In The Story of an Hour Kate Chopin gives a very inside look at her feelings about marriage, female independence, and the human will. The first description that Chopin gives of Louise (the main character of the story) is her heart trouble. The way that it is suggested, gives the reader reason to believe that the ailment may not only be physical but also mental. Louise's sister, Josephine and Richards treat Louise with great care as though she is fragile. They are afraid that breaking the news of her husband's death to her may be harmful to her condition. When Louise hears the news of her husband's death, Chopin tells us that she "wept with wild abandonment." This apparently was not the expected response. This is known, because Chopin tells the reader that many women would have received the message and been so paralyzed by it that they would not have been able to show emotion. Therefore, it is assumed that Louise is a rather passionate person.
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.
Louise admits that sometimes she had not loved her husband. She also says that her husband had never looked on her with anything but love. However, the reader gains perspective on how he loved her by her reactions to his death. He may have truly loved her, but most likely he was very protective and controlling.
Louise is excited about the prospect of not having "any sharp will bending hers." Chopin suggests to the reader that even if a person's will had kind intentions that it was cruel to impose that will on any human or creature.
Chopin also challenges the common ideals of love in the statement, "There would be no one to live for in the coming years.
It is to possess the courage to overcome the confusion and frustrations with uncovering who you are. Chopin chooses to have Mrs.Pontellier’s character die at the end of novel, in order to showcase the intense overbearing burden women carry, when fulfilling their ordered position in society. She decides to end the novel this way, to expose how women sacrifice their independence and personal interests, in exchange for society’s acceptance. This being Chopin’s purpose, it correlates with her novel’s recurring theme, which is the difficulty of rekindling one’s true spirit, when contained to oppressive roles that demand one’s conformity and
This is a story of a series of events that happen within an hour to a woman named Louise Mallard. Louise is a housewife who learns her husband has died in a train accident. Feeling joy about being free she starts seeing life in a different way. That is until at the end of the story she sees her husband well and alive. She cries at the sight of him and dies. The story ends with a doctor saying “she had died of a heart disease—of the joy that kills” (Chopin). Even though the story doesn’t describe Louise doing chores at the house like in The Storm we know that she was a good wife because of the way she reacts when she learns that her husband is dead. Louise gets described as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin). From this line we get a bit of insight into her marriage and herself. We get the idea that she wasn’t happy being married to her husband but still remained with him and did her duties as she was supposed to. In reality her being a good wife was all an act to fit in society’s expectations of a woman being domestic and submissive. As she spend more time in her room alone thinking about her dead husband she realizes life would finally be different for her. She knows that “there would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself” (Chopin) For a long time in
(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 be long” (Chopin 338).... ...
Louise felt repressed in her marriage to her husband, in a sense she wanted to be free from him.
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.
As Mrs. Mallard lets her realization take root she begins to chant, “free, free, free” (Chopin, 75). This shows that she accepts her new fate and knows that she will be okay without her husband. Louise becomes aware that she has been dictated by social expectation and requirement, but now can live for herself once again with no one to answer to. Louise admits, “she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death” (Chopin, 75), but sees her future beyond that now. Social expectations no longer obligate her to be the woman she was. Louise is now able to do what she feels is most beneficial for her as an individual, and not what would be expected in her monogamous
When looking out the window "she was drinking in a very elixir of life” (Chopin). The short story comes to an end with her husband walking through the door and Louise falls dead at the sight of her diminishing dreams. This well known short story is comprehended in many ways deciding the reason of Louise’s death and what “freedom” she experiences.
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...
The first stage was noted as the sensorimotor stage. As Feldman states, “What makes sensorimotor construction so remarkable is that it is not built from a previous system but rather from a set of natural reflexes with which the newborn comes into the world” (p. 197). Every stage has a predecessor except this juncture. The sensorimotor stage builds itself from the innate, refined motor and reflex abilities the infant is born with. (Feldman, 2004, p.
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. Chopin uses settings to convey particular moods, character qualities and features of theme. Firstly, the author uses time setting to reveal Louise' inner desire and her restrictions.
According to Erickson, the first stage of development is the infancy stage, which begins at twelve months and ends approximately at eighteen months. During this stage, children are totally dependent on their caregivers
The descriptions in the story foreshadow the tragedy that ends the story. The author believed unexpected things happen often. In the case of this story, Louise Mallard believed her husband to be dead, having been told this by her sister, Josephine. However, when it is revealed that her husband had been alive the whole time, she is unhappy to see him and suffers a fatal heart attack. While she did have heart trouble, Richards and Josephine thought that the news of her husband’s death, not her seeing him again would be detrimental to her health, possibly even fatal. Chopin succeeded in getting this message across.
During the birth to two years stage children are learning about the world through their sensations and through their movements. One of the most influential theorist’s Jean Piaget developed four important stages of cognitive development. In the first stage, known as the sensorimotor stage, direct sensory experiences are occurring. Motor actions are occurring as well, which are important for the learning of children as they get older. Since infants at this age are learning through their movements they are using basic actions such as grasping onto objects with their hands, sucking, listening and observing the world around them. With these movements, they are beginning to understand that their actions cause things to happen around them. When this
... her true feelings with her sister, or talking to her husband or reaching out to other sources of help to address her marital repressed life, she would not have to dread living with her husband. “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 262). Her meaning for life would not have to mean death to her husband. In conclusion, her lack of self assertion, courage and strong will to address her repressed life made her look at life and death in a different perspective. When in fact there is no need to die to experience liberation while she could have lived a full life to experience it with her husband by her side.
...egaining her husband and all of the loss of freedom her marriage entails. The line establishes that Louise's heart condition is more of a metaphor for her emotional state than a medical reality.” (Koloski) It is ironic that she accepts the death of her husband and is joyous and free, and then he ends up being alive after she walks out of the room with a sense of power. The ending of The Story of an hour by Kate Chopin implies that maybe the only true resolution of conflict is in death.