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Sometimes emotions are hard to recognize especially when it comes to love. This point is made throughout “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and also throughout story “Ind Aff or Out of Love in Sarajevo” by Fay Weldon. Love is not always what it seems to be in both “Ind Aff or Out of Love in Sarajevo” and “The Story of an Hour.” In Kate Chopin 's “The Story of an Hour,” the scene is set during the Industrial Revolution. A time when girls were married off at early ages and were only seen as a means to pass on the family name. Louise, a young woman married to a railroad worker by the name Brently Mallard, had been diagnosed with heart trouble. A terrible railroad accident claimed the life of her husband. “ It was her sister Josephine who …show more content…
Women are free to explore higher education, travel around the world, and to marry whomever. “We had to be sure...that this was more than any old professor-student romance; that it was the Real Thing, because the longer the indecision went on the longer Mrs. Piper would be left dangling in uncertainty and distress”. In this line of the story, the reader can see that the narrator, a young woman in college, is away having an affair with her married professor. (172-173) “Mr. and Mrs. Peter Piper had been married for twenty-four years...no longer in love with each other... I loved him... and so far I was winning hands down”. (173) “I love you, I said to Peter...How much do you love me?...Inordinately! I love you with inordinate affection”. (174) These lines bring ones attention to the great amounts of love the narrator has for her lover. “Peter said...Your Ind aff is my wife 's sorrow, that 's the problem”. (175) Peter has put the blame for his marriage falling apart on the narrator. While waiting at the restaurant for their lunch “Two waiters stood idly by and watch us waiting...one was young and handsome...about my age...he smiled... I smiled back, and instead of the pain in the heart I 'd become accustomed to as an erotic sensation, now felt, quite violently, an associated yet different pang which got my lower stomach...The true pain of Ind Aff...I stood up...Where are you going? He asked, startled...Home”. (176) The young waiter helped the narrator to realize that she is young and there are so many men her age that would really love her not just use her for
In Western culture, it is understood that marriage is based on an equal partnership and not one person controlling the other. On the contrary, in the early 19th century, women were usually in unions that were male dominated. Women were meant to be seen and not heard. Likewise, in the short story, “The Story of an Hour” and the play “Trifles”, two women from very different circumstances share the same fate of being dominated by their husbands and lose their identity while married.
The Story of An Hour was published in Vogue on December 6, 1894. This was a time in history when the roles of men and women were well defined. The men ruled their wives and the marriage; women did not have their own identity or freedom. Kate Chopin was writing from experience. Her husband died when she was in her early 30’s, thus giving her the freedom and independent identity she longed for. After the death of her husband, Chopin raised their six children and never remarried. Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard as the typical nineteenth-century woman who changes into a joyful freed soul when she is mistakenly told her husband died in a railroad accident. Mrs. Mallard quickly embraces the idea of being free and unlocks herself from her room when her sister calls her by her first name. Louise Mallard gains her own identity, no longer constrained by the bounds of marriage. Chopin makes certain to inform the reader that Louise now carried herself like “a goddess of Victory” because she was no longer married. Chopin’s narrator reflects on all of the wonderful and positive aspects of single life for Louise. Yet, Mrs. Mallard gives little thought or praise for the institution of
“The story of an hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin on 1894. It narrates the story of a woman called Louise who was married to a man called Brently Mallard. A friend of Mr. Mallard arrived to the house afraid of telling her some terrible news about her husband. Apparently he was involved on a train crash and this friend knew about the ill heart condition of Mrs. Mallard. Both her sister and her husband’s friend were aware that the news about Brently’s death could be mortal for Louise, and they did not know how to tell her the outcome of this terrible accident.
Throughout history women have pioneered their way into occupations that were once occupied solely by men. Not surprisingly, many achievements have come from women challenging and stepping out of their expected social roles. Today most women are free to voice their opinion and express themselves in every aspect of their lives, including their marriage. It was not long ago when women were deprived of this freedoms. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin Mrs. Mallard has been informed of the death of her husband. At first she feels melancholy because they both loved each other. He never mistreated her but at the same time she was chained to him. She quickly changes her mood when realizing what the death of her husband has given her. In the story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, Calixta is a loving
As the story progresses it becomes evident that she suffered from more than one type, physical and emotional. Common to the women of that day, Louise obviously did not go around complaining about her unhappiness with her husband and her life. Her sister and husband’s friend were worried that she might not even be able to bear the bad news. One of the aspects of “The Story of an Hour” that is compelling to the reader is the fact that Louise Mallard feels excitement after learning of her husband’s death. She anticipates the possibility of being a free woman and able to live for herself. “She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!”.(Chopin 236) Although her husband was not abusive, the reader intuitively understands that Louise felt oppressed in her marriage and now for the first time, she feels the possibility of constructing her own identity and identifying possibilities for her own
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.
Kate Chopin provides her reader with an enormous amount of information in just a few short pages through her short story, “The Story of an Hour.” The protagonist, Louise Mallard, realizes the many faults in romantic relationships and marriages in her epiphany. “Great care [is] taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 168). Little do Josephine and Richards know, the news will have a profoundly positive effect on Louise, rather than a negative one. “When she abandoned herself,” Mrs. Mallard opened her mind to a new way of life.
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.
"The story of an hour" leads to a sequence of shocking events through Kate Chopin' s main character Louise Mallard. In this short story poem, Chopin reveals an unsaid view of marriage in the late 1800s that many women may have felt. Learning the death of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard experiences an overwhelming joy that overtakes her. Mrs. Mallard is a caged bird that is finally let free to fly into her own death, such as women are today.
It is a common belief that a woman should love her husband at all times. However, this social norm is not always true. In the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard, a woman with known heart trouble, must be told by her sister and a dear friend of her husband’s death in a train accident. After being told the news, she retreats to her room on her own to process her thoughts. At first she sits and cries in sadness for a very long time. Then, she is overcome with happiness. She now realizes that she can live her life as a free person, only for herself. She does not need to live for her husband, she can now make all of her decisions on her own. When her sister comes to check on her, Mrs. Mallard shows her happiness
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.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
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
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.