In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin shows the reader Mrs. Mallard’s monstrous joy towards her husband’s death. After receiving the news of her husband, Brently Mallard’s, death she wept, but was also overwhelmed with a certain sense of freedom. Suddenly, Mrs. Mallard dies of heart disease, the joy that kills, but is then revealed that Brently is still alive. In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin reveals the character of Mrs. Mallard through the use of diction, detail, and irony. In the short story diction is used to help describe the character of Mrs. Mallard. After receiving the news of her husband’s death Chopin tells, “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (38). The diction in this quote is the sudden, wild abandonment weeping to show how devastated and mentally disturbed Mrs. Mallard was at the time when she found out the news of her husband’s death. Also Chopin tells, “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her” (38). Like a storm, grief of her husband’s death hit her hard, but then began to die down. In the short story Chopin states, “She …show more content…
Mallard. Chopin tells:
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air (39).
Mrs. Mallard could mentally see and feel something reaching out to her, something she had never seen or felt before. It was the feeling of freedom and loneliness to come in her life. Mrs. Mallard was almost familiar with this thing that was approaching her, but it was too elusive to name. She was finally coming to a realization that she was going to be alone and have independence; however, she was somewhat joyful about the feeling overpowering her. Chopin also
Both Chopin and Deneau put major emphasis on the passage of the story where Mrs. Mallard is alone in her room and makes the transition from heartbroken housewife to joyful, independent and free widower. Chopin says “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled
“Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin unveils a widow named Mrs. Louise Mallard in which gets the news of her husband’s death yet, the audience would think she would feel sorrowful, depressed, and dispirited in the outcome her reaction is totally unusual. Meanwhile, day after day as time has gone by Mrs. Mallard slowly comes to a strange realization which alters a new outlook over her husband's death. "And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!" (Chopin, 2). The actuality that she finds a slight bit of happiness upon the death of a person who particularly is so close to her is completely unraveling w...
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard, who suffers from heart trouble, is notified that her husband had been killed in a railroad disaster and she falls into her sister’s arms weeping. At one point, she truly was in love with her husband. This
Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to the sad news was natural, but her time spent to overcome her melancholy feelings passed too rapidly. All of a sudden she was eager to start her widowed life. Immediately after she heard the sad news of her husband’s death, "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms" (Chopin 25). This is acceptable and understandable to me because I feel that anyone who had just lost his/her spouse would want to be comforted by a close family member. The story then reads, "When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her" (Chopin 25). I found it to be odd that she would just get up and head straight for her room. The t...
Right from the moment Louise Mallard hears of her husband's death, Kate Chopin dives into a her vivid use of imagery. “When the storm of grief has spent itself” introduces a weather oriented theme (para.3). This imagery depicts a violent and dark setting that denotes death and grief. Her reaction to her husband's death ideally what society would expect. Her acute reaction instantly shows that she is an emotional, demonstrative woman. Even tho...
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...
When she abandoned herself, a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free! (Chopin 260) It is after this reawakening that Mrs. Mallard realizes that she can now live her life the way she wants, instead of the current situation where her life is dictated by her husband.
Chopin reflects her rejection of the “postures of femininity” through her character’s descriptions. She describes her as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression.” Describing her as young and calm are what men looked for in a wife in the 19th century. They wanted a submissive woman to tend to their needs as Chopin’s description suggests. Furthermore, Chopin says of her character Mrs. Mallard, “she would live for herself.” Her character believes she will now be free of her marriage, and won’t be “repressed” as aforementioned any longer by her husband. Wives had a natural servitude towards their husbands as husbands worked and went about their lives. All in all, Chopin displays her character as having a joyous moment after the death of her husband because she is let go of being forced into her “femininity.”
To start off, this short story is packed with an abundance of symbolism that further highlights the emotions that Mrs. Mallard was feeling after hearing the devastating news of her husband’s death. Although she is instantly overcome with grief upon hearing the news, there were ‘’patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds…” (Chopin 476). These patches of blue sky represent the plethora of opportunities that await Mrs. Mallard now that she has been given a fresh start, with total and unrestricted freedom. Shortly after, Louise begins to comprehend how her husband’s death has in turn completely changed her life for the better. In addition, Mrs. Mallard’s heart troubles also bear a symbolic significance. Her physical heart complications symbolize her discontent with her lack of freedom in her life and marriage. In contrast, when Mrs. Mallard initially realizes the liberty and independence that she now possesses, “her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood w...
Chopin first shows the struggle by telling how Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, and friend, Richards, expect Mrs. Mallard to react to her husband’s death. Chopin starts the story by saying, “[k]nowing the Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (30). The heart condition introduced in the first line of the story is actually the weakness
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.
Mrs. Mallard had heart trouble, which made it imperative to break the news of her husband’s death, gently. Thus is why Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, “told her in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing,” (Chopin, 1894, para. 2). Once she was told the horrible news, Mrs. Mallard was alone in front of her “open window.” She “sank into a comfortable armchair,” (Chopin, 1894, para. 4). She was exhausted. Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard’s experience sitting there; she saw the tops of trees; rain in the air; a peddler was crying his wares; the notes of a distant song reached her; and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. (Chopin, 1894, para. 5) The descriptions involve the senses of seeing and hearing, which allow the reader to imagine what Mrs. Mallard’s experience was.
In the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the reader is introduced to Louise Mallard, the wife of Brently Mallard who supposedly died in a train accident. The story uses multiple literary devices such as irony, conflict and symbolism to convey Mrs. Mallard’s emotions within the hour that she discovers the sudden death of her husband.
The story begins with the passage; “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.” The conflict of the story begins here. Mrs. Mallard must be informed of her husband’s death, but there is worry about the condition of her heart and how she will react to the news. The next passage, “It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing,” explains how this initial conflict was resolved. Two people, both close to Mrs. Mallard and Brentley Mallard, came to inform Louise of the bad news. The information was released to her in broken sentences as hints. This means that they did not walk in and tell Mrs. Mallard her husband had died. They used great care to walk around the subject, to lead Mrs. Mallard to her own conclusion that her husband was now dead. (Chopin)
I read a story, after I finished reading it my mind was still reeling over what I had just read. Stories like this are quite impressive magnificent; they draw the reader into the story and leave them with a strong impact. How we interpret a text is in itself impressive, as every person is different, every interpretation is too. As I read “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, I could not help but notice that Kate Chopin uses the window to symbolize the future that Mrs. Mallard has been pinning for all her life. Chopin also uses Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition as a symbol of Mrs. Mallard’s marriage. The short story is consequentially the story of an oppressed woman who had to confine herself to the social norms of marriage. Through Formalism Criticism, we will explore the various symbols that Chopin uses to describe how Mrs. Mallard yearns for freedom, and through the Feminist Criticism, we will explore how the institution of marriage oppresses our heroin.