Story Of An Hour Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Savonna Huff

Larissa Purvis

Eng. 112-500

1 November 2015

A Rhetorical Analysis of Kate Chopin

In her short story, “The Story of an Hour” this story was first written on April 19, 1894 published in vogue December 6th. It original title was “The Dream of an Hour”. Kate Chopin informs her readers of the struggles concerning women during the late 19th century, did Chopin so through her character Mrs. Mallard. She is an older lady with a heart condition whose needs and wants do not matter in her husband’s home. After receiving the news of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard proceeds to her room where she grieves in an odd manner. Glancing out the window, she gathers her thoughts of sorrow and joy. When she later walked out of the room, she feels

like she is a brand new woman. Ultimately, after seeing her husband walk through the door, she learns is death was false. Her emotions run wild, and the joy of this brand-new self was stripped away. Mrs. Mallard dies at this very moment. One of Chopin’s themes in “The Story of an Hour” is to make readers knowledgeable about how woman were subordinate to men in opportunity and in status. As a woman, it is profound that Chopin validates feminism and also creates a visual for her reader’s imagination. In a time period where women had no rights, Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour” to appeal to women, and give women a sense of freedom.
Chopin wrote a remarkable short story that can be studied in many angles.

Selena Jamil, a Professor at Prince Gorges Community College, had much to say about the emotions behind the main character, Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour”. Her perspective on the text explains how “Chopin rejects the tradition of attributing supremacy to the faculty or reason in the act of perception, and she attributes it instead to the faculty of emotion” (Jamil, 2009). Chopin, as the author of the short story, creates a topic of discussion, as Mrs. Mallard hurries to her room and shuts the door. Jamil also incorporates, “Chopin’s investigation of emotion clearly fits R.J. Dolan’s argument that emotion influences not simply attention, but also “pre-attentive processing”. In addition, she provides full works cited that allows investigation of

references.
Selina Jamil approach to this text was to prepare a way of understanding in studying a text.

Her intended audience would most likely be college students, which is why the text is formatted in MLA as an analysis visual document. This text appeals to students enrolled in an English college course because it is an informational guide. The audience should be well aware of Mrs. Mallard’s potential loss and that she is unaware that his death is false, but what the audience is not aware of are the factual reasons for her death. Jamil titles the text “Emotions in The Story of an Hour” and uses formal vocabulary. This indicates that the audience should be on a slightly higher lexicon than your average reader.

Selina Jamil is profoundly intellectual and in touch with her feminine side. She addresses Mrs. Mallard’s emotions and the emotional motive behind Chopin, as if she has had experience with highly powered emotions. She forgets about Mrs. Mallards sister and Mr. Mallards friend still present in the home which in the text it appears that Mrs. Mallard is left alone after running to her room. The texts restrictions are there because the audience may not be woman only, and that some of the readers may not understand why she chose to restrain on the

subject.
“Emotions in The Story of an Hour” written by Selena Jamil is plausible and reliable, on the account that she is professor at Prince Georges Community College whose work has been published by Heldref Publications. Her work was also provided to the public as a reliable secondary source from KateChopin.org. Jamil is in opposition to the fact that Mrs. Mallard emotions are repressed as a woman and as a wife. Having knowledge of Jamil being a woman, I can comprehend her viewpoint and how she is able to recognize Mrs. Mallard’s repressed emotions.
The pathos of this text is assertive and sorrowful. While Jamil acknowledges Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition, she also adds a quotes that obviously reaches her, “the patriarchy of that time mandated the complete dependence of wives on husbands, making marriage a form of slavery”. Explaining her intake on Mrs. Mallards emotionless married life, how her actions turns into a faculty of emotions and what the actual cause of her death was. She also feels empathy for Mrs. Mallards in her hour of emotional thrills. Jamil’s inner appeals successfully intrigues her readers. She shows the repression that Mrs. Mallard faces as a married woman. In addition, she also feels that the reason for Mrs. Mallards odd joy when receiving the new about her husband’s apparent death, was because she had repressed her emotions for so long that, she found joy in the fact that she could even feel again. Mrs. Mallards feels “Free! Body and Free soul!” (Chopin, 1894).
The certainty that Jamil provides, refers back to the authors main point of “The Story of an Hour” and also her other short stories relating to women during her time period. The repression of emotion may represent Mrs. Mallard’s repressive husband, who had, up until that point, “smothered” and “silenced” her will (Jamil, 2009). Along with that, she feels that Mrs. Mallard emotions conquers the force of conventionality.
As the audience, reading what Jamil has critique about “The Story of an Hour” helped
interpret what the author main point reason writing her short stories as well as other stories she has wrote about some of her friends and feminism in her time period. Those times where women had no rights, Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour” to appeal to women, and give women a sense of freedom.
Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." 19 April 1894. http://www.KateChopin.org. short story. 19
October 2015.
Jamil, S. Selina. “Emotions in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” Explicator 67.3 (2009): 215-220.