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Story Of An Hour Theme Essay

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Kate Chopin is the author of the most popular short story "The Story of an Hour". Chopin paints a bleak picture of marriage in this story. It is a short story focusing on a young married woman of the late nineteenth century as she reacts to the news that her husband has died in a train accident. The story was written in a time period when women did not really have right to express their feeling and desire. Women were supposed to stay home and take care of the family whereas the husbands went out to work. Women really lived a silent life. To convey the theme of women’s role in marriage and feminine identity, Chopin skillfully uses the character Mrs. Mallard and the symbols of closed door versus open window. Chopin smartly uses the character Mrs. Mallard to express the theme of the story. Family in this story seems to be reduced to the couple: the husband and the wife. There is no mention of children in the story. The text says, “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window” (Chopin 13). This tells about the sadness and sorrow that has piled up in her married life. Mrs. Mallard has no children and she is unhappy in the couple. The scene opens up, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 13). The opening sentence of the story foreshadows the …show more content…

Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” seems to explain and analyze how the relationship works in the bondage of marriage. Chopin illustrates that Mrs. Mallard’s emotion towards self assertion is very important for women who live under their husbands’ hands. Not everyone marries to separate. Some get freedom after marriage by simply taking divorce. In India, women fast for the safety and longevity of their husbands. People should realize that marriage is the close union and equal partnership of a man and a

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Mallard, and the girlfriend want to communicate how they feel and do not want to be constrained. Chopin was a feminist which encouraged her to write The Story of an Hour. Women do not want to feel possessed and want to be self-asserted (Chopin, 2004). Women are told to respect their marriages and must abide to society. Mrs. Mallard feels free of duties when she understands that her husband has deceased.

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Chopin makes her strong statement in this quote from the story. Mrs. Mallard has no one to answer to but herself, and she feels liberated that her husband can no longer control her. During the late nineteenth century, women quite frequently had to suppress themselves to the will of their husbands, or to some other man who had a significant amount of control over their lives. Chopin successfully uses vivid imagery, point of view, and irony that gives a different view of marriage that is not typical of today.

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