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Themes for The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
What are the themes in "the story of an hour" by kate chopin
Symbolism used in the story of an hour
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In the opening of The Story of an Hour, Louise Mallard is portrayed as a weak and delicate creature. However, she is an intelligent and independent woman who understands her place in society. The author first presents Louise, the protagonist, with a “heart trouble” (par 1). This causes her sister and long-time family friend to tiptoe around her before gently breaking the news of her husband’s death in a train accident. Louise does care for this man, but she cries fast and never denies the fact that he is dead. Most women of the time would not have accepted that he was dead so quickly. Even with her heart affliction and the death of her husband, she grows throughout her story and soon she finds a newfound freedom shortly before it is ripped away.
Louise is described physically, as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (par 8). To reiterate, she is pale, beautiful, and young, but the lines that the narrator speaks of lead to a conclusion that Louise is keeping something locked away inside; Louise is not content within her marriage. The vagueness of her heart trouble seems to be symbolic in her troubled heart towards her husband. Even though her husband was always kind to her
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“And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often, she had not” (par 15). This “sometimes” love is confusing at best. In a loving relationship, you love the other person even when times are tough. So, the love Louise had for her husband seems to never have existed. “What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (par 15). Here self-assertion, the expression of oneself, overshadows any emotion she ever felt towards her husband. The sensation of who she was, who she is, and who she can be is the even stronger than the “unsolved mystery” of love (par
her to the New Woman of the period. It also implies that Lucy is unhappy with her social
The two characters contrast on their faithfulness to their husbands. Even though Louise does not love her husband entirely, as Chopin stated, “And yet she had loved him-sometimes”(206). She
Louise cannot comprehend who she is, and constantly battles with her own identity while sometimes successfully resisting her natural urges to pack as much unwanted food into
Mrs. Mallard, from The Story of an Hour, is an excellent example of the oppressed women of the 19th century. Her reaction to the death of her husband highlights all the issues in the dominantly male society. There were stereotypes and specifically narrow duties of a woman during that time. Reacting with grief at first, the story shows the many fast paced reactions that bring to light just how binding life as a woman during the 19th century was, and how women eventually took control and made a change.
The main theme in The Story of an Hour was the need for happiness found in independence. Once Louise found out from her sister that her husband was most likely dead an internal conflict began to arise in her.“Free! Body and soul free! she kept whispering”.
As the story unfolds and we begin to see the depth of Louise’s thought processes, the imagery that expresses these feelings of new-found freedom, and the reactions, or lack thereof, to the loss of her husband. We start to realize that there are two meanings to this initial statement of “a heart trouble” (236). We may come to understand through these subtle inferences that her heart trouble can also mean that although she is loved by her spouse, she is a passive, intelligent, unhappy woman, who has not had the pleasure of
Louise Mallard, character in the story of an hour, she understands the “right” way that women are told to behave; but her internal thought are anything but correct. When Mrs.Mallard is told of the death of Brently she is very dramatic with her crying, rather than be numb to everything like women are subpost to be. Her reaction immediately shows that she is emotional and knowns that she should be grieve for the loss of Brently and what will come of her future, but instead she is thinking about this newfound independence that she has, that she has all these new opportunities in life that await her, but when the time comes she will grieve over the loss of Brently. Louise in the hour that she believes that her husband is dead does her heart problems goes away like all her problems have gone away isn’t he has died, but when Brently walks in not knowing what has happened does Mrs. Mallard heart problems reappear and that it kills her in the end. The doctors
In "The Story of an Hour," I can relate to so many different things that go on in this short tragic story. After reading the story I almost felt like Louise Mallard and I were living the same life with different events and a different outcome. Everything about the two of us comes down to being always misunderstood and just wanting to be free.
Do you believe in karma? A lot of people believe in karma and I am one of them. I think that “The Story of an Hour” is about karma because Louise Mallard thinks that her husband Brently, has died in an accident. When Louise found out that Brently was in a railroad accident, she was sad.
Although I believe that Louise has a distorted image of love, I think that it is evident that society had pressured her into a constrained marriage. Louise exclaims “free, free, free!” after the news of her husband’s death (Chopin). This new overwhelming sense of freedom sends her into deep thought of a future to live for herself only. I do not believe that Louise was selfish because women of this time were forced into a selfless wife role. As a woman of the time she would be expected to live for a man, although this is not directly quoted in the story. Her husband’s death would break the bond on societal and marital constraints that had controlled her life for years. Because of this, she experienced a new sense of freedom like no other she had before. For once she had no pressure of a relationship or the expectations that come with it. I believe that she was not selfish for wanting a life of living only for herself. The thought of future excited her; death was not the consequence of her self
Louise is trapped in her marriage. The lines of her face "bespoke repression" (paragraph 8). When Louise acknowledges that her husband is dead, she knows that there will "be no powerful will bending her" (paragraph 14). There will be no husband who believes he has the "right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature" (paragraph 14). Louise knows that her husband loved her. Brently had only ever looked at Louise with love (paragraph 13). This tells the reader that Brently is not a horrible ma...
In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin a woman, Louise Mallard, makes a startling and disturbing realization about her true feelings. After she is informed by her sister Josephine that her husband Brently had been killed in a train accident, Louise instantly breaks down and sobs into her arms. She then goes upstairs to her room, and stares out the window as a sudden apprehension comes to her: she is now free, her own person, and she does not have her husband to hold her back anymore. She becomes overwhelmingly excited about what her new life could now be, and the moment she goes back downstairs with Josephine, Brently walks through the door unharmed. Before Louise sees, Brently’s friend Richards and Josephine attempt to shield her eyes from the shocking development. They fail, however, and Louise dies on the spot from her heart disease.
When her husband, Brently Mallard, is dead due to a railroad disaster, no one wants to tell her that he has died. It could be because she is weak, in some way, and her sister, Josephine, is scared that the news may kill her. That would be the reality of the story. If this is was a dream, no one tells her because she maybe, subconsciously, feeling guilty that she is thinking about her husband's death. Most people would feel guilty about dreaming of a life without a certain individual, their freedom from that person. "She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial" (180). Most people think, to have those types of thoughts, would not be acceptable. Louise did have those
Louise has turned into a little girl that must depend on man to take care of her. Louise pleads with Brently to go to the gardens of Paris. She begs like a child begging for something that is impossible to give. Brently must lock her up in their home to protect her from her curiosity and need to see the world. The filmmakers do not give her the commonsense to realize the dangers she would face in seeing Paris and all the other places she would like to visit. Louise remains the little girl in the flashbacks and Brently has replaced her dead father as the soul keeper of her world. Brently must protect her from the world and herself. She is made to be completely dependent on him from her everyday needs to being her only window into the outside world. There are no female positions of authority in her life. Aunt Joe is left in the background and Marjorie must ultimately answer to Brently. Louise is left to see men as the only authority in her life. She herself as a woman must feel powerless to the will of men. Brently even chooses the destinations of their daily visits to far off and exotic places. These excursions are Louise's only escape. Brently is made to be her captor and savior at the same time. Her fate is completely dependent in his yet she is given no control of either.
Kate Chopin's story, "The Story of an Hour", focuses on an 1890's young woman, Louise Mallard. She experienced a profound emotional change after she hears her husband's "death" and her life ends with her tragic discovery that he is actually alive. In this story, the author uses various techniques-settings, symbolism and irony- to demonstrate and develop the theme: Freedom is more important than love.