The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

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The story of an hour by Kate Chopin
Summary
The story of an hour narrates the events of the protagonist Louise Ballard at the event of the news of her husband death was broken to her by a friend. It as by a road accident. Josephine the protagonist’s sister tries to break the news in a style of gentleness since her sister suffers heart problems. The protagonist was had mixed feelings about the death of her husband. The death gave her freedom both physically and emotionally. Louise Ballard is breaks down later when her husband comes home. She collapses when she finds that the husband is alive. Yet she had thought she is free!(Kate,1894)
Response to the story
I liked the story especially the gentleness with which the sister breaks the death news to avoid causing suffering to the protagonist.in addition, the ironical ending of the story when the dead husband comes home and the wife collapses because she thought he was dead.
• Why did Louise Ballard collapse when her dead husband arrived home alive?
• What was the author’s intention of choosing a female character as the protagonist of the story?
• What is the significance of using irony in the story?
Plot
The story is very interesting and builds an effective climax. The story lines begins from a very gentle point and builds up just like the emotions build up in the protagonist’s mind after the news of her husband’sdeath. Theeffectiveness of the climax is what leads to the unveiling of the themes in the story. The story has a simple story line or plot which is simple to follow (Xuding,2007)
Theme
The central ide in the story is the issue of self –freedom. The author convinces the reader in a bid to bring out the theme of self-freedom. When Mrs Ballard heard the news of her husban...

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.... In this story death is a symbol of finality too. The finality s brought out in two ways. To begin with, the news of death of Louise Ballard’s husband is symbolic. It symbolizes the end of the suffering the protagonist faces or undergoes in the marriage. This is explained by the reaction she portrays when she retreat to her room. She felt freedom of soul and body. This is to show that the death of her husband is the end of the mistreatment she gets from her husband. Secondly, death is a symbol of the termination of the earthly existence Louise Ballard’s life. She collapsed when her husband comes home later even after it had been pronounced that he was dead. The death therefore symbolized the end of her living or her life. The effect of the symbolism is to bring out the central idea in the story as well as provocating critical thought in the readers minds (Toth,1999)

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