More handpicked essays just for you.
What is the message of the story of an hour
Females in 20th century literature
What is the message of the story of an hour
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin exposed the obligations and feelings of a stifled, young woman. The main character, Louise Mallard, thought she might get her freedom back, but the unexpected ending allowed the reader to understand what women experienced during this time, making the reader more connected to the characters. Additionally, readers were moved by the pathos of death, along with the imagery that was utilized by Chopin to make it easier for people to relate with. Her main purpose was to entertain but she also desired to inform the reader about women being repressed. Although this short story seemed quite straightforward, Chopin managed to pull the reader’s emotions in various directions with each new paragraph, using pathos …show more content…
She used instances such as these, “The delicious breath of rain was in the air”, to convey her underlying meaning (1). While some may assume she was only speaking of rain, the real importance was that Louise was taking in a new breath of life at the death of her husband. Louise saw that, “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” (1). Images of a blue sky and watching the clouds roll by are a familiar scene for many. Most people can remember a beautiful day where everything seems alright and there was some happiness to their lives. Symbolism is also being shown here when Chopin explains how just a few rays of sun are breaking through the clouds. This is a parallel of how Louise is beginning to break out of that mold and find small pieces of happiness that belong to her …show more content…
During Louise’s entire marriage she had felt as if she did not have a life of her own. Once she got a taste of that independence she could not stop uttering that one simple word, “‘free, free, free!’” (1). The expression of her new found happiness could not be contained. Naturally, she rivaled at the thought of living for herself and “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (2). Eventually, when Louise started to accept her feelings, Chopin used an example of personification. For instance, “But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (1). In other words, the emotions that Louise felt it that moment were so powerful that it was as if they were stretching out and grabbing her. This instance helps prove the theme further because of how important this moment was for Louise and so many women when they escape from oppression in their
However, even though Louise is thought to be passionate, it is also suggested that she is somewhat repressed. Chopin tells the reader that Louise's face "Bespeaks repression." The question is why? Louise seems to be a paradox of sorts; she is passionate, but repressed. This leads the reader to wonder if maybe Louise has been controlled or repressed by her husband. A little further in the story, this is confirmed even further by the Louise's later response to her husbands death. Louise begins to become joyful at the thought of being alone. When she begins to feel this joyful free feeling, the word "abandonment" is used suggesting that Louise has felt trapped in some way.
In The Story of an Hour, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is a young woman with a heart condition who learns of her husband’s untimely death in a railroad disaster. Instinctively weeping as any woman is expected to do upon learning of her husband’s death, she retires to her room to be left alone so she may collect her thoughts. However, the thoughts she collects are somewhat unexpected. Louise is conflicted with the feelings and emotions that are “approaching to possess her...” (Chopin 338). Unexpectedly, joy and happiness consume her with the epiphany she is “free, free, free!” (Chopin 338). Louise becomes more alive with the realization she will no longer be oppressed by the marriage as many women of her day were, and hopes for a long life when only the day prior, “…she had thought with a shudder that life may ...
Kate Chopin is a master of descriptive prose as the language she uses evokes strong emotion in the reader in “The Story of an Hour.” Chopin’s expressive diction leaves the reader feeling bittersweet – joyful for Louise’s future and pity for the restriction she felt in her marriage. This feeling is best described at the moment when Louise has succumbed to the idea of a new, free life: “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. 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.” (Kate Chopin 307). Chopin’s powerful, emotive prose pulls the reader into the world of Louise’s complex emotions and ultimately enables the reader to identify with her perception that marriage is repressive and confining, which is contradictory to the social norms of the late 19th century.
A male controlled every facet of a woman’s life in the Victorian Era; in marriage, it was the husband who held this control. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” it tells the story of an hour in a woman’s life as she experiences an emotional event. Louise Mallard is a woman who has been living under the control of her husband Brently Mallard in what she feels is an enslaved marriage. In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin compels readers to sympathize with Mrs. Mallard by depicting her feelings as she learns the news of her husband’s sudden death. From her first feeling of grief, to her surprising joy, and lastly to her long desired freedom, Mrs. Mallard is transfigured from a trapped housewife to a freed woman.
Chopin is fond of using the word “free” throughout the story, reinforcing Louise’s sense of liberation from her womanly roles due to marriage, leaving her free to lead her own life and explore on her terms. Louise exclaims that she is “Free! Body and soul free!” (14)
“The Story of The Hour” by Kate Chopin is about a young lady who battles with the suffering brought on by her seemingly unhappy marriage and the freedom she secretly desires. The protagonist in the story, Mrs. Mallard, does not realize how unhappy she truly is until she learns that her husband is dead. Even though the story is written with the limit of third person point of view, it does not lack the structure of dramatic irony to keep the reader wanting more. The author’s use of oppression is shown by the irony in the story, especially when Mrs. Mallard starts to notice a sense of freedom shortly after hearing of her husband’s death. The author also uses symbolisms to express this new feeling, which makes the protagonist someone easy for the reader to connect with. One of the more praiseworthy features of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is the fact that the author is able to control the dramatics of a very condensed short story with suspense, shock, and surprise. If it is true that art reflects life, then the author has personal irony that will serve as proof in this case. In the story, Mrs. Mallard’s husband is presumed dead from a train accident. Ironically, in real life Chopin’s father is also killed in a train accident leaving her mother to be a widow. At the age of thirty, Chopin becomes a widow as well when her husband unexpectedly dies. Chopin uses irony to build up the emotions in the reader.
Chopin sets the story in the springtime to represent a time of new life and rebirth, which mirrors Louise's discovery of her freedom. Louise immediately takes herself to a room where, "facing the window [sat] a comfortable, roomy armchair" (Chopin 470). The news of her husband's death leaves her feeling lost and confused, seeking answers about her future. In her husband's lifetime, she was "pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach to her soul," but once left alone to gaze out of the open window and to observe the "patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds," she recognizes freedom for the first time (Chopin 470). Initially, she fails to fully comprehend the mysterious yet promising beginning to her new life, but soon welcomes it as, "she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window" (Chopin 471). Getting a glimpse of her life with an absolute and fresh freedom gives her the strength to abandon a life of solitude and to "spread her arms out [. . .] in welcome" (Chopin 471). Just as springtime is a fresh beginning to a new year, Louise's discovery of sovereignty is a hopeful promise to a new life.
The short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a story about a widowed woman. Through the story, Chopin explains what emotions and what Mrs. Mallard is going through. Mrs. Mallard is told that her husband was killed in a wreck. She was overwhelmed with emotion and had to rush to her room to be by herself, the readers see a different side of Mrs. Mallard that no one knew she had. What her true emotions are is not what the readers are made to believe at the beginning. She is distraught by her husband’s death, but as she begins to think, she realizes she has something to be happy about too, but why is she happy? Now that her husband is gone, she seems free.
Kate Chopin presents themes of female discovery and identity in her work “Story of an Hour.” The time period of the story represents how women didn’t have freedom; better yet it’s almost like women were some sort of property. Some women put up with the way they were treated, while other women strongly disliked being controlled all the time. In the story, “Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard hated the power her husband had over her. Her husband didn’t intentionally try to control her but that’s how life was back then. Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart problems so you would think her husband handling everything would relax her because she didn’t have to worry about anything but she didn’t feel that way. One day, Louise receives news that her husband
'The Story of an Hour' is one of Kate Chopin's most famous short stories. There is a great deal of marital instability in the story by Chopin because most of her well-known stories and novels deal with a woman who wishes for freedom or a marriage that is out of balance. In 'The Story of an Hour,' Chopin deals with an ironical twist; it is that the wife in the story, Louise Mallard, does not realize she is displeased with her marriage until she is told that her husband has been killed in a train accident. For an hour, Louise believes her husband's death and sets about planning her future in her mind; when she discovers the rumor of his death is not true, she dies of a heart problem at the end. The common argument in the story is that whether Louise dies of happiness or sadness about her husband's news. There are many ironies, echoes and foreshadowing occur throughout the story such as weeping, celebrating and dying. The theme appears one way, but in actuality, it means another way. Kate Chopin uses Louise Mallard to reflect events and feelings in her own personal life in 'The Story of an Hour.'
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin introduces Louise Mallard, the protagonist, as being “afflicted with a heart trouble” (1). Louise’s heart trouble can be seen as having both physical and emotional components. Physically Louise is introduced as frail and emotionally she is introduced as repressed. When faced with the news of her husband’s death, Louise’s reactions are different from that of most women and her heart ailments are cured with her new found joy of a future of freedom.
First of all. Louise was genuinely heartbroken. She enters the room alone to giver herself a minute to compose what has been told to her. "Into this she ssnk, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul". It has eaten her away the thoughts she was witholding. She loved him- sometimes (Chopin page 101) but what is love to someone so
Kate Chopin writes an impressive short story titled “The Story of an Hour” about a woman who begins to live the very moment word is heard that her husband has died. Most would see this as an insensitive way to react to such a tragedy. In a state of emotional distress at the initial hearing of the news, Louise Mallard begins to cry for two reasons; her emotions are drowning in agony and she is also aware that it is expected of her to react in such a way. However, once she is able to sneak away from those who are looking for her reaction, she is overcome with an intense amount of joy because she feels that she is finally free from the shadows of a man. The way Chopin formulates and executes this story allows the reader to begin to make sense
The story “The Story of An Hour” was written by female writer Kate Chopin in 1894. Kate Chopin was an active feminist of her time. Many stories and books she wrote have profound impact that support feminism, yet “The Story of an Hour” stood out among the other stories. This story a unique masterpiece not only because how deep it describe its main character Mrs. Mallard’s emotional transition but also because of its unique ironic ending. The ironic ending of the story can be interpreted in different ways, which can largely change the meaning of the story in rather the story is supporting feminism. This paper will first examine the text of the story and how the emotion was portrayed in the story. Then, it will examine how readers
Chopin stated, “she wept at once, with sudden abandonment, in her sister 's arms” (13). The quote shows what she heard not only affected her but also could not contain herself and fell into her sister 's arms. At this point, she is seen as a sorrowful woman that weeps for her deceased husband. By the time she leaves to her room alone, she directed herself to an arm chair and sat with extreme exhaustion of sobbing: “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach her soul” (13). In addition, sitting in her arm chair, since her body was tired from sobbing earlier, Louise Mallard could not remain still and had to catch her breath every time she breathes, “She sat…, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.” (13). Louise Mallard 's sister, Josephine showed concern for her widowed sister as Louis looked down at her husband 's body in a locked room: “Louise, open the door! ...you will make yourself ill.” (14). It is said that seeing a beloved laid down in a casket can bring a person to a depressed state and cause “ill” symptoms. It seems that Louise did not want to open the door because she wanted to spend more time with the only man she married before letting him go. Louise showed weeping moments on the fact that his husband