In "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin meticulously chooses diction that encourages a defined view of the female characters. The role Mrs. Mallard plays, as well as Josephine's, displays positive examples of feminine characterization in the story. Notably, it is important for the reader to recognize differences between the antagonist's opinion of Mrs. Mallard and the way she sees herself. Although the author in many ways displays both females as weak, she does so in order to provoke thoughts within the onlooker. Throughout the entirety of the writing, Chopin alludes to the need women have for others. Both positions played by women in this story initially exhibit women as weak, but a closer look demonstrates to readers their strength during tribulations.
The struggle the other characters face in telling Mrs. Mallard of the news of her husband's death is an important demonstration of their initial perception of her strength. Through careful use of diction, Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as dependent. In mentioning her "heart trouble" (12) Chopin suggests that Mrs. Mallard is fragile. Consequently, Josephine's character supports this misconception as she speaks of the accident in broken sentences, and Richards provides little in the way of benefiting the situation. In using excess caution in approaching the elderly woman, Mrs. Mallard is given little opportunity to exhibit her strength. Clearly the caution taken towards Mrs. Mallard is significant in that it shows the reader the perception others have of her. The initial description the author provides readers with creates a picture that Mrs. Mallard is on the brink of death.
In watching Josephine as she tells Mrs. Mallard of the accident, our perception of her as a ch...
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...isease. The reader is the only component that realizes her death is due to the idea that she would once again live a life in the shadow of someone else. Fellow characters are given no real chance to look further into Mrs. Mallards passing and forego the opportunity to learn a great deal about this character. Frequently females are seen as creatures dependent upon the people that surround them.
Kate Chopin makes an effort to display different elements that women can bring to a situation. Her descriptions of the female characters displays women as helpless at first glance, but at closer look readers see the underlying strength that females can obtain in the midst of adversity. "The Story of an Hour" largely focuses on the dependence of Mrs. Mallard towards her thought to be late husband, yet Chopin also incorporates gender roles within Josephine as well.
Mrs. Mallard’s husband is thought to be dead, and since she has that thought in her mind she goes through many feelings
Like in many tragically true stories, it would seem Mrs. Mallard 's freedom came too late. Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour” begins by introducing Mrs. Mallard as a person afflicted with heart trouble. The story builds on this by having Mrs. Mallard’s sister Josephine and her husband Richard explain the situation in a very sensitive manner. Their efforts would prove to be in vain however as Mrs. Mallard then proceeds to emotionally break down. The news shocks Mrs. Mallard to her very core and has her at odds with how she should feel now that all was said and done. After coming to terms with her situation, fate delivers its final blow in a cruel and deceitful ploy towards Mrs. Mallards. And with that, Mrs. Mallard 's dies. In her hour of change Mrs. Mallard 's was delicate, thoughtful and excitable.
Kate Chopin is a phenomenal writer, with two published novels and over one hundred short stories, not only does her writing style keep the reader intrigued, but also the setting, dialect, and history behind her work tell a story all its own. Chopin uses contrast in her writing "The Story of an Hour" through the hints about the quality of Mr. And Mrs. Mallard 's marriage, Mrs. Mallards emotions toward her husband 's death, and Mrs. Mallards death to emphasize her theme of gender roles in a time when women had no rights.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
...d not passed was to overbearing for her. Her husband Brently was alive and although, Mrs. Mallard was free so was he. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, provides more than an unhappy marriage, it delivers her ideas on marriage, love and a woman independence from a structure of male dominance. Many would still describe Mrs. Mallard as a selfish, lonely, and sympatric wife, again, there is a disconnect between the outer world and her introverted self. Some of her emotions are described as monstrous; she is
The Story of An Hour was published in Vogue on December 6, 1894. This was a time in history when the roles of men and women were well defined. The men ruled their wives and the marriage; women did not have their own identity or freedom. Kate Chopin was writing from experience. Her husband died when she was in her early 30’s, thus giving her the freedom and independent identity she longed for. After the death of her husband, Chopin raised their six children and never remarried. Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard as the typical nineteenth-century woman who changes into a joyful freed soul when she is mistakenly told her husband died in a railroad accident. Mrs. Mallard quickly embraces the idea of being free and unlocks herself from her room when her sister calls her by her first name. Louise Mallard gains her own identity, no longer constrained by the bounds of marriage. Chopin makes certain to inform the reader that Louise now carried herself like “a goddess of Victory” because she was no longer married. Chopin’s narrator reflects on all of the wonderful and positive aspects of single life for Louise. Yet, Mrs. Mallard gives little thought or praise for the institution of
Though Kate Chopin recounts to Mrs. Mallard's story, she does not do so in first person. Chopin reveals the short story through a narrator's voice. The narrator is not simply an observer, however. Louise Mallard, in ‘'The Story of an Hour’', is an average lady and protagonist of the 1890s who enjoys little in her quest for individual flexibility. When she learns of her significant other Brently's passing in a railroad disaster, in any case, she rapidly starts to understand the new potential for her own self assertions.With him gone, Louise senses feelings that change her, and with her quiet repetitive chant of the word 'free,' the reader soon learns just what that thing is. She finds herself feeling independent, but feeling guilty for having such reverence for herself, after her husbands passing. She then exposes the idea of feeling guilty. She is
In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," Josephine and Mrs. Mallard are foil characters. The behaviors and values of one contrast with the other. Josephine is presented as a content woman in the nineteenth century. Mrs. Mallard is struggling for freedom. The differences in these women are seen in their reactions to Mr. Mallard's death and return. Chopin uses this story to point out the importance of being an individual and developing oneself.
Analysis of “The Story of an Hour”. In her story “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin (1894) uses imagery and descriptive detail to contrast the rich possibilities for which Mrs. Mallard yearns, given the drab reality of her everyday life. Chopin utilizes explicit words to provide the reader with a background on Mrs. Mallard’s position. Chopin uses “She wept at once,” to describe Mrs. Mallard’s emotional reaction once she was told her husband had been “Killed.”
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
The short story opens with the news of the death of Mrs. Mallard's husband. Her sister Josephine was careful to tell her sister of the tragic loss of her brother-in-law, since her sister was "afflicted by heart trouble." Upon the first reading of this sentence, readers might infer that Mrs. Mallard suffered from a broken heart and may have even dabbled in extra martial activities, or she may have suffered from a previous heart attack. It is unclear to the reader whether this outburst that Mrs. Mallard experiences is due to grief or joy. Only after reading further into the short story would one understand the importance of Josephine kneeling at the bedroom door requesting admission (paragraph 16). Kate Chopin skillfully places these words at the opening of her story to allow readers to envision Mrs. Mallard as frail. She later goes own to show Mrs. Mallard as being frail from the mental anguished she encountered in her marriage.
Mallard supposed to be with her husband by his side and giving him advice she was not. This also lead to the news that they gave her husband had died and she was happy , she felt free. Her sister thought Mrs Mallard was crying in her room or very sad but she was not. “She said it over and over under her breath: Free, Free, Free!”(Kate Chopin 's View on Death And Freedom in the story Of An Hour,1).This was unexpected and weird in many ways . It was expected that Mrs Mallard was going to react differently as she really did. This means that maybe the years she was with her husband she was going to get attached to him but she was not . “Her sister Josephine,reminded us of her conventional thought that women should attach themselves to their husbands”(Kate Chopin 's View on Death and Freedom in the story Of An Hour,1). After that Mrs Mallard wanted her time alone in the room nobody actually knew how she felt in reality. She had a conflict in her life. Mrs. Mallard had her own experiences and thoughts. Love , freedom, and marriage were her things. Maybe she was suffering and she stuck in her mind those ideas and felty all the peace she wanted. She was not really conscious it was between her world and the actual real world she had to face. This leads to her feelings sometimes she wouldn 't love her husband , and sometimes she would and it was all mixed up into different feelings and emotions. When she saw her husband in the door she cried , but it was of happiness not sadness and it was a rare death. We as readers consider that seeing her husband shocked her and anguish when she sees her husband. The doctor eventually said a different thing that the joy killed Mrs. Mallard .” The conflict between Mrs. Mallard’s life and death becomes so irreconcilable that she finally dies of heart disease when she is told that she will see her husband come home alive instead of death in the railroad disaster.”(Kate
In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the main character of the story, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is oppressed by her husband. Chopin’s works focus mainly on feminism, the relationships between classes, and the relationships between men and women, specifically between husband and wife in “The Story of an Hour” (“The Story of an Hour” 264). Mrs. Louise Mallard lives under her husband for her whole marriage. Mrs. Mallard gets news through her two best friends that Mr. Mallard was in a railroad accident and did not survive. Mrs. Mallard was hit with waves of guilt, agony, sorrow, fear, and grief. Mr. Mallard later comes back home, as he was mistakenly not involved in the accident. Throughout “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin demonstrates how the repression
Kate Chopin, author of “The Story of an Hour” written in 1894 was the first author who emphasized strongly on femininity in her work. In the short story, Chopin writes about freedom and confinement Chopin is an atypical author who confronts feminist matter years before it was assumed. The time period that she wrote in women were advertised as a man’s property. The main idea in the short story is to illustrate that marriage confines women. In “The Story of an Hour” the author creates an intricate argument about freedom and confinement Mrs. Louise Mallard longing for freedom, but has been confined for so long freedom seems terrible. Mrs. Mallard wife of Brently Mallard instantly feels free when her husband dies. The reason she feels this way
Even before hearing the news of Mr. Mallard’s death, societal norms are being pushed upon Mrs. Mallard with expectations as to how she will react. Both Josephine and Richard are afraid of her reaction to the news; they break it to her gently as to avoid a sudden shock, for Chopin states that “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble”. Mrs. Mallard’s companions believe her to be a fragile woman, incapable of handling such terrible news. Much to Josephine and Richard’s surprise, Mrs. Mallard reacts