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Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

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The Story of an Hour In 1894 women had little to no rights. They had no true identity or self recognition. In the short story “The Story of an Hour” it demonstrates this theme of women being trapped in their own lives. The main character Louise is trapped in her marriage and does not have the freedom she craves. Louise only realizes her true identity after her husband dies.

Literary criticism: psychological
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin shows how women in 1894 had no real identity. Women were owned like property and were known as either a daughter or a wife. In the story the main character Louise is a wife. She has no freedom and cannot be her true self. Louise only realizes her true identity and gains freedom when her husband passes away, “She saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” (2) This quote shows Louise realizes that as a widow she does not belong to anyone, she is finally free. She is now her own person. Her label is no longer a “daughter” or “wife” she is her own person as a widow. When she was married she was restricted in many ways, “suspension of intelligent thought” (1). Louise is now free to think for herself. She can live for her, and do …show more content…

This story shows us the mentality and position of women during this time period. At one point in the story Louise repeatedly says: “Free! Body and soul free!” (2) This quote shows how trapped Louise felt for all those years being a wife. She is saying that she is now free not just physically but emotionally and mentally too. The rest of her life can be whatever she wants to make of it. “It was only yesterday she thought with a shudder that her life may be long.” Louise used to think life was too long. Now, she is hoping for it to be long because she can live it how she pleases. She wants as long as possible to live

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Someone who will cherish them for all eternity. In a close examination of the way Louise Mallard, the protagonist of “The Story of an Hour”, and Delia, the protagonist of “Sweat”, react to their encounters with their marriages demonstrates that authors Kate Chopin and Zora Neale Hurston both use short stories to tell similar stories about the difficulties of their emotional states in their marriages. First, it is seen that Louise Mallard is an unchanging character who values her freedom from her marriage. Throughout the story it becomes obvious how self-centered Louise Mallard is.

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Finally, Jean Louise was an extraordinarily thoughtful child. She understands a lot that most adults just don’t get. She is aware that you have to lie sometimes under certain circumstances. She worries about essential goodness.

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“The Story of an Hour” is written by Kate Chopin. The main character in this story is Louise Mallard, a married woman in the 19th century who has a heart defect, she receives news that her husband died in an accident. After hearing the news of her husband she goes into solitude into her room where she finds herself not has sad about her husband but feeling some relief that she can live her own life and gains a new sense of freedom that she will have in the later days to come. This is where the theme of freedom comes in, this is seen using many literary elements throughout the story some of these would be foreshadowing, irony, and symbols to show Mrs. Mallard new- found freedom from her “late” husband.

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This was bitter irony since everyone thought Louise died from being excited to see her husband when she really died from not wanting to see him. “She thought of Leonce and the children. They were part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul. ”(Chopin 137).

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She exists in a time when women are classified as objects of beauty and property, and her heart trouble suggests that she is fragile. Louise’s initial reaction to the news of her husband’s death suggests that she is deeply saddened and grief stricken when she escapes to her bedroom. However, the reader is caught off-guard with Louise’s secret reaction to the news of her husband’s death because she contradicts the gender norm of the 19th century woman. Her contradiction to the stereotype / gender norm is displayed when she slowly reveals her inward

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In the short story of “The story of an Hour”Kate Chopin wrote a story about a lady who had heart trouble and found out that her husband died. She grieved over him but found a new light at the end of the tunnel. She felt independent and free. Then suddenly her husband walks in the room and she realizes he is alive.

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In The Story of an Hour, the female characters support stereotypes that have been significant in the late nineteenth century. For instance, Louise Mallard, the protagonist, is portrayed as a lady who is based on her husband for emotional aid and economic stability. When she first hears the information of his death, she is overcome with grief and desires to be consoled by means of her sister. This portrayal reinforces the stereotype of girls as emotional and fragile.

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At first, she does start crying, but after having some time to herself, she begins to whisper “Free!” (Chopin 426). Louise understands that she has this new-found freedom from the oppression of Brently, and that is why she seems both happy and upset. Even though he loved her, he still oppressed her. This leads to the conclusion that even though Brently was kind with his “tender hands” (Chopin 426) he still had the ability to oppress his wife even if he did not mean to.

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Although there is no clear statement that shows Louise to have an oppressive marriage, there are ambiguous statements about the marriage that show she feels caged. During the event of finding out about Brently’s death, Louise did not respond “as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden wild abandonment” (Chopin), due to Brently’s death she is finally able to let out emotions that she has held in for so many years of being a dutiful wife. Once Louise is left alone to grieve she reflects upon her feelings and her marriage. The narrator points out that Louise knows she will cry again for him when she sees his funeral, remembering his “kind, tender hands...the face that had never looked save with love upon her” (Chopin).

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Every person has the right to be and feel free. They have the right to be independent and live happily. Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour,” focuses on sixty minutes in the life of a young Mrs. Mallard. Upon learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard experiences a revelation about her future without a husband. Her life, due to heart problems, suddenly ends after she unexpectedly finds out her husband is actually alive.

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Louise’s victory in accepting her husband’s death is a feeling that she now cannot live without. The ultimate death of Louise Mallard is one that represents physical and emotional defeat. In this dramatic short story, Chopin uses imagery to sew together a tapestry of emotions all encompassed in an ill-stricken widow. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.”

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In the story “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin demonstrates the role of marriage in defining the individual by contrasting and highlighting the value individuals place on the marriage and love that they consider theirs. "The Story of an Hour" is a short story the author,Kate Chopin, presents a dreadful often unheard of view of marriage. Chopin 's main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, experiences the happiness of freedom rather than the desolation of loneliness after she learns of her husband 's death. Later

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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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Another theme that is present is the theme of freedom. At first, she does not have much freedom at all and throughout the duration of they story she is confined in her home. Her newfound freedom gave her much joy but as she left her room, it was cut much too short due to her untimely death. The Story of an Hour has many structural, stylistic, and literary approaches that make it a very powerful

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