Women should not be locked in marriages, or else love will become a burden. They would feel depressed, too heavy to withstand heavy load, until suffocation. There is a woman she rather dies than face losing her freedom. This is the message Kate Chopin brought to readers through The Story of An Hour. Chopin was a forerunner of American feminist author. She used a tragedy to demonstrate the restraint of women, social situation and realizing her freedom. The Story of An Hour introduced a series of emotion changes and actions of Louise Mallard when she got the news of her husband’s death in an accident. The story is set in the 19 century in the Mallard residence, the home of Bentley and Louise Mallard. In …show more content…
“She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength”(Chopin 1). “…as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been”(Chopin 1). We can see she is strong-willed under a weak and gentle appearance. She makes self-repression, but she never wants to resist to be free. After her husband is pronounced dead. She found her freedom. “free, free, free!” “Free! Body and soul free!” “Go away. I am not making myself ill”(Chopin 1). She only said three phrases in the whole story. The speech is in a simple description, but Chopin closely described Louise’s psychological activity. As we could see, Louise’s hope in finding freedom becomes desperate. She weeps when she knows the death of Bentley. She locks herself alone in the room. She looks out the opened window. Then she feels that “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully”(Chopin 1). She wants to beat it back, but she cannot. Her will is as weak as her hands. She begins to recognize that she has a chance for freedom and a new life from her husband’s death. “Free, free, free!”(Chopin 1) she repeats. The feeling possesses her gradually. She is controlled on exalted perception, so she keeps whispering “Free! Body and soul free!”(Chopin 1). Meanwhile, she feels guilty, because no one can accept that a woman feels happy when her husband is dead. However, she thinks that to be herself is more important than
When looking out the window "she was drinking in a very elixir of life” (Chopin). The short story comes to an end with her husband walking through the door and Louise falls dead at the sight of her diminishing dreams. This well known short story is comprehended in many ways deciding the reason of Louise’s death and what “freedom” she experiences.
(Chopin 8). Her desire for freedom was so that she could live everyday without any influence from her husband. With her husband dead, she could now finally have the independence that she has always longed for. Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of an Hour” we, as the reader, see how oppression by husbands during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries resulted in their wives, quietly longing for freedom. This freedom would be monumental to achieve, but simple in nature.
(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 be long” (Chopin 338).... ...
... her true feelings with her sister, or talking to her husband or reaching out to other sources of help to address her marital repressed life, she would not have to dread living with her husband. “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 262). Her meaning for life would not have to mean death to her husband. In conclusion, her lack of self assertion, courage and strong will to address her repressed life made her look at life and death in a different perspective. When in fact there is no need to die to experience liberation while she could have lived a full life to experience it with her husband by her side.
“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. Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white hands would have been. 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!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 39).
Chopin describes her joy as “monstrous” to indicate that Mrs. Mallard knows she should not be happy, but she cannot help it as it is her first taste of freedom in her entire
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.
Free! Free!” (Chopin 1) escape her lips. Although she does this in a holding back manner, she seems to be happy that she is finally free from a life that was belittling and oppressing. To Mrs. Mallard, her husband’s death meant that she was free from obeying another person’s rules, free from a name that did not originally belong to her, a commitment that she had made some time back and free from living with a person that she did not fully love. It 's not until later in the story that we find out that her first name is Louis. Her last name became so part of her that she almost forgets her real identity. After her husband 's death while in her room, she is referred to as Louis her first name. This symbolizes that she is slowly trying to get back her first identity that she abandoned when she got married. The sense of freedom and independence is slowly settling
Marriage oppressed her, she needed freedom, freedom to grow and do what she wanted to do, and marriage took that away from here. Chopin didn't believe that one person should take away another's freedom.
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...
Freedom is one of the most powerful words in the world because of the feeling it gives people. This idea is evident in Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour.” In the story, readers witness the effect freedom can have when the main character, Louise, finds out her husband had passed away. The story begins when Louise’s sister informs her that her husband had been in a terrible accident and he was dead. Once she gets over the immediate shock, she finds herself overwhelmed with joy because she was free to live her life for herself and not her husband. At the end of the story, her husband walks through the front door, and Louise has a heart attack and dies. In the story "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the power of freedom through the use of diction, point of view, and setting.
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.
The entire action happens in the "spring" (Chopin 69) of a year in the 1890's. Spring means hope. But woman are restricted by the society in 1890's. The two time settings create a conflict between Louise's expectation and reality. Secondly, the author uses a lot of place setting.
Mallard sat in her room the approach of freedom would overwhelm her. She would begin to gain personal liberty, which would lead to her constant repeating of the word “free” Though she was alone, she was able to speak and she began to realize she was finally free. The text adds “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. 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 477.) Once she was alone and able to let her true feelings reflect how felt she was no longer confined or defined by her husband Mr. Mallard. She became overrun by the thought of freedom it began possessing her leaving her with no authority she was free but still confined, she can’t be set from detainment due to her conception of
“Free! Body and soul free!”(Chopin 206). Louise realizes she does not have to wait on her husband for anything. She can think for herself and say what