“Story of An Hour," written by Kate Chopin is a story about a woman who is not only suffering in her health but also in her marriage. The story is set in the Mallard family home. This sparseness of setting was chosen deliberately by Chopin to express the story’s key theme: a longing for personal freedom. Visitors in the Mallard home seem to demonstrate great care and respect for her medical issues but do not seem to be aware of her suffering marriage. The chief victim of this distressed way of life is the story’s protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard. She is a woman who quickly takes on a different angle of life with her new sense of freedom.
Mrs. Mallard is a sick woman; afflicted with a heart trouble. So, great care is taken by Josephine, Mrs. Mallard's sister, to break her the news as gently as possible when it is thought that her husband was killed in a horrific train accident. Predictably, Mrs. Mallard reacts to the news with tears as she flees upstirs, locking herself in her room.
This is where we can see a change in Mrs. Mallard’s character. She beings to realize, despite her initial opposition, she is now free. Mrs. Mallard knows she will mourn her husband’s death, but she also predicts many years of freedom, which she welcomes. She dreams of her future, in which she will live without the burden of others. She loved her husband, but the
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Mallard's reasoning for her feelings toward her husband originated from how the roles of women were seen in the late nineteenth century compared to how they are seen in the world today. Men were considered superior to women as women were not considered as equals. American wives were under strict control of the husbands; they set the rules and boundaries for women, much like Mr. Mallard had done for his wife. Although Chopin does not directly cite the old-fashioned second-class situation of women in the text, Mrs. Mallard’s exclamations of “free, free, free!” are highly suggestive of the historical
Mrs. Mallard’s husband is thought to be dead, and since she has that thought in her mind she goes through many feelings
Mallard isolating herself in the room with the open window she was able to see the tree tops, clouds, and blue skies. She began to faintly hear the sound of someone singing and birds chirping in the distance. All of her senses are suggesting the upcoming of spring and this feeling of freedom she didn't have when her husband was still alive. This open window in the room is allowing her to look out into the distance and almost envision a future of living only for herself. Once Mrs. Mallard feels her body come back to life she began repeating "free, free, free!" (paragraph 11) Ultimately, Mrs. Mallard did not feel this freedom for very long when her husband walked through the front door. She was so devastated at the loss of her new life that her heart
She is now told her husband died so she runs to her bedroom to be left alone. While her sister and family friend are downstairs feeling sorry for her and thinking she is destroyed, Mrs. Mallard comes upon an unsuspected feeling that she is now “free.” Since this story was written in 1894, which was a very tough ti...
“The Story of an Hour” is a stark display of female rejection of the norms of society. This work, by Kate Chopin, begins with a woman going through the stages of grief for her husband’s death. For the wife, Louise Mallard, this was an awakening of a new life. This new life is cut short as the information that led her to believe this news turns our false. Kate Chopin reveals that even the desire for love is trumped by the need for freedom and independence, through her use of precise diction and syntax, and symbolism.
She has no uniqueness of her own; she is just a woman that belongs to her husband Mr. Mallard. After she realizes how free she is, readers begin to see her as an actual person. The spring season reflects the rebirth of Mrs. Mallard’s character. The storm clouds clearing to show blue skies is symbolic of the storm of her marriage passing. Even though Mrs. Mallard knows that she should not be happy, she cannot stop her feelings of joy: “She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her” (151).
is also oppressed by the circumstances within her marriage. Mrs. Mallard however suppressed her feelings and of unhappiness and in which the story implies puts stress on her heart. The announcement of her husband death brings on conflicting feelings of grief and joy. Mrs. Mallard paradoxical statement about the death of her husband changes her perception about life. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
...her room she will no longer be bound to her husband but rather free to do what she wants whenever she chooses to. Mrs. Mallard is at last apart from a person who was once somebody she loved but then started to dislike him because of his selfishness towards her. Then at last she comes to a point when she sees him and dies because she knows she will be jailed up again with his possession with her.
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.
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’s emotions over the presumed death of her husband. The author used both dramatic and situational irony to mislead the reader and surprise them with a plot twist ending. By utilizing both external and internal conflict the author expresses the internal debate of Mrs. Mallard’s true feelings and those of the people around her. The author used symbolism to display Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom from her marriage. In the end it was not joy that killed Mrs. Mallard but the realization that she lost her
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.
Mallard and her husband to present how true feelings are hidden. This is shown to tell the reason why Mrs. Mallard feels glad and free as a result of her husband's death. After realizing her freedom, she senses that
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin expresses many themes through her writing. The main themes of this short story are the joy independence brings, the oppression of marriage in nineteenth century America, and how fast life can change.
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.