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Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

1369 Words6 Pages

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” These words were published in 1762 by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Although more than 130 years separate the publication of these words and the publication of “The Story of an Hour” in 1894 by Kate Chopin, Rousseau bespoke a truth as true in 1762 and in 1894 as it is today. What was meant by these words is simply that man creates enslavements which we subject upon ourselves and our fellow beings. This is made evident in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” when met with a character who was prisoner confined and repressed to her inner life of intense, conflicting emotions and a secret desire for autonomy and self-expression. She lived like a bird in a cage, merely observing from behind bars, the …show more content…

Her husband’s friend and her sister, Richards and Josephine respectively, broke the news to her as carefully as possible. Mrs. Mallard violently weeps for his loss and then seeks the solitary refuge of her room. While sitting at the open window, she begins to take notice of the life taking place around her. Suddenly, she is confronted with this uncontainable joy in the face of her husband’s death as she realizes that life will be all her own from that day forward; she abandons herself. Once she embraced the newfound freedom, she composes herself and descends the stairs with her insistent sister, where Richards awaits them. Suddenly, the front door opens and her husband arrives, shocking the present party. The doctors attributed Louise’s death to heart disease, the cause: “a joy that …show more content…

Using the 1890’s time period, which we know by the use of a telegram, and the description of Louise Mallard, the reader is able to fill in the gaps left by the lack of detail about Louise’s marriage. The word usage and previous knowledge about women’s rights in other eras uncover the reason for Louise’s emotional state. For a woman who lives in a world with “equal rights” between men and women, I find myself unable to imagine life repressed by men as Louise had to endure. Death is a double-edged sword that can be both bitter and sweet. In the case of Louise, her death was bitter because of her lack of a free and full life; her death was sweet because it was a better alternative to being alive without truly living. Chopin couldn’t have chosen a better ending for her short story; Louise’s soul was set free from the cage that was her body stuck in that

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This can be seen when she fees free in a confined room, or how her weak heart sets her free from her husband through death. The author also sets up a subtle melancholy tone to the story that leaves the reader thinking and analyzing the sad events that occurred in the hour. She also use her tone to point out the cruelty idea of marriage at the time and how Mrs. Mallard thought it was a crime which left her powerless because she was a woman. Throughout this short story symbolism is quite clear. For example, when Mrs. Mallard is characterized with heart trouble.

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823 Words | 4 Pages

Louise Mallard's heart condition makes sudden shocks life-threatening. When her husband Brently is believed to have died in a train accident, Louise's sister Josephine and her husband's friend Richards break the news to her very gently. Mrs. Mallard is now depressed and going crazy. Louise starts to hear things when she goes outside. She says she hears spirits talking to her.

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822 Words | 4 Pages

The melancholy tone Chopin uses throughout the story implies that despite Enda and Louise seeking freedom from societal restrictions their quest for freedom will eventually end in a tragedy. Chopin expresses how Louise and Edna’s journey to freedom led them both to their death . “When the doctor came, they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” (The Story of An Hour). Due to Louise already having a heart problem prior to her excitement of being free this whole situation became overwhelming for her since she felt so many emotions at once.

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809 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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922 Words | 4 Pages

In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin tells the tale of a woman newly believed to be widowed. In the apparent death of her husband, Louise Mallard comes to find that she is not overly sad at the turn of events. Instead, Louise becomes overjoyed at the prospect of freedom from her marriage; she becomes so tumultuously happy that she cannot describe the feeling to herself. In her frantic fantasies, Louise walks down the stairs of her home at the same moment that her husband walks through the door unharmed and intact. Louise falls to the ground and promptly dies of a heart attack while the supporting characters of the story maintain that she died of “joy that kills”.

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876 Words | 4 Pages

In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” the main character Louise dies of a heart attack after seeing her husband is alive. At first, Louise gets to know that her husband died in a train accident. Louise is sad to hear the news, however, she finally feels like she escaped the oppression of marriage. Alone in her room, she keeps reciting, “free, free, free” as she looks out the window (Chopin 784). Louise finally could “live for herself” and she finally is fulfilled because there would be no oppression from society and from her husband (Chopin 785).

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978 Words | 4 Pages

It states in the short story that “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 237). Mrs. Mallard had felt tied up and restricted in her marriage and had finally been able to breathe with her husband passing away. Another author mentions that “the text indicates that Louise’s life is extremely restricted because of her domestic confinement and also suggests that she must have been secretly yearning for a life of her own” (Mavis Chia-Chieh). With her newfound independence, she has nothing and no one holding her back. This ties back to theme of finding freedom and independence but at a cost because her husband had to die for Mrs. Mallard to gain control over her

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498 Words | 2 Pages

In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour,” Chopin criticizes the subjugation of women from their husbands in the late 19th century. She tells of a woman, Louise Mallard, who had just heard news that her husband had died in a railroad accident. It initially started out with Louise heavily grieving the death of her husband and being exceedingly saddened by the fact. Indications of the anguish Louise was going through was described as “...young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes…”

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555 Words | 3 Pages

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story about a woman who discovers her husband has passed away, only to end up dying when she discovers he’s alive. As a result of this unique plot twist, questions were raised in the minds of the readers. The main question being “What actually happened that lead up to the ending?” As Critic Roland Barthes once said “Literature is the question minus the answer.” In this story, the author’s treatment of this question makes for an abundance of possible answers, thus impacting the reader’s understanding of the work as a whole.

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520 Words | 3 Pages

When Richard’s heard the news of her husband’s death, he assumed Mrs. Mallard would be devastated. While everyone knew Mrs. Mallard was “afflicted with heart trouble” (57), him and her sister, Josephine, wanted to give her the news with “great care” (57). Josephine broke the news to Mrs. Mallard in “broken sentences”

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755 Words | 4 Pages

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, has been widely interpreted from the feminist perspective. This story was written in 1894, a time when the roles of husband and wife and equality in marriage were viewed differently. It was a forbidden pleasure for a woman to be independent in those days, and in the story she unveils the deep rooted longing for independence that Mrs. Mallard experiences. Chopin uses symbols, imagery, and irony to convey meaning to the illumination that comes to Mrs. Mallard as she is secluded in her room upstairs, as well as to give insight on the struggles of a 19th century wife.

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270 Words | 2 Pages

In the “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin the theme is imprisonment. This theme shows the restrictions that the husbands place on wives in the late 1800’s. “There would be no powerful will bending hers”(12). From this quote we can see that Mrs Mallard feels like her husband has control over her and she has to obey whatever he says. This treatment of women was considered normal at the time when the story was set.

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1195 Words | 5 Pages

Mrs. Mallard’s character clearly depicts a woman’s oppressed marriage life. After her husband’s death she embraces a new freedom and a new and pleasant life of her

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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

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953 Words | 4 Pages

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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