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Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

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The Story of an Hour
Liberty or Death? Women, Marriage and "The Story of an Hour"
Desmond Kissi
Worcester State University

Author’s Note
This paper was prepared for Professor Stephanie Terrill

Liberty or Death? Women, Marriage and "The Story of an Hour"
Although life for women nowadays is still complex, as the effects of hundreds of years of oppression are not easy to bypass, it is undoubtedly better than it was a century ago. Indeed, at the end of the nineteenth century life for women had many difficulties that would be hard to envision today, as is the case with the short story "The Story of an Hour". This text by America author Kate Chopin discusses the life a married woman who finds out her husband …show more content…

Mallard's life that is important to consider for a more comprehensive understanding of the story, is her status as an oppressed woman, who faced a life of quiet desperation, confinement, and obedience to her husband. Indeed, of the many themes present in the story, it is fundamental to maintain present Mrs. Mallard life, which was "extremely restricted because of her domestic confinement and also suggests that she must have been secretly yearning for a life of her own"(Chia-Chieh Tseng, 2014, p. 29) . The allure of a life of her own was powerful for Mrs. Mallard because it represented an extreme contrast with her current situation. For the character, one of the most terrible aspects of life with her husband was having to bend her will and forgo her wants: "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature" (Chopin, 1894). Therefore, Mrs. Mallard character wants to be free, because she feels she is not because she loathed the life marital …show more content…

Mallard's death, as her story ends in tragedy when she gives up on life. On the text of the story, the end is not clear cut and is left to interpretation as the reader must decide what to believe. It would seem that the last sentence should be enough to settle the matter, as the doctors attributed Mrs. Mallard's death to a "joy that kills", yet it is also possible to offer an alternative explanation (Chopin, 1894). The story establishes Mrs. Mallard's bad health since the beginning, afflicted by heart trouble, and it is that weak heart that kills her but not of joy, but shock at seeing her husband alive. Thus, "we are liable to consider that her death is caused by the great shock and anguish when she learns that her husband is still alive" (Wan, 2009, p. 168). The shock of seeing her husband is not only because she thought of him as a dead person, but because the news Mr. Mallard's survival snatch away her newly-gained freedom. The perspective of going back to a life that she thought was gone, along with a bad heart, killed Mrs. Mallard. Thus, in more than one sense, the characters preferred death than living in

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Mallard processes her husband's death and the theme of death. Once Mrs. Mallard learns of the passing of Mr. Mallard, she has a brief period of indescribable grief. She soon realizes the benefits of her husband passing and she is feeling conflicted. She has an internal debate thinking that she should be grieving and upset but she is actually finding the benefits and positives of it. Chopin writes, “And yet she had loved him - sometimes.

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In “Story of an hour”Kate Chopin flawlessly delivers a compelling short story. The story gives the reader a brief glimpse of the struggle women encounter through marriage. The main character Louise Mallard, was your typical late 1800’s and early 1900’s housewife. That means she did what she was told, her only

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This shows how for as long as she can remember she has been withering her life away with a man that she had no intention of loving. Mrs. Mallard realized that this death had been the best thing that happened to her, she finally would be able to understand her true self and the goals she has. Mrs. Mallard demonstrates the social normative to staying with the man one marries. Although she shows how unhappy she once was, it was deemed as inappropriate to leave her husband. When Mr. Mallard dies, Mrs. Mallard opens up into who she really is and how she now knows what true happiness feels

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Mrs. Mallard’s actions cause the readers to contemplate a hidden meaning woven into the story line. Mr. Mallard is assumed to die in a railroad accident, leaving Mrs. Mallard devastated. Instead of feeling sadness or grief, Mrs. Mallard actually feels free. "There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature" (Page 499).

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Kate Chopin is a feminist author who lived from 1850 to 1904, but she did not start her career until the death of her husband. Kate Chopin pieces of work focused on the females going against societal norms and taking charge of their own life. The Story of an Hour explores the thought process of a newly widowed wife as she begins to understand the full consequences of her husband's death, which means a new found freedom, but she has it taken away in the end. The Story of an Hour is a feminist response to the confines of marriage because it challenges the unequal power relations between husband and wife. I will be discussing the concepts of identity, free will, and material possession that appear in the Story of an Hour.

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When Mrs. Mallard sees her husband, the dreams of her independence vanish. She could no longer be the independent woman she dreamed of being. She did, however, gain her freedom. Mrs. Mallard dies from “the joy that kills.” This means that she is so overwhelmed with the joy she is feeling that, she can not bare it if it was to be taken away, which it was.

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Afterwards, one would expect to find a very gloomy setting to fit the death of a loved one, however, alone in her room there is absolutely no sign of death or sadness except for her own emotions. Outside her window she is presented with a blue sky, above a town brimming with activity, as well as “tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life” (15). This positive setting in contrast to Mrs. Mallards distress may be an extended metaphor for women living at the time, who wanted to be in control of their seemingly happy and lively lifestyles. Evidence for this can be

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Chopin also describes Mrs. Mallard as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength”. At the beginning Mrs. Mallard is thought of as being controlled, and weak. In the 19th Century, when this story was written, husbands controlled their wives. Perhaps Mrs. Mallard wasn’t like most women of her time. After she hears of her husband’s death she morns for what feels like only a moment.

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Kate Chopin, author of “Story of an Hour,” is popular for her feminist works. “The Story of an Hour” would be a prime example of Kate Chopin’s efforts to show off her respect of women and their identities. In the short story, Mrs. Mallard plays the head character and suffers from a heart condition. Therefore, when it is to be brought to her attention that her husband has died in a terrible railroad accident it must be done with caution. Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, gets the terrible opportunity to enlighten her about her husband Mr. Mallard.

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Mallard, one can conclude that she suffers defeat by being the lesser of her marriage. After years of being an accessory to her husband, Mrs. Mallard could not help but to feel completely taken with pleasure at the thought of her husband’s supposed death. In her mind, her husband’s death meant that she would finally be open to the world, that she could now live her life in whichever way she dreams. This new-found feeling of freedom caused her to act in ways she would never consider around her husband. She locks herself into her room to collect her exuberant thoughts and to confirm it to herself that she no longer must live according to her condescending

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When the doctors came they said she had died from heart disease-- the joy that kills“. This shows how Mrs. Mallard died from the guilt of her husband 's reappearance into her life and the freedom she felt without her husband being by her side. Freedom. It 's something we have but it can be easily taken away. This is especially true in “A Story of An Hour” where Mrs. Mallard’s freedom from her marriage is almost instantly taking away from her.

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Chopin clearly states that women felt that they lost their freedom and that they were just mere prisoners of marriage. Mrs. Mallard’s tragedy is a good example to understand that women were unhappy and depressed, since society forced them to play a secondary role, where happiness and independence cannot be achieved. Kate Chopin, in reality, lost her husband, and perhaps she wrote ‘The Story of an Hour’ to tell that she could not find freedom with her husband’s death, and that the character’s fate was the only possible way to find it, not only for herself but for most women as

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