Finally characterization comes into place in both stories. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs.Mallard has a rare reaction to finding out her husband is dead. Mrs.Mallard is happy that her husband is gone so she can be independent. Her reaction is probably not one that most people would have if there husband died. “Free,free,free!”
In this story has complicated reaction of Louise Mallard upon learning of her husband’s death. First, Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition when news comes that her husband’s be killed in accident. Mallard’s sister Josephine sits down with her and dances around the truth until Mrs. Mallard finally understand what happened. When Mrs. Mallard finds out what happened she acts differently from most women in the same situation.
Both stories have common situations about the mothers portrayed in the stories. In both stories, the main characters had to deal with abandonment in some form. As seen in the story “I Stand Here Ironing”, the narrator’s husband left and caused her to play both roles of being a mother and a father to her children. Therefore, the relationship between her and her daughter isn’t as strong as it should be and the narrator feels guilty about it. The main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” blames her husband for her depression.
Mallards heart attack. The doctors diagnosed that she died of a heart attack “of joy that kills” but it may not have been from the joyful or sudden surprise of her husband’s return rather it may have been because the revelation and freedom she had just discovered was all for nothing. What’s ironic is that we the readers and the other characters in the don’t know which one she really died from. We can assume that she died because her overbearing husband who she thought was dead was alive, but the other characters can only assume that she dies from the shock of her lost beloved husband was found alive. While she was locked away in her room dealing with the grief of her husband’s death, she realized that now she was free and could do whatever she wants, then when her husband shows up alive all that is taken away.
The short stories “Story of an Hour” and “The interlopers” both had similarities, but they also had many differences. They had different characters, settings, and plot, but they also had similar endings, their characters had similar attributes, and both had a story that left you interested. In the beginning of the story of an hour you are introduced to Mrs. Mallard. Right from the start you find out that she has heart problems, and that she has lost her husband.
The constant entrapment the women suffered in the stories prolonged their happiness to the point where they had enough. The satisfaction Mrs. Mallard felt in “The Story of an Hour” was only applicable when her husband was pronounced dead for the short hour. The physiological problems were evident at the start of the story when we see Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death. She apparently already had heart troubles so the shock she felt from her husband's reappearance did not coincide. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator obviously is suffering from an illness known as nervous depression.
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).
During the time that this story took place married women were highly dependant on their husbands. The problem that is encountered with Mrs. Mallard is that she lacks the joy of Independence. At the beginning of the story freedom to Mrs. Mallard seems like an awful idea because she has been restricted in multiple ways such as the house, her marriage etc. Despite the love that is shared between a husband and a wife Mr. Mallard’s death seems to come as a release from oppression to Louise. As stated by Chopin “ There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.
The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a brilliant piece of fictional literature. The tale involves a mentally ill woman who is kept in a hideous, yellow room under the orders of her husband, John, who is a physician. The ill woman is conflicted due to the fact that the horrifying yellow wallpaper in the room is trapping a woman who she must help escape, but the sick woman is aware that she must get better in order to leave the terrifying, yellow room. The setting and personification applied in the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, allows readers to develop an understanding of the sickness of the main character faces.
Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist of the story felt controlled by her husband, but she had a moment of freedom and it was the best hour of her life. In the story Louise Mallard’s husband, Brently Mallard was proclaimed dead due to a train crash.
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”
She saw birds flying, blue skies, and new spring life blooming everywhere. Lastly, Mrs. Mallard actually received her freedom while having an epiphany in her bedroom, even though it was stripped from her soon after when her husband, Brently Mallard, came through the door alive as he could be. She had a heart attack from the realization that she would have to go back to her old life of pleasing her husband. On the other hand, Aunt Jennifer never actually received her freedom from her husband. He would always have that hold on
The theme of this story is one of personal freedom and trying to be true to yourself while being a part of something else, like a marriage. During the book Mrs. Mallard was in a mixed emotions with her hearing about her husband dying and her being emotional about it, her telling herself that she is finally free and then finding out he was alive when he walked through the door. In "The Story of an Hour" the central idea would be when she posits the idea that a woman's life may actually be better without a husband. It was a radical idea at the time. In the older days it was assumed that women were the lesser sex and that men needed to make the important decisions in a family.
She can finally live for herself as it is stated in the text. Later in the story something things completely change. Mrs. Mallard is finally starting to calm down and out of no where her husband appears through the door. This is where her heart truly does give out.
We think that the form of the “Imaginary” mentioned in Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of Mrs. Mallards family and friends “imagining” that the devastated new of Mr. Mallard’s death would cause her a heart attack, however later on in the story it was mentioned that she was in fact relieved to know she was a free woman of her marriage. Consequently, the reality of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, perceptions and feelings were not the same as others may have assumed or imagined to be. Based on stereotypical standards of society this was misunderstood because a wife should feel an enormous pain for the death of her husband. As the story continues, when Josephine whose Mrs. Mallard’s sister told her about the death of Mr. Mallard, instead of reacting in shock as “many women would’ve (Chopin, The Story of an Hour)” done so, Mrs. Mallard “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.