is, a closer look at Mrs. Mallards excitement of being a goddess of victory portrays that she has conquered finding her freedom.
Ever worry so much, you make yourself sick? Or perhaps a tragedy occurs and your body seems to shut down. While this appears to be what happened to Louise Mallard, a women known to have heart troubles, at the news of her husband's death, she is really experiencing enthusiasm for new found freedom. In The Story of An Hour, author Kate Chopin displays Louise's troubled heart in two ways, physical and emotional, however, in truth, Louise’s trouble heart is not as much as a medical issue but rather an emotional heart affliction. Her heart troubles are only explicitly mentioned at the beginning and end of the story, the rest of the time, Louise is experiencing emotional change that she seems to welcome as she recognizes the potential to live on her own in the time to come.
The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.
The Story of an Hour,” was written on April 19, 1894 by Kate Chopin. It was first published in Vogue, in December of 1894, under the title, “The Dreams of an Hour.” The title describes the last hour of Mrs. Mallard’s life (Wang). The first time I viewed “The Story of an Hour,” I did not understand the underlying message within the story. I just understood how Richard’s wife had died of a heart attack, but I did not understand the statement after that, “…of joy that kills.”