Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

459 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary analysis kate chopins story of an hour

The Story of an Hour encompasses one or two different themes that fit together to make a bigger statement. This story, by Kate Chopin, mainly focuses on how marriage restricted women’s rights, keeping their lives connected to their husband’s own. At the beginning of The Story of an Hour she gets the news that her husband has died and at first displays the usual symptoms of grief. These include sobbing, breaking down and secluding herself into her room away from the eyes of her sister or Richards. After a long moment or so of taking this in she begins to feel a different line of thought. ( Paragraph 10) “Free, free, free!” Describes Mrs. Mallard, after she takes a good view of the world outside her home, getting to the conclusion that with her husband gone her life could be something different than what it was before with her husband alive. Following this the story opens up on a few different subjects that shows that Mrs. Mallard may had been secretly unhappy in a closed and restricted marriage. ( Paragraph 12) “There would be no to live for during the coming years; she would live for herself.” This example from the text shows that she felt like she wasn’t living for herself but living for her husband, Brently Mallard, and this left her life feeling incomplete and unsatisfying. Probably often feeling secluded in her house and got so much from just …show more content…

Mallard wasn’t happy with her life or marriage in this example ( Paragraph 17) “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” She felt so out of place in her marriage and life situation that she as a wife wanted her life to be short, and rather die sooner than keep on living with her husband, for her husband more like. The news of her husband’s death though excites her, making her believe that there might be something to keep on living for now instead of just being an accessory to her

Show More
Related

  • Kate Chopin's The Storm and The Story of an Hour

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard?s freedom did not last but a few moments. Her reaction to the news of the death of her husband was not the way most people would have reacted. We do not know much about Mr. And Mrs. Mallards relationship. We gather from the text that her freedom must have been limited in some way for her to be feeling this way. Years ago women were expected to act a certain way and not to deviate from that. Mrs. Mallard could have been very young when she and Brently were married. She may not have had the opportunity to see the world through a liberated woman?s eyes and she thought now was her chance.

    Read More

  • Marriage And A Woman's Role In The 1800s

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mallard realizes that her husband has died, she realizes that she is free, something which was unusual for women in the mid 1800’s. She said it over and over under her breath: “`free, free, free! `” (151). Her husband’s death represents a new life for Mrs. Mallard. Mark, Cunningham notes, “Mary E. Papke has noted that the reader learns Louise’s first name only after Louise accepts her `new consciousness` of freedom; before that Louise is Mrs. Mallard” (1).

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

    394 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Irony in The Story of an Hour

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard is a woman who had seemed to live a sheltered life. She stayed with her husband, who worked on a railroad, to make ends meet. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” This sentence suggests that she had lived her life to please her husband, and to be there for him waiting on him hand and foot.

    Read More

  • The Story Of An Hour

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    The number of marriages that end in divorce in America is one out of every five; the number of marriages that end in death is about eight hundred thousand per year. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is the tale of a married woman who finds herself on an emotional rollercoaster after learning that her husband was killed in a train accident, only to have him walk through the door within the hour. At first, she mourns the loss of her husband. However, as she realizes the breadth of the freedom she now possesses, this sadness soon transforms into joy, and she emerges from her upstairs bedroom a changed woman. Then, when her husband unexpectedly walks through the front door, she is all at once overcome with a sense of grief, and she collapses on the foyer floor, unable to bear the thought of returning to her marriage. Chopin, a controversial author, explores the negative side of the construct of marriage. Maintaining one’s independence can, in fact, strengthen a marriage, by promoting equality within the marriage, bolstering one’s

    Read More

  • The Story of an Hour

    435 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard (Louise) has always lived in the shadow of her great husband, Brently Mallard. He is clearly an important figure in the community, as upon the news of a railroad disaster, "Brently Mallard's name [lead] the list of `killed' " (The Story of an Hour, para. 2). This does not allow her to be herself. She will always be the wife of Brently Mallard, never Louise Mallard. With his death, however, a new concept of freedom quickly reaches her: freedom. "She said it over and over under her breath: `free, free, free!" (para. 11) This change in perception of her life allows Louise to feel she finally has control of her life; anything could now be possible.

    Read More

  • Disappointment in Kate Chopin's Story of an Hour

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now that Mrs. Mallard has tasted what life might have been like without her husband, the

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Analysis Essay

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    Death affects everyone differently, but death takes a strange toll on Louise Mallard. The news is presented to Mrs. Mallard gently because she has a heart problem. Her sister Josephine has to share horrible news with her about her beloved husband who has died in a railroad accident. The news comes out of nowhere and Louise cannot fathom what she is hearing. She will do anything to convince herself that she can live life without her deceased husband. Is losing a loved one enough to drive someone insane?

    Read More

  • The Story of an Hour

    1193 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Story of an Hour” is the story of Mrs. Louise Mallard who suffers of a weak heart. This being the first we know of Mr. Mallard, she is carefully being told that her husband had just passed away in a train accident. As every good wife should, Mrs. Mallard breaks out in grief. At first, the story goes, as it should. Then Mrs. Mallard goes into her room where she begins thinking, and her first thought is that she is free. Mrs. Mallard after years of being in an unhappy marriage is finally free to do what she wants, with no one to hold her back. Yet everything is against her, when she finally accepts that her life will begin now, her husband enters his home, unscathed and well, not having known that everyone thought him dead, a...

    Read More

  • Mrs. Mallard In Kate Chopin's Short Story Of An Hour

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is much to interpret to help us understand the perspective of Mrs. Mallard’s happiness of the thought of her husband passing. We don’t know the exact source of repression she felt towards her husband. There appears to be a sense of limitations and restrictions when “She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” ” (15). It is obvious she felt trapped in the arrangement. “And yet she loved him – sometimes. Often she had not” (15). This story being published in 1894 was a time when women were controlled by their husbands because of a lack of freedom and

    Read More

  • The Story of An Hour

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kate Chopin describes a story of great irony. The story greatly shows how women were repressed in the past. Women were not treated equally to men, and they had less freedom, rights, and power. Freedom is a basic human need people thrive on it, it is so important to human beings regardless of what country, religion, cultural you live in. Kate Chopin introduced Mrs. Mallard, a young woman who finds out her husband has died in a train wreck. She reacts with sadness at first, but then realizes in a rush of emotion & relief that she is “Free! Body and soul free!”(199) She views the world with a fresh outlook--one where she will be her own person, answering only to herself. She is ready to begin this new life when her husband--who evidently wasn’t on the train after all--comes home. The woman (Mrs. Mallard) eventually died of shock because she had lost her newfound freedom. The ending of the story portrays the society in which women had less freedom than men.

    Read More

  • Three Readers Response to The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.

    Read More

  • Marriage In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Chopin mentions, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with shudder that life might be long”(497). Just the thought of having a long life in your marriage makes you shudder shows that Mrs. Mallard was not happy in her marriage. Mrs. Mallard was happy about living a long life once she accepted the fact of freedom once her husband died. As Cathryn Hunter mentions, “The serious and wide-ranging negative effects that relationship distress can have on individuals”(55). The relationship distress played a toll on Mrs. Mallard mainly because although she was sad that her husband death, she could not help but feel free.

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Women

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard does not like this type of relationship but stays. One day Mr. Mallard is said to be dead to his wife by her sister and his friend. Mrs. Mallard does not act the typical, sad and weeping as she cries, but instead she cries excitedly because she is so happy that she has finally found her freedom from her despiteful marriage. The thought of doing things herself, making her own decisions, and have no responsibilities make her feel happy even though it feels surreal. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression.” At this time, Mrs. Mallard had disbelief that her time to freedom has come. She was so surprised that she was emotionless of it all. There is a huge sock that eventually kills Mrs. Mallard that they tried to prevent at the beginning of the story which is that Mr. Mallard is indeed, still alive. She is not free and she dies from the shock and unhappiness she will continue to be. She died from the despair of her husband still being alive which caused her to have a heart attack. In the late 1800s, women were still looked down as belongings to the men. Mrs. Mallard played the role of belonging to her husband. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” Her husband made all of her decisions for her and she did not like it but did not have a word in this type of relationship. Mr. Mallard was

    Read More

More about Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Open Document