In the short story "The Story of an Hour", Kate Chopin describes an hour of a woman, a new widow seems to be who incidentally recognizes a new free life and enjoys it just in a short moment; one hour right after getting a news of her husbands death in an accident. She has everything and nothing all in the same moment "an hour."
At the beginning of the story, we know that Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble. Why the author builds the central character with a heart disease? The heart trouble of Mrs. Mallard seems to be just an excuse, a reason for her death at the ending of the story. Is it really a physical disease or through the image of the heart affliction, the author wants to imply an inner suffering of a woman in her marriage life?
We can see that as getting a bad news of her husband's death, she reacts as a normal way it is of any other wives. She still suffers to get the bad news. Yet, she makes readers a little shocked as her suffering passing so quick. To deal with the grief over her husband's supposed death, she locks herself in her room. But in such a short moment, she feels something coming to her. Standing by and looking outside the window, she accidentally recognizes a new life beyond it. The symbol of window here is her contacting with the outside world. the author uses the image of beautiful nature scenery outside the window such as: "blue sky", "the clouds", "new spring life", "breath of rain", "the tops of trees all aquiver", "countless twittering sparrows in the eaves" to create a wonderful life, a new and pure life that she has just realized. Obviously, before she gets the news, sky is still blue, bird is still singing, and the trees, the clouds and everything are still in its natural circle but she may not ...
... middle of paper ...
...ps to death as seeing her husband alive, we feel sympathize with her because after getting freedom and independence, she can not return to the life she has lived before. Probably, marriage, in her view, is not free and she just accepts either freedom or death.
Reading the story of Chopin "The Story of an Hour", we can understand and sympathize with women who is spending their won life in a society of inequality between men and women as well as we can see their desire of freedom is so strong but they have to pay for it by death, by their own life. Through the story, the author wants to convey such a desire of women; a crave of freedom, equality and a hope that the role of women in the family and society should be changed. However, the death of Mrs. Mallard is a sign of a failure and a standstill of a struggle that shows us the role of women still maintain as it is.
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.
The Story of an Hour is a short story of Ms. Mallard, a woman with a heart condition who receives short term good news. Chopin uses contrast between independence, marriage, and gender to show how hidden emotions can effect a woman’s actions in the time period where women did not have much power or right to speak what came to their mind.
The Major theme in “Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is the forbidden pleasures of freedom for women. This story was written in a time where women had no independence. They lived their lives for their husbands and not for themselves. While reading we see the oppression women faced in marriages, and the guilt they faced when desiring their freedom from the lives that they lived.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. ( This description of the scenery is very happy, usually not how one sees the world after hearing devastating news of her husbands death.)
In conclusion, “The story of an hour” is a clear depiction that women status in the society determines the choices they make about their lives. In this work, Chopin depicts a woman as a lesser being without identity or voices of their own. They are expected to remain in oppressive marriages and submit to their husbands without question.
For women, the 19th century was a time of inequality, oppression, and inferiority to their male counterparts. A woman's social standing depended solely on her marital status. For these reasons many women were forced to lead a life of solitude and emotional inadequacy, often causing depression. In Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour," setting plays a significant role in illustrating the bittersweet triumph of Mrs. Mallard's escape from oppression at the ironic cost of her life.
As the title puts it, “The Story of an Hour” takes place in the span of an hour. The title of the story also shows the possibility of occurrences within a single hour. This story is mostly centered around one woman, Louis Mallard. In conventional circumstances, death brings sorrow, grief, seclusion, guilt, regrets, along with other feeling depending on the cause of death. In “The Story of an Hour”, sorrow and grief are a product of the recent happenings, however, these feelings are coupled with joy and independence. Kate Chopin uses this story to convey death as a joyful circumstance whereas conventionally it is portrayed as sorrowful.
Kate Chopin wrote a short piece called “The Story of an Hour” about a woman’s dynamic emotional shift who believes she has just learned her husband has died. The theme of Chopin’s piece is essentially a longing for more freedom for women.
The aspirations and expectations of freedom can lead to both overwhelming revelations and melancholy destruction. In Kate Chopin’s “ The Story of an Hour” Louise Mallard is stricken with the news of her husband’s “death” and soon lead to new found glory of her freedom and then complete catastrophe in the death of herself. Chopin’s use of irony and the fluctuation in tone present the idea that freedom can be given or taken away without question and can kill without warning. After learning of her husband’s death in a railroad disaster, Mrs. Mallard sinks into a deep state of grief, as one would be expected to do upon receiving such news.
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'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.
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.”
Kate Chopin’s novel “The Story of an Hour” is one of the best-known masterwork of short fiction and narrates about the role of women and her self-knowledge. Out of many aspects of human existence, Chopin were interested in internal, spiritual life of woman, and her role in the society. The Chopin’s view of the world formed under huge influence the family and epoch were the basics of individuality formed and established. She brought up mostly by women, as well as her great-grandmother. Living in such environment, from early age Chopin sees a woman differently from common social view.
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
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...