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How Does Kate Chopin Use Imagery In The Story Of An Hour

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Throughout time, literature has played an active role in today's society. Similarly, literature has fuelled the minds of readers by enabling them access to their imagination. Furthermore, it allows readers to create and explore ideas, emotions, and pictures within their minds. In fact, imagery is one of the greatest gifts an author can present to its readers. Within any form of writing, imagery is inevitable. Whether it is descriptive or figurative, imagery surrounds the reader, drawing them into the writer's world of imagination. Although it is commonly used to create a visual for the readers, it can also create a connotation; thus offering the readers additional insight behind specific imagery used within a piece. Specifically, in Kate Chopin's …show more content…

However, in "The Story of an Hour" it represents the exact opposite. After confining herself to her bedroom, Mrs. Mallard sits in the armchair, facing the open window out of exhaustion from the news she has received. In this particular scene, Chopin paints a beautiful image for the readers to experience the significance that comes from looking out the window. "In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves" (1). Through this quote, it is evident that Mrs. Mallard experiences confinement in the sense that, everything is moving forward without her. She feels as though she is confined to grieve over the loss of her husband, yet everything outside of this window is free to do as they please. To move along in life, not worrying about the past, but continuing on in the present. By making this realization, this now transforms the room into an imprisonment and less of an escape, which it was initially intended to be. Moreover, this further progresses the theme of confinement within the story, as the window, acts as a buffer between worlds; the one in which Mrs. Mallard would like to join and the room she now wants to remove herself

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One example of imagery is, “He pulled the door wider to let her see. The cold wind blew and the thin rain fell upon the soil and the figure stood looking at them with distant eyes. The old women held the doorway” (Bradbury Page 159.) In this quote, the figurative language that’s used helps the reader think and imagine the scene taking place, a little better than just saying “they both stared at the figure.” The vivid details such as “the cold wind blew” and “the thin rain fell upon the soil” helped the true feeling of this scene pop out.

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The imagery that is employed in the narratives helps the reader picture the scene that the author is describing. Imagery appeals to the senses and the

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Imagery like this makes the reader want to know more about what just happened and due to this they get absorbed by the story. Other examples of imagery aren’t as shocking, they can just make the scene more thrilling. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Bierce uses examples such as, “The sound of a clear, high voice in a monotonous singsong now rang out behind him and came across the water with a distinctness that pierced and subdued all other sounds, even the beating of the ripples in his ears ” (Bierce, “Occurrence”). This type of imagery is used to make the reader anxious about the character and what’s going to happen to him. The reader feels like they are in the story with the

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Imagery is a literary device that uses descriptive wording to put a vivid image of a scenario in your mind. Dickens uses imagery to describe the scenery and the change in Scrooge’s physical appearance throughout the course of the story. “eezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self- contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.

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Literary Analysis “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to the sudden death of her husband. Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as sad, yet happy that her husband has been killed. Kate Chopin’s “ The Story of an Hour” argues that when a person is controlled and made to live under another person their mental state of mind is affected. The story also argues that when that person is freed from the controlling person their true self can finally be achieved. Kate Chopin portrays these themes by the use of character development; plot control, and irony throughout the story.

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“A Short Guide to Imagery, Symbolism, and Figurative Language Imagery” describes imagery as “a writer or speaker’s use of words or figures of speech to create a vivid mental picture or physical sensation”(Clark). In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses nature imagery to portray the journey of emotions that Mrs. Mallard experiences

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The Short Story The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin explores the emotions of Louise Mallard a woman with a heart disease. In the hour that the story is told, it ranges from showing Mrs. Mallard different reactions to learning of her husbands death to him surprisingly showing up alive and eventually her untimely death from a heart disease. Although only a brief period of time is shown, many emotions are revealed through the third person omniscient point of view. This point of view shows more than just the protagonists thoughts and is not limited to one person. It allows the readers to know something about Mrs. Mallard that she does not as the story ends after Mrs. Mallard has already died.

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