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The Story of an Hour written by Kate Chopin (1894) was an interesting story. When reading the story I noticed a significant paradox with the reaction that Mrs. Mallard had to the news of her husband, Brently Mallard’s death. When her sister, Josephine delicately told her of the news of her husband’s death she wept in her sister’s arms and had a reaction to the news like most happily married women would have, filled with grief. This reaction makes it appear that she and Mr. Mallard had a good loving relationship in their marriage and that she would be lost without him. At other times, the story tells of how Mrs. Mallard while alone in her room had other feelings. She said over and over, “free, free, free!” (pg. 16) Her thoughts, while alone
in that room, were of how the rest of life would be. It appears that she is delighted in the fact that she will no longer be under the thumb of her husband, Brently. “She would live for herself” “ there would be no powerful will bending hers in blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature.” (pg 16) A close examination of these paradoxical reactions leads one to believe that the Mallard’s marriage was less than perfect. In fact the reaction that Mrs. Mallard had when she was alone make it appear that their marriage was not good and that she may have been negatively manipulated by Mr. Mallard. This paradox of emotions continues to be questioned when Brently Mallard surprisingly returned home to his wife very much alive. His wife Louise, who had known heart disease died of a sudden heart attack.
In many short stories, characters face binding situations in their lives that make them realize more about themselves when they finally overcome such factors. These lively binding factors can result based on the instructions imposed by culture, custom, or society. They are able to over come these situations be realizing a greater potential for themselves outside of the normality of their lives. Characters find such realizations through certain hardships such as tragedy and insanity.
In The Story of an Hour, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is a young woman with a heart condition who learns of her husband’s untimely death in a railroad disaster. Instinctively weeping as any woman is expected to do upon learning of her husband’s death, she retires to her room to be left alone so she may collect her thoughts. However, the thoughts she collects are somewhat unexpected. Louise is conflicted with the feelings and emotions that are “approaching to possess her...” (Chopin 338). Unexpectedly, joy and happiness consume her with the epiphany she is “free, free, free!” (Chopin 338). Louise becomes more alive with the realization she will no longer be oppressed by the marriage as many women of her day were, and hopes for a long life when only the day prior, “…she had thought with a shudder that life may ...
Can you hear the voices? In a story there is always more that just one voice to be heard. Can you hear them? It is only necessary to look closely and read the text, then you can hear them. In Kate Chopin’s story, “Story of an Hour,” there are four distinct voices that can be heard. You are able to hear the narrator, author, character, and yourself as you read.
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.
Kate Chopin’s story, "The Story of an Hour," may seem to be about Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected and ironic reactions to the news of her husband’s untimely death due to a railroad disaster. At least that’s what I thought when I read the story. It seemed to me that she led a normal life with a normal marriage. She had a stable home life with a kind, loving husband who cared for her. She seemed to love him, sometimes. She had some kind of "heart trouble" (Chopin 25) that didn’t really affect her physically, until the very end. I thought Mrs. Mallard would have been saddened and filled with grief for an adequate period of time after her spouse died, but her grief passed quickly, and she embraced a new life that she seemed to be content with. Therefore I believe there is good evidence that Mrs. Mallard was an ungrateful woman who did not appreciate her husband or his love for her. That evidence is found in her selfish behavior after the death of her husband, Brently Mallard.
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, it talks about marriage and a woman’s life in the 1800’s. This story illustrates the stifling nature of a woman’s role during this time through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death. When Mrs. Mallard obtains news that her husband is dead, she is hurt after a brief moment and then she is delighted with the thought of freedom. This story shows how life was in the mid 1800’s and how women were treated around that time.
Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. Kate Chopin was a Victorian writer whose writing manifests her life experiences. She was not happy with the principles of the time, because women had fewer rights, and they were not considered equal to men. Afraid of segregation from society, people lived in a hypocritical world full of lies; moreover, Kate Chopin was not afraid of segregation, and used her writing as a weapon against oppression of the soul.
In Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour" the author portrays patriarchal oppression in the institution of marriage by telling the story of one fateful hour in the life of a married woman. Analyzing the work through feminist criticism, one can see the implications of masculine discourse.
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. Frank Norris comments that realism is the “smaller details of every-day life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper, small passions, restricted emotions…” (1741). “A Story of an Hour” tells the tale of an unhappy married woman which is not an unrealistic or extreme occurrence. Chopin conveys in her short story the feeling of marriage as an undesired bondage to some married women in the nineteenth century.
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.
The central ide in the story is the issue of self –freedom. The author convinces the reader in a bid to bring out the theme of self-freedom. When Mrs Ballard heard the news of her husban...
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.
Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour", was set in the early 1900's. Mrs. Mallard, a lady with heart trouble, was carefully told that her husband was suddenly killed in a railroad disaster. Unexpectedly, her husband walks through the door safely but too late. Mrs. Mallard had already given up. These words could be used to described Mrs. Mallard: lonely, fat, stubborn, controlling, demanding, secretive, snobby, and desperate. All these are summed up in two words: mentally disturbed. The details of these words will be discussed in this essay.
Death in the family would be heartbreaking to many people but this is not the case of Mrs. Mallard. In the story of an hour by Kate Chopin Mrs. Mallard experimented true freedom through the death of her husband. Back in that time women were educated to serve the man . They has not right were owner by her father or her husband. The theme of freedom is represented in “ The Story of an Hour “ through the symbols of Mr. Mallard's heart trouble , the open window and the front door of her house .After she received the news that her husband died she was looking through a open window that represent more than we imagined. “ she was drinking in a very elixir of life through the open window”( pg 687) The open window represents the freedom and opportunities that are waiting for her outside . The reason for this is that she feels that the open window is providing a view of how her life will be with freedom. As result the window represents that now she is unobstructed by the demands of another person.
Kate Chopin's, "The story of An Hour" is about Louise Mallard discovering the death of her husband Brently Mallard. The way the message was to be communicated was to be soft-hearted since Louise had a pre-existing heart condition. We were told right off the bat that she had this heart condition. She was taken by surprise hearing that her husband had passed, she went through the stages of grief quickly to come to a realization that his death meant freedom for her, and her gaining back power that she lost when they had wed. But, Louise Mallard's death was not what everyone thought it seemed to be. There were some major questions brought to attention after her death.