In “The Story of an Hour” (1894), author Kate Chopin delves into an American woman’s role in society in the 1900’s. The main character and wife, Mrs. Mallard is shown living a boring and dismal life until she is told of her husband’s death in a train crash. Brently Mallard, her husband’s friend, and Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, tells the news to her carefully in fear of her dying from shock and heartbreak because she is known to have heart problems. But when Mrs. Mallard hears the shocking news, she goes through a bigger change than they could have imagined that ends with a “clear and exalted perception” (Chopin 39). She becomes empowered with the feeling of strength and a new excitement for life. Chopin focuses on the tradition of marriage …show more content…
When she hears the news of her husband’s death, “Mrs. Mallard’s obliviousness to the beauty of life breaks down under the powerful impact of emotion”(Jamil 1). Not yet understanding the “beauty of life”, she feels herself “breakdown”(Jamil 1). Until this moment, Mrs. Mallard has been thinking of how long and boring life would be. This is shown as the author states that, “It was only yesterday [Mrs. Mallard] had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (39). No one is worried about how long they will have to live unless they have nothing to live for. Her life up until this point seems devoid of purpose. Upon hearing the news, her grief and fear take over. As stated, “She wept at once with sudden, wild abandonment” (Chopin 39). Often with the sudden shock of grief, a person is unable to accept information such as death. This is shown as Chopin says “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzing inability to accept its significance” (Chopin 39) she automatically transfers her emotions and is quick to process grief into her new freedom. It is almost as if she skips the denial and grief stage for the acceptance and realization of a new …show more content…
She has a realization of how beautiful life is without her husband. Then, realizing that her husband is still alive she dies of supposed “joy”. A joy that, according to her doctors, is from seeing her husband alive. Specifically, it makes the irony of the doctor 's statement that Louise dies of "joy that kills" resound in ways that are more complex than the common understanding it grants (Dolan 354). In reality we are lead to believe she dies from horror. This happens because for one hour of her life, Louise does truly feel excited and happy about her future. The feeling of being fully alive broke her heart because she realized that with her husband 's survival, that feeling would come to an end. Chopin clearly shows that it was the realization and horror that she would no longer be free that killed
“The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin, published in 1894, tells a story of a woman who believes she will now experience freedom from her repressive marriage. Chopin records the rollercoaster of emotions Mrs. Mallard felt after learning of her husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard experiences strong emotions but not of grief or despre but rather freedom and joy. After the death of her husband she realizes the limitless potential of her own self-assertion. In the story, the reader sees the common view of marriage in the late nineteenth hundreds. Mrs. Mallard felt free from a redistricting and sheltering marriage and becomes self possessed. Later, when Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband still lives, she know that all hope of freedom is gone. With the use of symbolism and characterization, Chopin creates the under lining theme
In the 1890’s the roles of women in a marriage were very different then today. Chopin wrote her stories to point out the inequality within these marriages. In “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm,” Kate Chopin takes these conventional roles of the time and turns them up side down. “The Story of an Hour” describes the death of a husband, and his wife, Louise Mallard’s reaction to the tragedy. In “The Storm”, a wife and mother, Calixta, has an affair with an ex-boyfriend during a particularly bad rainstorm. These women are both, in some way, unhappy in their marriages. Both of these stories describe two different women, but Chopin’s ideas of women’s sexuality and life outside of marriage bring them both together to represent one woman and idea
Mary Wollstonecraft once said, “I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” Naturalists and Realists focus heavily on issues in society, and their literature of discontent reflects their desire for change in society. In this depiction of Realistic and Naturalistic beliefs, Mrs. Mallard, a married woman, realizes her burning desire for freedom after her husband is thought to have died in a railroad accident. Throughout the short story, “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard’s sudden longing for freedom and her ultimate dismay with her husband’s miraculous return exemplify Chopin’s dissatisfaction with women’s limited freedom in marriage, relationships, and life in general.
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, it talks about marriage and a woman’s life in the 1800’s. This story illustrates the stifling nature of a woman’s role during this time through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death. When Mrs. Mallard obtains news that her husband is dead, she is hurt after a brief moment and then she is delighted with the thought of freedom. This story shows how life was in the mid 1800’s and how women were treated around that time.
“The Story of the Hour” by Kate Chopin portrays an opposing perspective of marriage by presenting the reader with a woman who is somewhat untroubled by her husbands death. The main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard encounters the sense of freedom rather than sorrow after she got knowledge of her husbands death. After she learns that her husband, Brently, is still alive, it caused her to have a heart attack and die. Even though “The Story of the Hour” was published in the eighteen hundreds, the views of marriage in the story could coincide with this era as well.
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 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.” Mrs. Mallard cared for and loved her husband; being married was the only way of life that she knew.
"She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with paralyzed inability to accept its significance" (Chopin 15). In this situation, Mrs.Mallard 's response is different. She cries instantly yet, her tears were overpowered by her thoughts. She begins to imagine a life without him, a life of liberation. At first, she was scared and her feelings made her perplex. Nonetheless, as she allows her feelings to progress the situation enlightens and she becomes overjoyed. She thinks of a life after the casket. Yes, she knows her feelings of grief will return at the funeral but she sees that as human nature. In her perspective, his passing is the door to her independence, "Free! Body and soul free" (Chopin
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.
“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’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, is about a woman, named Louise Mallard, in the late 1800s who is told that her husband, Brently, has died in a railroad accident. Initially, Louise is surprised, distressed, and drowned in sorrow. After mourning the loss, the woman realizes that she is finally free and independent, and that the only person she has to live for is herself. She becomes overwhelmed with joy about her new discovery of freedom, and dreams of all of the wonderful events in life that lie ahead of her. Louise’s sister finally convinces her to leave her room and come back into reality. While Louise is walking down her steps, her husband surprisingly enters through the door because he was actually not killed in the accident. At the same moment, Louise collapses and dies, supposedly from “heart disease-of joy that kills” (Chopin 706).
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.
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.
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.
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, 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