In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the reader is introduced to Mrs. Louise Mallard. Mrs. Mallard is portrayed through a situation where she was told that her husband had died in a train accident. However, one is able to note her strange, questionable actions, different of how a typical person reacts after given the news of a loved one’s death. She acts with a sense of sadness and grief for a split second, but is quickly overfilled with joy, as if maybe her husband wasn’t quite a loved one. As detailed with examples in the story, she had been oppressed, or treated cruelly, much throughout her matrimony. This occurrence impacts her reactions when given the news of her husband’s death.
One example from the story that shows that Mrs. Mallard faced oppression is when she says, “There would be no one to live for during these coming years; she would live for herself. 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”. This tells that during her matrimony, her husband was completely dominated or overshadowed her. She was living for him, meaning she had no voice in the matrimony, and lacked freedom and individuality. She began looking forward at life without him, where she would be free from his control, or independent.
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Body and soul free!”. At this moment, she had acknowledged that she loved him sometimes, but she recognized freedom and repeated this impulse. The freedom from the oppression she lived through was something she could not resist, and was overjoyed. She finally mentions that, “The days ahead would be her own,” and she “carried herself like a goddess of Victory”. Mrs. Mallard would be under her own control, able to express herself fully and
By contrast, Louise Mallard, the protagonist in Chopin's "Story of an Hour", is a moral woman and loving wife, at least by Western standards. Her life is defined by the accepted social ideal of a husband's will as final. She is so inured to this concept that only upon hearing the news of his death does her true feeling of something "too subtle and elusive to name" (199) come forth. What she acknowledges to herself is that her marriage is not happy for her and she often resents her subservient role and "a kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime".
A Roller Coaster of Emotions in A Story of An Hour In the short story “A Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, the whole range. of emotions are felt by the main charter, Louise Mallard. Upon learning of her husband's death, she is immediately overcome by sadness. However, once she is.
Mrs. Mallard?s freedom did not last but a few moments. Her reaction to the news of the death of her husband was not the way most people would have reacted. We do not know much about Mr. And Mrs. Mallards relationship. We gather from the text that her freedom must have been limited in some way for her to be feeling this way. Years ago women were expected to act a certain way and not to deviate from that. Mrs. Mallard could have been very young when she and Brently were married. She may not have had the opportunity to see the world through a liberated woman?s eyes and she thought now was her chance.
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
In this paper I intend to research the death of a character in the short story "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. This story was written in an error when many women was not thought to be equal or was thought to behave a certain way. Earlier in the semester our class had an discussion about feminist criticism. Joyce Karpay felt that men historically had a upper hand on women in society. In “Feminist Criticism” she goes on giving examples how men controlled cultural, social, and economic institution. Joyce felt that dominance and submission were a part of all structures of life. The critics look at the languages and how there are advantages for men
“In the Story of an Hour’’, by Kate Chopin, Louise mallard was a soft gentle young woman.’’She was young, with fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” paragraph 8. People treated Mrs. Mallard very gentle because they saw her as weak and having a weak heart. “ Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husbands death’’, paragraph 1. In paragraph 2 Josephine broke the news to Louise. She did not want to be straightforward when she told Louise of her husband's death, so she concealed them in broken sentences, and revealed the news to her in broken hints. In paragraph
with her husband?s death and now felt she had room to exist freely. This is supported by the lines?she would live for herself now. There would be no powerful will bending her in the blind. This demonstrates to the reader that she felt controlled by her husband, and that she would no longer be tied down to the ways of the time, which were men controlling women. This was also supported by Jennifer Hicks in her overview of the story which states, "Later, when we see Mrs. Mallard "warm and relaxed", we realize that problem with her heart is that her marriage has not allowed her to "live for herself"."
Mallard goes upstairs, there is a misconception that she is grieving about her husband, but she is truly admiring her freedom. A traditional wife would be crying, hurting, and thinking of funeral arrangements. But in this story, Mrs. Mallard quickly starts to think about her freedom after losing her husband. “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair” (1). The open window shows a breath of fresh air for Mrs. Mallard, and window symbolizes a new path. Back during this time, wives were submissive to their husbands. Anything the husband says goes, and the women did not have a voice. Mrs. Mallard was excited about her freedom. She says it “over and over under her breath: "free, free, free"(2)! This quote express how Mrs. Mallard deeply frees about her husband’s death. She realizes that she now has freedom and she does not have to answer to anyone. When Mrs. Mallard husband was alive, she had to do things his way because the husband was considered to be the dominant partner. Now that Mrs. Mallard husband is dead she would be able to do things her own way without the approval of her husband. Mrs. Mallard quotes, “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself”. This quote expresses how Mrs. Mallard is viewing the future because she no longer has to walk in the shadow of her husband, she can now live for
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...
Mallard is unhappy with her marriage and feels as though she cannot fulfill her life while with her husband. This is evident when she suddenly feels relieved after hearing the news from her sister saying “Free, free, free!” (157). At first she tries to will the feeling away, but eventually welcomes it. This then leads to her discussing how she will go about the rest of her life now that her husband is ‘dead’. As an example, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will on a fellow creature” (158). This quote describes how marriage can feel oppressing as partners feel obligated to act in particular ways while married. So, it is evident that she feels weighed down by her husband and as if she has been weighing him down as well. The fact that this theme is common and relatable is why this work is in the category of
Mrs. Mallard is described as being young and having "a fair, calm face" symbolizing the beauty and innocence of a child. Brently Mallard had repressed her, and now through this seemingly tragic event she is freed of his rule over her and she is able to go on with her life.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” focuses on a woman named Louise Mallard and her reaction to finding out about her husband’s death. The descriptions that the author uses in the story have significance in the plot because they foreshadow the ending.
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard, who is having heart troubles, receives the terrible news, from her sister and her husbands friend Richards, that her husband has passed away. Mrs. Mallard skipped incredulity and began to weep immediately, she went off to a room to be alone and as she stared out the window she pondered what would become of her life. She came to realize that this wasn’t the end of the world, and she felt free, she continued to repeat “free, free,free!” over and over. When she composed herself she decided to go back downstairs with her sister and Richards who was waiting for them at the bottom of the steps, just as she was coming down the stairs someone was opening the front door. It turned out to be her husband, who had been very far from the accident they thought he had died in. When Mrs. Mallard saw him, she gave a piercing scream and died of heart disease that the doctors said was from a joy that kills. I thought that the way the story unfolded was very well written and I personally really love when authors describe what the character of the story is seeing and feeling, it really helps you connect with the character. Also the fact that the author doesnt talk much about Mrs.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.
The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.