Can love be so cruel that causes a lover to die? Depression is common among patients with heart attacks. In the short story, "The Story of an Hour," by Katie Chopin. As the author tells us about a sticky wife who dies after seeing her husband alive whom her mind was dead from a railroad accident. Once she heard about her husband 's death she imagines a whole life of freedom and a way out of a loveless marriage. Symbolism and imagery plays a huge role in this story because it used to describe the new life appearing before Louise Mallard 's eyes. First, Louise Mallard suffers a heart trouble. When Louise believes that her husband died, her heart trouble is representative of her mixed feeling about her marriage and the lack of freedom that causes her. The heart beats strongly and she embraces the idea of finally being free from her marriage. When Mr. Mallard died, Mrs. Mallard 's statement was "free! body and soul free!" and quiet whispers of "free, free, free" (533). This lets the readers know that she was not happy in her marriage with Mr. Mallard. She felt held back from her own independence as a woman and these statements symbolize her joy for freedom. She …show more content…
Mallard’s room symbolizes her new found freedom and all the opportunities that she did not have when her husband was alive. The open window is a visual image that the author uses to show the reader Mrs. Mallards freedom. Her own heart problems symbolizes her marriage status. During those time women were consider to only get married and then live their lives as wives. That’s why at the end when the doctor says that her death was due to "a joy that kills,” symbolizes that the lack of dominance that women had during these times. To the men, they believe that she got her heart attack because of her husband coming home unharmed, but in reality it was because of her loss of freedom and
She whispers, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin). Though her situation is sad, she does not have a remorseful response. She locks herself in her room and reflects upon her new reality. She instead comes to find a form of liberation for herself from her husband’s death. As she looks out the window, Chopin writes, “…she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window,” (Chopin). Chopin is stating Louie’s newly found greatness for her life. She is now able to live for herself and not behind her husband as society has told her. She can be different and gain more from her life now because she does not have to follow or live for a man, as many woman did in society. She feels exonerated from her bondage, which is marriage, and she now feels she can have a life for herself. In the end, her husband is actually found to be alive as he walks into the room. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills,” (Chopin). From seeing her husband, Louise dies. It was joy that had killed her. Readers can easily believe that she died because of the shock that her husband was still alive, but in reality she died from the loss of her new found greatness. The joy that killed her was her own
Louise is trapped in her marriage. The lines of her face "bespoke repression" (paragraph 8). When Louise acknowledges that her husband is dead, she knows that there will "be no powerful will bending her" (paragraph 14). There will be no husband who believes he has the "right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature" (paragraph 14). Louise knows that her husband loved her. Brently had only ever looked at Louise with love (paragraph 13). This tells the reader that Brently is not a horrible ma...
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.
Another example of how Mrs. Mallard was more uplifted than brought down by the news of her husband?s death is the description of the window. As Mrs. Mallard looks out Chopin explains ?she could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all a quiver with new life?. This is telling the reader about the new life that Mrs. Mallard can see in the distance that symbolizes the new life she saw that lay ahead of her now that she was free of her husband. This thought being supported by Hicks in saying "The revalation of freedom occurs in the bedroom"
Looking through the lens of the open window, Mrs. Louise Mallard was able to use the open window to metaphorically represent the life and happiness she longed for throughout her marriage. For this reason, Mrs. Louise Mallard narrates, “ And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this new possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!”(Chopin, Page 2) Evidently, it is her knowing that above everything what she wanted more than anything is to be her own person. Thus the open window brings a fresh new start to life for her. It is what takes away her fear at the very beginning of the story, of her life changing. The open window evolves to serve as a long life which, in the beginning of the story, the thought of having a long life would bring fear. The more she looked out, the more she realized that life is good. Therefore, the moment Mrs. Mallard does turn away from the open window and leaves the room she was in, her new revelation that her husband is alive, that all of her endless possibilities were shattered and that her independence was short-lived makes her die out of disappointment. Ironically enough, instead of being the one to survive, she is the one that is dying, suffering from a tragic heart attack just as the beginning of the story
The story begins on a very sad note especially in the eyes of a reader. Mrs. Mallard is said to have a “heart
Marriage can be seen as a subtle form of oppression, like many things which are dictated by social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour, Louise Mallard finds herself in distress due to the event of her husband’s death that makes her question who she is as a person. The author cleverly uses this event to create the right atmosphere for Mrs. Mallard to fight against her own mind. As the short story progresses, we see that Mrs. Mallard moves forward with her new life and finds peace in her decision to live for herself. This shows that marriage too is another chain that holds oneself back. Not wanting to admit this to herself, Louise
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, the struggle for freedom is dominant. The main character, Mrs. Mallard, stands for a woman who is struggling internally and externally for freedom. After the sudden loss of her husband, Mrs. Mallard gets a taste of the freedom she was lacking in her marriage. Like Mrs. Mallard, women throughout history have struggled to find freedom and success away from their husbands. Chopin herself only became successful after the loss of her husband. In “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin shows women’s struggle for freedom during the Victorian period through Mrs. Mallard’s struggle for her own freedom.
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...
When Louise Mallard first hears that her husband was killed in a railroad accident, "she wept at once," and "went away to her room alone" (12). As she mourns, looking out of her window on the second floor of her home, a sudden change of heart begins to come over her. She notices "the delicious breath of rain," " a peddler . . . crying his wares," "notes of a distant song," "countless sparrows . . . twittering," and "patches of blue sky," "all aquiver with the new spring life" (13). As she stares at the sky, she begins to think about her newfound independence from her husband, uttering the words "free, free, free!" (13). What makes her develop such a sudden change in attitude? Could it be that she sees rebirth in the world through her wind...
Upon seeing her husband alive and well Louise realizes that the life she has imagined is not to be. The return of Brently signals a return of the patriarchal oppression in her life, and after imagining herself as an individual and then to be denied the chance to live freely is a punishment far worse than the crime. Louise loses her identity and once again becomes "his wife." Richards once more tries to protect her, a helpless woman, by attempting to block her view from her husband, because of the fragile state of her heart. Mrs. Mallard's strengths are gone, never to be acknowledged by the men in her life. For one, brief hour she was an individual. Now she finds herself bound by masculine oppression with no end in sight, and the result is death.
Mrs. Mallard was at first overjoyed with freedom because her husband was supposedly “dead,” yet at the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard comes face to face with Mr. Mallard. A whole new wave of emotions overcame Mrs. Mallard as she laid eyes on her husband instantly killing her from “a heart disease-of joy that kills.” It is ironic how Mrs. Mallard is overjoyed about her husband’s death, and she ended up dying because she found out he was alive instead. Her joy literally was killed, killing her on the inside as
Freedom is one of the most powerful words in the world because of the feeling it gives people. This idea is evident in Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour.” In the story, readers witness the effect freedom can have when the main character, Louise, finds out her husband had passed away. The story begins when Louise’s sister informs her that her husband had been in a terrible accident and he was dead. Once she gets over the immediate shock, she finds herself overwhelmed with joy because she was free to live her life for herself and not her husband. At the end of the story, her husband walks through the front door, and Louise has a heart attack and dies. In the story "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the power of freedom through the use of diction, point of view, and setting.
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.
Literary devices are useful for giving stories many unexpected twins and turns, makes people imagine what the view looks like, and helps reveal a hidden meaning. In “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, she uses many different literary words to be more descriptive.