Symbols In The Story Of An Hour

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The short story, The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, shares many similarities with Chopin’s own life. Written in 1894, this short story includes themes such as independence, joy, and heartbreak. The story opens to a setting in which two close friends are telling the main character, Louise, of her husband's death. Louise has heart problems, so the two revealing the news know they must break it to her delicately as to not cause her too much trouble with her health. At first, after learning that her husband was on a list of men killed during a railroad, Louise is overcome with grief. Unable to contain herself, she retreats to her room to cry in isolation. However, after she locks herself in her room and positions herself in front of her window, …show more content…

Mallard, the window, and the rain falling towards the end of the story. Mrs. Mallards heart throughout the story is said to be quite fragile. Hearts, in literature as well as in general, are usually a representation of some variation of love. In the main characters case, it represents a deterioration of love, shown by the problems with her health. In saying that she was “afflicted with heart troubles,” the author foreshadows that the main character is weighed down by something or someone; that she has loved the other person in the past, but no longer loves them the way she once did (para. 1). The reader is not sure why she no longer loves the other person (likely the husband), but only that the main character’s heart is heavy due to her lover. After learning that her husband has supposedly died, Louise talks of her “pulse beat(ing) fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body,” (para. 10). This further upholds the idea that her heart problems are a direct reflection of her love life with her husband. Furthermore, when her husband returns home completely fine, Louise collapses and dies because of her heart. This is also a further representation of her heart problems in correlation with her husband. Secondly, the window that the main character looks out of throughout the duration of the story. On the outside of this window, there are blue skies and birds singing along with …show more content…

I lacked much of the literary vocabulary that I have now, and I read through the story without thinking what was going on. However, after I read the second to last paragraph where Mr. Mallard shows up with no knowledge of a train accident, I was interested enough to back through and read the story a second time. After reading through the story that time, I found many things I enjoyed about Kate Chopin’s writing; her use of symbolism and feminism as well as her twisting plots. Since this time, I have been entranced in her writing, and love to explore her reasonings behind her writings. The Story of an Hour is a short story that I read whenever given the

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