Story of an Hour

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In the short story "The Story of an Hour", Kate Chopin describes an hour of a woman, a new widow seems to be who incidentally recognizes a new free life and enjoys it just in a short moment; one hour right after getting a news of her husbands death in an accident. She has everything and nothing all in the same moment "an hour."

At the beginning of the story, we know that Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble. Why the author builds the central character with a heart disease? The heart trouble of Mrs. Mallard seems to be just an excuse, a reason for her death at the ending of the story. Is it really a physical disease or through the image of the heart affliction, the author wants to imply an inner suffering of a woman in her marriage life?

We can see that as getting a bad news of her husband's death, she reacts as a normal way it is of any other wives. She still suffers to get the bad news. Yet, she makes readers a little shocked as her suffering passing so quick. To deal with the grief over her husband's supposed death, she locks herself in her room. But in such a short moment, she feels something coming to her. Standing by and looking outside the window, she accidentally recognizes a new life beyond it. The symbol of window here is her contacting with the outside world. the author uses the image of beautiful nature scenery outside the window such as: "blue sky", "the clouds", "new spring life", "breath of rain", "the tops of trees all aquiver", "countless twittering sparrows in the eaves" to create a wonderful life, a new and pure life that she has just realized. Obviously, before she gets the news, sky is still blue, bird is still singing, and the trees, the clouds and everything are still in its natural circle but she may not ...

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...ps to death as seeing her husband alive, we feel sympathize with her because after getting freedom and independence, she can not return to the life she has lived before. Probably, marriage, in her view, is not free and she just accepts either freedom or death.

Reading the story of Chopin "The Story of an Hour", we can understand and sympathize with women who is spending their won life in a society of inequality between men and women as well as we can see their desire of freedom is so strong but they have to pay for it by death, by their own life. Through the story, the author wants to convey such a desire of women; a crave of freedom, equality and a hope that the role of women in the family and society should be changed. However, the death of Mrs. Mallard is a sign of a failure and a standstill of a struggle that shows us the role of women still maintain as it is.

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