ipl-logo

An Hour Response

809 Words4 Pages

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is embedded with many devices working together to convey one central theme. Through the utilization of insightful shifts within the plot, significant diction, and symbolic details, Chopin flawlessly communicates the message that some don’t recognize their oppression until they experience autonomy. Chopin emphasizes the sudden oppression felt by the unknowing Louise with her use of intense contrasts within her story. As many intense emotions are displayed throughout Chopin’s short story, many shifts take place. Louise attempts to wrap her mind around the feelings consuming her, feeling it intensify as she looks out of her window. The first and most prominent shift in Louise’s emotions regarding her husband …show more content…

Louise seemingly realizes the emotion taking over her and struggles to not let it integrate her mind, but inevitably falls victim to her strange feelings. This creates a significant contrast between her violent sobs when learning of her husband and her elation as she processes it. In presenting this stark shift in attitude to the reader, Chopin illustrates the fleeting impact of individuality after a lifetime of submission. Louise reflects on her seemingly instantaneous change of mind, confessing, “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” (para. 19. Chopin’s acknowledgement of the effect independence has on victims of oppression further confirms the relieving nature of autonomy. Chopin’s dramatic diction reveals the false perception that comes with subjection. Further in the story, Louise’s morals and desires clash as she processes this new future approaching her. Chopin gives emphasis to the manipulated perspective of Louise when she reveals, “She did not stop to ask if it was or was not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.” (para. 12) Chopin utilizes words such as “monstrous” (para. 2). 12. “perception” and “perception”

Show More
Related

Louise Dialectical Journal

78 Words | 1 Pages

When Josephine asks Louise to open the door, Louise says, ‘“Go away. I am not making myself ill”’ (Chopin, par. 18). 4. Louise identifies the swift feeling of confidence as the most intense sensation in her existence.

Read More

Comparing Women In Susan Glaspell's Trifles And A Doll House

1369 Words | 6 Pages

Unsurprisingly, this article discusses the emotions in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” S.S. Jamil shows the irony in stereotyping women as overemotional, when the conventional roles Louise Mallard lives in force her to suppress her emotions. Jamil suggests that this is the cause of Louise’s heart trouble, since psychological health does affect physical health. The self-assertion that Louise discovers is permission to be herself, since emotions are a substantial part of who we are. The narrative of this article paints Louise as the victim and society as the culprit.

Read More

Frederick Douglass Kate Chopin Analysis

916 Words | 4 Pages

Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. (Chopin III)” Chopin uses the super detailed description of Edna crying to appeal to the audience and demonstrate how Edna’s current situation is exceedingly unpleasant. In both situations the authors use pathos to appeal to the audience and show the characters in dark and unpleasant situations to display how horrendous their situations

Read More

Story Of An Hour Psychoanalytic Lens

469 Words | 2 Pages

She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name…she was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching her…she was striving to beat it back with her will…” (Chopin 1). The stimulus of her husband’s death is starting to create a word-presentation of the freedom she once had before she was

Read More

Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And Clothes, By Kate Chopin

849 Words | 4 Pages

The symbolism and imagery Chopin utilizes to emphasize the idea that Louise deserved to be her own individual are detrimental to the passage. An especially notable moment is when Louise is “striving to beat [her excitement] back with her will—as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been” because the image Chopin paints of Louise symbolizes her powerlessness throughout her marriage (Chopin 96). This also displays how she cannot help but be excited about the possibilities in her future to find her own purpose and meaning. This idea is expounded upon in “Time and Gender in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’” by Fahimeh Berenji when it is explained that Louise and Jane were both in situations where there was an “impossibility of. success in their struggle” (223).

Read More

Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And The Story Of An Hour

866 Words | 4 Pages

After she hears the news, she looks outside the open window and starts to truly appreciate the beauty in the simplest details, “The delicious breath of rain was in the air (.). The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves” (Chopin, 1894). However, the ending of the story provides an ironic twist. When Louise sees her husband at the doorstep, she collapses, and the doctors declare that she died of a heart disease, “of the joy that kills” (Chopin, 1894, p.2). There is no doubt that her shock was not joy over her husband's survival, but rather distress over losing her cherished freedom.

Read More

An Hour Thesis

462 Words | 2 Pages

11). Evidence for supporting topic sentence #1 (with citation): Cunningham details how “Chopin pays a great deal of attention” to the “strain placed upon her[Louise’s] physical system by the various shocks--the surprise of her husband's death, the grief that this news brings, the realization that her life is now utterly changed, and the understanding that this change is quite possibly for the better--that sweep over her” (par. 6). Supporting Topic #2 Topic sentence: Chopin’s selection of lexis with juxtaposing connotations further exemplifies Louise’s convoluted emotions regarding the tragedy of her husband’s death and her simultaneous acquisition of autonomy. Evidence for supporting topic sentence #2 (with citation):

Read More

Louise Mallard's Death

628 Words | 3 Pages

Kate Chopin’s realistic fiction short story, “The Story of An Hour,” introduces us to a character who suffers from oppression. One day Louise Mallard, a person with heart problems, had heard that her husband died. At first, she was very upset, looking out the window grieving. Then, she realized that she would be free and was very joyful. Louise walks out of her room and walking in, was her husband, Brently Mallard who really wasn't dead.

Read More

The Awakening And Story Of An Hour Analysis

822 Words | 4 Pages

Chopin’s novel and short story provides awareness of the lack of independence and individuality that women are granted in that era. Chopin’s voices how Louise and Enda becomes accustom to living according to what the man of the house desires. “Then would be no power will bending hers in that blind persistence” (The Story of An hour). With Louise husband being gone, he would no longer interfere with her actions or even overrule what she has to say. Louise would be completely free from his authority.

Read More

Story Of An Hour Character Analysis Essay

940 Words | 4 Pages

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the personal growth of the dynamic protagonist Louise Mallard, after hearing news of her husband’s death. The third-person narrator telling the story uses deep insight into Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions as she sorts through her feelings after her sister informs her of her husband’s death. During a Character analysis of Louise Mallard, a reader will understand that the delicate Mrs. Mallard transforms her grief into excitement over her newly discovered freedom that leads to her death. As Mrs. Mallard sorts through her grief she realizes the importance of this freedom and the strength that she will be able to do it alone.

Read More

Chopin Women's Equality

875 Words | 4 Pages

The unhappiness in marriage may clarify why Louise was really inviting and anticipating her years without her husband Brently. All of these examples Kate Chopin indicates how in those times freedom was a

Read More

The Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

828 Words | 4 Pages

Louise’s victory in accepting her husband’s death is a feeling that she now cannot live without. The ultimate death of Louise Mallard is one that represents physical and emotional defeat. In this dramatic short story, Chopin uses imagery to sew together a tapestry of emotions all encompassed in an ill-stricken widow. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.”

Read More

Oppression In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

1610 Words | 7 Pages

Chopin captures the complete essence of the moment in the following quote; “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). The fact that Louise envisions these years free of her husband in such a positive light ultimately suggests that she was oppressed by the marriage. Louise is also described as "a goddess of Victory" when she emerges from her room, illuminating this epiphany as the high point in Louise’s

Read More

Emotions In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

953 Words | 4 Pages

Although it is a short story, it has lot of elements making it a successful story. Chopin’s story has many prevalent themes that are showcased. The idea of forbidden happiness was one major theme present. When Brently Mallard dies, Mrs. Mallard comes to the realization that she is now an independent woman. Although she has to keep this joy private, she tries her best to hide this contentment, Her resistance to her true feelings show how forbidden her emotions are and that society would never accept Louise’s true emotions.

Read More

Self-Identity And Freedom In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

770 Words | 4 Pages

The story also argues that freedom is a very powerful force that affects the mental or emotional state of a person. Chopin argues that only through death can one be finally freed. The author makes strong, yet subtle statements towards humanity and women’s rights. Through subtle symbolism, Kate Chopin demonstrates how marriage is more like a confining role of servitude rather than a

Read More

More about An Hour Response

Open Document