The Staircase of Life Stories are used to teach readers important life lessons. However, the author cannot just make the theme one simple sentence and expect it to impact the audience. The author must hide the theme within the context, mood, and social interactions in the story. Because themes are woven into the storyline, readers may have different interpretations of the themes. The short story “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is one such story. It depicts a woman, named Mrs. Mallard, who is informed of the death of her husband during the exposition of the story. Mrs. Mallard retreats to her room after hearing this news, and realizes that she is now free to do things as she wished. She is no longer held down by the constraints of being a …show more content…
Mallard’s life, was a typical one for women in the 1800’s. She was governed by her parents, until she was married off. Her husband then took control of all of her personal possessions and basically owned Mrs. Mallard herself. Women were not free to be independent in this time period. Like the story of her life, a staircase has a way up, and a way down. Mrs. Mallard always lived on the first floor of her life; she could not do anything independently. However, when she heard of her husband’s death, she ascended the staircase, literally and figuratively. I love how Kate Chopin added the staircase into the storyline. Student three states, “She ascends the staircase to freedom, everything changes at the top of the stairs.” At the top of the staircase is where Louise realizes that she is finally free. Louise is ready to start her life in this moment. Chopin writes, “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs,”(Chopin). When she comes down the stairs, her husband walks through the door, and all her freedom is stripped away. The action of her descending the stairs shows that she is soon going to have everything taken away. Student three says, “We descend the staircase with her and everything is taken away.” The staircase is extremely similar to a plot diagram. When Louise ascended the stairs, she was at the climax of her life, and when she reached the bottom she was at the
Climbing up the staircase symbolizes Elena’s and Lila’s growth and their strife to reach a higher social class. Their departure from the safety of the courtyard represents their attempt to leave the neighborhood. Every step they take represents their actions to getting a better life. They don’t know what might happen, but they climb up the stairs. They’re afraid, but they become closer to reaching their goal of retrieving their dolls. The darkness of the staircase represents the shadiness that higher class people express, which can be seen in the corrupt Carraccis and Solaras. Throughout the book, Lila finds out people’s association with the Camorra. She becomes very upset by this, because she hates the crimes of the neighborhood, but she can’t seem to avoid them as she tries to make her way out of the
Louise is said to "not hear the story as many women have heard the same." Rather, she accepts it and goes to her room to be alone. Now the reader starts to see the world through Louise's eyes, a world full of new and pure life.
Mrs. Mallard is the example of a typical housewife of the mid 1800’s. At the time, most women were not allowed to go to school and were usually anticipated to marry and do housework. During that time, the only way women could get out of a marriage was if they were to die or their
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"."
Using a different critiquing approach such as the biographical/historical analysis when reading the literary work could also critique this story. Using this analysis, one will understand from the story, the time period that it was written and Mrs. Mallard’s struggle with her feelings of independence. During the 19th century it was acceptable for a woman to be a widow so her new found freedom would have been a smooth transition for her.
When Mrs. Mallard goes upstairs, she looks out an open window: “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her. There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair” (547). This window represents her newfound freedom and her future without Mr. Mallard. From the window, she sees “…the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life…delicious breath of rain in the air…a peddler crying his wares…patches of blue sky showing…” (547).
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 scenery quickly makes sense as Mrs. Mallard sits in her arm chair, at first “pressed down by a physical exhaustion” which shows that the death of her husband has taken a toll on her, but the soon lighter atmosphere of the room and, the bright colors, such as the blue sky, give off the feeling of moving through the sadness, and a new life coming from this death. The spring setting is popular among new life stories, it is the ending of the winter of her life, the
Mallard was full of "joy" (p.2). She was excited of her new life without her husband. No sadness shown "she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window" (p.2) even she got the chance to drink without given any kind of importance to her husband death news. "She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities" (p.2) as she is now strong enough to fight her grief and ready to her new life "a goddess of victory" (p.2). Suddenly "someone was opening the front door with a latchkey.
The story happens in the house that belongs to Louise Mallard. Most of the time, the author focus on the upstairs of the house- Louise's bed room and the room is closed. We can see Louise is trapped in her house. Her bed room is the only place that belongs to her. So when she heard about the"death" of her husband, she goes to her upstairs bed room, and close the door. "
According to the author, Louise has been feeling some kind of “repression and even a certain strength” (13) by her marriage but she hasn’t realized it until this point in time. All these newly found emotions are contrasted once her sister Josephine comes and tells her to leave the room, which by the time she does, she goes downstairs and is shocked by her husband’s arrival and dies shortly after (14). The floors of the house represent Louise’s personality shown in her approaches toward her own
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.
In the story, after Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room after hearing the devastating news about her husband, she starts thinking on the bright side of her situation, she sits down, and Mrs. Mallard begins to appear as a stronger woman which is where the feminist theory takes effect. She looks out of the house through the large open window which could also signify the open opportunities available to her now. She begins to see how her marriage made her into a lesser person. She realizes that she has been living her life through limitations caused from being married. Mrs. Mallard knows that she can begin
She has defied her husband, instead of being better, she is now worse. In “Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard now truly believes her husband is gone, “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (“Story of an Hour”). She is happy at last. Through these characters, actions we can see their feminist side. They all had tragic endings; two died and one went insane all because of their oppression.
...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.