Free Body and Soul
Marriage ties two persons for life. Imagine to be with someone you don’t love for life. My grandmother says “A la fuerza, ni los zapatos entran.” If one of the partner’s uncertainty love each other, not get engaged. My two grandparents, from my father side, have 57 years married. They had 9 sons, and nowadays they enjoy their old age in calm. The story of an hour by Kate Chopin illustrates the social life and the standards of a married women in the late nineteenth century. Kate Chopin shows how the woman had to face the problems of being oppressed or marry a person that they didn’t love. Years back, people died at 50, and did their life faster. They get married at 15 and had sons at 16, and sometimes married somebody because
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At the start of the story, the first thing that Chopin let the reader know, is that Louise has heart problems. Kate Chopin states that Louise faces heart problems and Josephine did not want to gave big surprises to her, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.” At the start is shown Louise’s heart problems, and symbolism gives a completely different meaning to her heart problems. Hearts are frequently used to symbolize love in the culture. Is well know that the heart does not feel love, but love is represented with a heart. Here, Louise’s heart problems represents marriage and unhappiness with her lack of freedom. She says that sometimes love Mr. Mallard, but most of the times not, she wishes her freedom more than anything. Meaning that Mrs. Mallard was unsatisfied with her marriage. Maybe she married Mr. Mallard by an economic reason, or for a social reason. Years back, many woman married high class man to be part of the high class society, and the love passed for a second term. We don’t know for what reasons Louise was married with Mr. Mallard, but one thing is for sure, she was unhappy, and her heart was unhealthy, like her marriage with Mr. …show more content…
When Josephine told to Louise that Mr. Mallard was dead, she felt something that could not describe. First, she was unsure of what she was feeling. She did not know if joy was what she was feeling. After knowing that Mr. Mallard died, Louise encountered mixed feelings, “She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death,” She was confused because when somebody dies, the normal feeling about death is sadness, and not happiness. Louise has a feeling conflict in her head between be sad for Mr. Mallard death, or be happy for her freedom. Later, she realize that she was happy for Mr. Mallard death, she realized that would be free. After knowing that Mr. Mallard died, Josephine encountered mixed feelings, “She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death,” Here, Josephine has a feeling conflict in her head between be sad for Mr. Mallard death, or be happy for her freedom. She was sad for a moment, but she understand that the sadness would be temporary, because she gained her freedom, and
An important detail is that Mrs. Mallard has a heart disease so Josephine, her sister, has to be very careful telling her the news. Josephine learned of Mr. Mallard’s death
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
Mrs. Louise Mallard has a "weak" heart. In Louise 's case, a reader also can see the disenfranchised woman who was not able to guide her own life due to the social constraints of a male-dominated society. Louise 's reaction to her husband 's death was shocking even to herself. As she is told the news, Louise goes to her room to be alone. The fact that "she would have no one follow her" could possible symbolize the beginning of her acceptance and understanding that "she would live for herself." She wanted to be alone in order to allow her emotions to react freely to the news of her husband 's death. This clearly shows that the protagonist can’t allow herself to show her emotions in public. She’s scared of being
In “The Story of An Hour” by Chopin, she illustrates the role of woman in marriage and in the society during her time. It demonstrates the issue of male dominance. There are some similarities and differences in the role of women in marriage and in the community in the 1940’s compared to the way women are treated today. And these are seen in the rights of women and in the responsibilities of family and marriage. We read “A Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin.
Louise Mallard has not yet heard the news of her husband’s death. As the news is revealed to her she went into a state of unhappiness, and she had a hard time “accepting the significance” (463). She “wept at once” with “wild abandonment” and the “storm of grief” (463), passed over and she went alone to her bedroom with no one to follow her. The author describes in the previous sentence that the storm of grief has passed over her,
Louise had a heart condition that left her sister, Josephine, wary of breaking the news of her husband’s death to her in fear that it could cause her problems. To the reader’s surprise however, Louise had the opposite reaction. While weeping and showing glimpses of sadness, she is suddenly overwhelmed by a calming presence. “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” [11] When first reading this part, I visualized an evil woman who hated her husband.
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.
In conclusion, “The story of an hour” is a clear depiction that women status in the society determines the choices they make about their lives. In this work, Chopin depicts a woman as a lesser being without identity or voices of their own. They are expected to remain in oppressive marriages and submit to their husbands without question.
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. Marriage was an oppressor to Chopin, she had been a victim of this institution. Being a victim of marriage, Chopin's "Story of an Hour," is an expression of her believe that, marriage is an institution that oppresses, represses, and is a source of discontent among human beings.
Upon seeing her husband alive and well Louise realizes that the life she has imagined is not to be. The return of Brently signals a return of the patriarchal oppression in her life, and after imagining herself as an individual and then to be denied the chance to live freely is a punishment far worse than the crime. Louise loses her identity and once again becomes "his wife." Richards once more tries to protect her, a helpless woman, by attempting to block her view from her husband, because of the fragile state of her heart. Mrs. Mallard's strengths are gone, never to be acknowledged by the men in her life. For one, brief hour she was an individual. Now she finds herself bound by masculine oppression with no end in sight, and the result is death.
...els. When Mrs. Mallard sees her husband, the chains of bondage are thrown back onto her. The reviving and refreshing experience she has just had in her room is put out, and she dies. The doctors say that Mrs. Mallard dies "of joy that kills." Actually, her soul cannot handle the oppression after it has felt such freedom. Josephine's and Mrs. Mallard's differences are reflected in their reactions to Mr. Mallard's coming home.
While Chopin's employment of irony presents a socially unaccepted concept in a more acceptable format, it is the author's use of perspective that increases the impact of her message. Chopin's point might be lost, perhaps entirely, if the reader were not informed from Louise's viewpoint. While the other characters are oblivious to her actual joy in death, although it is described as such "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills," their definition of this joy equates to her love for her husband. In contrast, because Chopin writes from the perspective of Louise, we understand that the intermittent love she feels for her husband, love itself dismissed as the "unsolved mystery," pales in comparison to the joy she feels upon the discovery that she can now live with the "possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being."
The main character in this story, Louise Mallard shows us her dream of freedom and proves these people wrong when her husband, Brently Mallard, dies. Louise’s husband was on a list of people that died in a railroad disaster. They tell her carefully since she has a heart condition. She starts crying, but afterwards she begins to think of all the positive things that come from his death. Her sister, Josephine goes upstairs to make sure she is okay,and once she finds out she is they come down. As they walk down the stairs she sees the door being opened and her husband comes in. Having her heart condition, she dies. The doctors thought “she had died from heart disease-of joy that kills.” However, she didn't die from the joy of getting to see her living husband but from losing her future filled with freedom.
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin expresses many themes through her writing. The main themes of this short story are the joy independence brings, the oppression of marriage in nineteenth century America, and how fast life can change.
She has now found a new desire for life. However, without warning, the tone abruptly reverts back to its grief stricken “ horror.” As Mr. Mallard walks in the door, her thoughts, dreams, and aspirations, quickly fade away. Louise’s heart, so weak, simply stops and all bliss transfers into extreme heartache. The drastic changes of tone reveals that freedom can be given and taken from someone in a heartbeat and the heartache will always remain.