So now that her husband is gone, Mrs. Mallard realizes that she doesn’t feel controlled like she used to.
Stefani Helm Mrs. Barker P8 Story of the Hour Story of the Hour tells us about Mrs. Mallard, also known as Louise who suffers from a heart condition. Her sister and her husband’s friend Richard came to tell her that he died in a trainwreck. Throughout the Story Kate Chopin illustrates to the reader Mrs. Mallard’s transformation during bleak and blurred hour by using imagery, diction, and figurative language. “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.”
This revelation is profoundly ironic, as it subverts conventional expectations of mourning and highlights the complexities of marriage. One article argues that Chopin's use of irony challenges traditional gender roles, particularly women's emotional dependence on their husbands (Ahmetspahi and Damir 26). Through Mrs. Mallard's sudden shift from grief to exhilaration, Chopin critiques the societal norms restricting women within marriage. This irony accelerates Mrs. Mallard's burgeoning sense of self-awareness and liberation. Secondly, symbolism permeates Chopin's narrative, enriching the text with deeper layers of meaning and significance.
The poetic elements and rhyme helps contribute to the humor of the story. The figurative language what the story helps us picture what the story is trying to show us. For example “And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.” The imagery in that sentence helps us see what the story is describing.
The story begins with Mrs. Mallard getting the news that her husband had died in a terrible train accident. At first Mrs. Mallard was racked with grief for the loss of her husband. As the story progresses, Mrs. Mallard says, “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know.”
Chopin's then uses descriptive language to show Louise’s excitement when she has had time to take in the news. When Louise is by herself in her room, she looks out the window and notices "patches of blue sky showing here and there
The last hour Mrs. Mallard has spent she has experienced great joy; thinking of her new life, but
(Chopin) The same window were she had found her freedom. Louise is imagining her days that she will control as her own. The spring and summer days, she prays that her life will be long. Even though days before she shuddered at a long life knowing it will be in the hands of Mr. Mallard.
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.
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).
Chopin use imagery to explain Louise's’ new life and the
Mallard’s emotional journey. From her initial reluctance to her ultimate freedom, Mrs. Mallard reflects nature’s everchanging beauty. Chopin conducts a symphony of imagery that pieces together the life and death of Louise Mallard. It is evident that Chopin uses Louise Mallard’s story to convey her perception of women and men’s roles during the late 1800’s by showcasing her acceptance of the freedom that could only be gained by a single woman. The descriptions used in Chopin’s work are a marvelous representation of her character’s struggle with inner conflicts.
Kate Chopin introduces her main character as “Mrs. Mallard” to signify her being married. However, within her marriage, she loses herself. Being married, she took her husband’s last name and became a wife. In a way it changed her personality. She was no longer her own self, she was someone else’s “property”.
Mallard’s new freedom isn’t developed in a short moment. We are given insight to how Mrs. Mallard began to realize the change within her. Once Mrs. Mallard was in her bedroom, “she sank [into the armchair], pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” . This reaction to her Husband’s death shows that her thought is reaching into her soul to pull out her long suppressed happiness. Many would say that Mrs. Mallard could just be in a deep state of grief but there is proof of her growing understanding.
(Chopin, the Story of an Hour)” It would be prudent to believe by the way Mrs. Mallard was crying that indeed she was devastated about her husband’s tragic death.
