Mrs. Mallard's Moment of Illumination in Story Of An Hour

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MRS. MALLARD’S “BRIEF MOMENT OF ILLUMINATION”

Mrs. Mallard’s "brief moment of illumination" is a very deep and touching story about a lady who is forced to be married to a man she did not really know and did not love deeply with all her heart, as if she is bound with unhappiness for life! Now she has been liberated. The narrator portrays that was feeling a kind of freedom that she could not describe, but does not know how to deal with it. In this essay matters such as this freedom she was feeling, the little love she had for her husband, the "monstrous joy" she was feeling will be discussed. Matters such as women’s issues and their feelings towards life and death are also included in this essay. These matters are all part of Mrs. Mallard’s "brief moment of illumination".

"Story of an Hour" was written and published in 1894. This story was written in an era where a lot of questions where risen, about who the dominant sex was and why. This story was written to share with the world how men treated women in that era and how men really felt about women. Women were forced to be with men and were bound to be unhappy.

The biggest question was the "Women’s Question". What role the women fulfilled in the society and that the female species were the less dominant species. Men were the overriding species, women were forced to do things they did not want to do and were forced to be with men they did not really love and care for. In the "Story of an Hour" Mrs. Mallard is also force being with a person she did not really know. She never really loved him and cared for him the way she was supposing to. Mrs. Mallard was treated the same as all the women were treated in that era, badly and were abused in many ways if they did not do what th...

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...ut it is not. The whole hour is about her inner conflict about her freedom and if she has been “wildly abandoned” by her husband and the feeling of freedom that she can not handle.

This concludes the essay about Mrs. Mallard’s “brief moment of illumination”. This essay has discussed everything that was mentioned in the introduction paragraph. The paragraph illustrates the narrator’s depiction of Mrs. Mallard’s “brief moment of illumination” very well. This shows her inner conflict she is fighting inside of her mind and thoughts about the freedom she has received and that she is bound to it and she does not know how to deal with it.

Bibliography

1. Starfield, Jane, 2008, Anthology of Poetry & Short Stories (A Reader for 2008)

2. Ferguson, I, 1997, Cross-Currents: An Anthology of Short Stories. Hatfield: Acacia Books

3. www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/

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