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.
Mallard’s husband was a bad husband, if anything it seems as though he was a good husband to Mrs. Mallard. Although the problem with her husband was that, like most other marriages, the women had to bend over backwards to the will of their husbands. The fact that her husband died meant that she was now free to live her life as she pleased. She had no one that she had to answer to. The story does say that she sometimes loved her husband but it was more often that she did not love him. However since it was in the olden days people couldn’t get divorced as easily as they can now. They were stuck in marriages whether they were happy or not. Her husband dying was, an unfortunate, way of her getting out of her
Mrs. Mallard in 'The story of an hour', is a woman that has had to live her life composed and in control as the wife of her husband, Brently Mallard. Chopin details Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the news of her husband's death with convolted emotions that were considered appropraite and yet horrifying to the reader. At the end of the story, her death came as no surprise.
In many short stories, characters face binding situations in their lives that make them realize more about themselves when they finally overcome such factors. These lively binding factors can result based on the instructions imposed by culture, custom, or society. They are able to over come these situations be realizing a greater potential for themselves outside of the normality of their lives. Characters find such realizations through certain hardships such as tragedy and insanity.
The story is very short, but every word has import in the story and each line has great depth of meaning. It is possible to infer a great deal about the woman's life, even though we are given very little on the surface. A telegraph and a railroad are mentioned in the first paragraph, so there is some idea of the time the story takes place. We are also given her married name and the full name of her husband. The fact that she is referred to only as "Mrs. Mallard", while her husband's full name is given, coupled with what we learn on the second page, gives some indication of the repression she's had to suffer through and the indignity society placed on woman in those times. We also learn in the first paragraph that she lives in a man's world, for, though it is her sister that tells her the news, it is her husband's friend who rushes over with the story. Even after his death, she is confined to the structures she adopted with married life, including the close friend's of her husband.
In "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin tells the story of a woman, Mrs. Mallard, whose husband is thought to be dead. Throughout the story, Chopin describes the emotions Mrs. Mallard felt about the news of her husband's death. However, the strong emotions she felt were not despair or sadness, they were something else. In a way, she was relieved more than she was upset, and almost rejoiced in the thought of her husband no longer living. In using different literary elements throughout the story, Chopin conveys this to us on more than one occasion.
Can you hear the voices? In a story there is always more that just one voice to be heard. Can you hear them? It is only necessary to look closely and read the text, then you can hear them. In Kate Chopin’s story, “Story of an Hour,” there are four distinct voices that can be heard. You are able to hear the narrator, author, character, and yourself as you read.
The story begins on a very sad note especially in the eyes of a reader. Mrs. Mallard is said to have a “heart
Marriage was not kind to Mrs. Mallard, her life was dull and not worth living, her face showed the years of repression. If she did love this man, why was marriage so harmful to her? Marriage was a prison for her
Situational irony is used in "The Story of an Hour" through Mrs. Mallard's reaction to her husband's death and the description of the settings around her at this time. Upon hearing the news of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard "wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment" (Chopin 213). It appeared to everyone that as a result of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard was incredibly sad. She insisted upon being alone and retreated to her room. The sort of reaction she had seems like one typical to someone who had just lost a loved one. She experienced grief and shock. However, once she is alone in her room, the reader discovers another side of her emotions. Once she calms down, she whispers "Free, free, free" (Chopin 214), and the reader realizes that she is not having a typical reaction. Instead of being saddened by the loss of her husband, Mrs. Mallard is relieved. "She saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome" (Chopin 214). Mrs. Mallard, instead of wondering who will support her in years to come, realizes that she will have no one binding her a...
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 "Story of an Hour" the author portrays patriarchal oppression in the institution of marriage by telling the story of one fateful hour in the life of a married woman. Analyzing the work through feminist criticism, one can see the implications of masculine discourse.
Setting exists in every form of fiction, representing elements of time, place, and social context throughout the work. These elements can create particular moods, character qualities, or features of theme. Throughout Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour," differing amounts and types of the setting are revealed as the plot develops. This story deals with a young woman's emotional state as she discovers her own independence in her husband's death, then her "tragic" discovery that he is actually alive. The constituents of setting reveal certain characteristics about the main character, Louise Mallard, and are functionally important to the story structure. The entire action takes place in the springtime of a year in the 1890s, in the timeframe of about an hour, in a house belonging to the Mallards. All of these aspects of setting become extremely relevant and significant as the meaning of the story unfolds.
In the short story of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, it opens on the news that Mrs. Mallard's husband, Brently Mallard, had died in a railroad accident: "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 husband's death" (Chopin 1). Not much about the protagonist is known except that she has heart trouble. The tone of hesitation and sadness in the story is set within the first sentence along with an uneasiness about Mrs. Mallard's condition.
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.
Mrs. Mallard’s conflicts reflects the situations of many women in the 1800 era. Women in the mid 1800’s that were married, lived under the husband's identity, didn’t have much freedom, and felt like they were trapped in a marriage. In a reading called The Story of an Hour, it described a story of a lady named Mrs. Mallard who faced many conflicts within herself due to being invisible in her marriage. Mrs. Mallard could relate to other women in her time because back in the mid-1800s a lot of women felt like they had to stay in their marriage even if they were unhappy. Also, some married women may have felt as if they were trapped in their marriage, living under their husband's identity, as well as not having much freedom. Facing some of the
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.