A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Death can cause a person joy instead of sorrow or grief. “The Story of an Hour,” a perfect example, was written by Kate Chopin. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story that shows how the main character, Louise Mallard, views her marriage and the death of her husband. Mrs. Louise Mallard brings several different themes into the story that may be viewed very differently by different readers. The two themes, confinement and freedom, show how Mrs. Mallard feels before and after learning the news of her husband’s death. “The Story of an Hour” shows how several incidents can occur in just one hour. Set in the home of Mrs. Mallard, the story originates when Mrs. Mallard is told by her sister, Josephine, about her husband’s death. Normally, when a person’s spouse passes away, the passing brings grief, regret, and sorrow. However, Mrs. Mallard feels as if she is confined to her husband; therefore, she is now free and can enjoy life by herself. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to illustrate how confinement, freedom, and irony can occur from marriage and death.

In Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour," there is much hatred. The first hatred detected is in the way that Louise reacts to the news of the death of her husband, Mr. Mallard. Before Louise's reaction is revealed, Chopin turns to how the widow feels by describing the world according to her outlook of it after the bad news. Louise is said to "not hear the story as many women have heard the same." Rather, she accepts it and goes to her room to be alone. Now the person reading starts to see the world through Louise's eyes, a world full of new life.

In the short story “The story of an hour” Louise Mallard is told that her husband had been in an accident and died. Followed by the “death” of her husband (Brently Mallard) Louise Mallard begins to change as a person. The way Louise’s friends and the people react to her shows how much Louise really changed from before her husband's death and after his death. The people around Louise helps the audience realize that she is actually happy with what happened. A little bit after receiving the news that her husband had died, Louise began to appear like she is happy or relieved that he had died. One example of this is “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (Chopin). The word triumph

However he states “I believe that Louise does not see him, and that the cause of her death lies elsewhere: in the joy, which turns out to be more "monstrous" than Louise seems initially to think possible, and the resulting emotional strain brought about by her new understanding of her marriage and her supposed sudden freedom from that marriage” (Cunningham). As many other readers, Cunningham is inclined to believe that Mrs. Mallard is happy to see her husband is alive. Furthermore, some believe that she died from disappointment of finding out her husband was still alive. Lawrence L. Berkove, breaks down the level of irony throughout the story in his essay “Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’”.

In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” reader’s see a potentially long story put into a few pages filled with rising action, climax and even death. In the beginning of the story, character Louise Mallard, who has a heart condition, is told of the death of her husband by her sister and one of her husband’s friends. Afterwards Mrs. Mallard is filled with emptiness and then joy of freedom. This joy of freedom is actually what consequently leads to her death in the end when she discovers her husband is really not dead. In “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard’s death is a result of her joy in freedom from her marriage rather than the joy of seeing her husband alive.

After the old, deaf man went home the two waiters began to talk. The older waiter explained to the young one how it was he who lacked all the things young people had, such as confidence, joy, and youth. The older waiter then explained, “I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe. With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night." This shows how the cafe was symbolic to the lonely, to the ones who need a well lit cafe to soothe their loneliness, to stay up late and sleep in the daylight. While time was determined by being in a rush or not, loneliness makes time feel a lot longer than to those who are full of joy.

In the story “A Clean, Well- Lighted Place” by Earnest Hemingway begins with the main character and his co-worker in a café. The two are analyzing, and discussing a deaf, drunk Oldman, who is their last customer of the day. As the deaf old man insists on having more whiskey, the main character informs the young waiter as to why and how the old man tried to commit suicide. They began to converse about the Oldman’s depressed life. The younger waiter is in a rush to go home to his wife, while the older waiter is patient and he stands up for the Oldman, being able to relate to him. Hemingway’s sentence structure and writing style represents the comparison and contrast between setting, people, and objects, along with emphasizing how it is to have and be nothing.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway looks at age from the viewpoint of an inexperienced and experienced individual, with the aid of an old man to emphasize the difference between the two. This story takes place late one night in a caf. The caf is clean, pleasant, and well lighted, which brings some kind of comfort to the atmosphere. Here in the caf sits a deaf, lonely, older man, who although is deaf can feel the difference that the night brings to the caf, a younger waiter, who believes people stay around the caf to make his life miserable, and a waiter who is a bit older and seems to understand that this place, the caf, is comforting. The older man spends his late nights in the caf, because at

In the short story “The Story of The Hour” by Kate Chopin their is a woman named Louise Mallard with a heart problem that dreams of being free from her husband that tells her what to do. Louise’s sister Josephine breaks the news that her husband was in a train wreck and that he could possibly be dead. The conflict in this story is Mrs.Mallards thoughts,emotion and reaction to the news of Mrs.Mallards death.

In “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, there are characters in the story that has some conflicts with each other. The conflict is based on the young waiter and the older waiter. There are three reasons how they bump heads with each other. The first reason is how the author’s main purpose deals with these two conflicts. The second reason is because of the way the young is dealing the story. The final reason is the way the old is dealing with the story. Although there are some similarities in this story, but there are some differences between the young verses the old.

Although, the younger waiter does not realize it, he too is going through the same struggle that the old waiter and the old man are. The young waiter is confused by the old man and is unable to understand why he is sitting in the café so late at night. He then learns of the struggles that the old man faces, and yet feels any sympathy towards the old man since he is unable to relate. However, the older waiter relates and tries to explain that the old man is lonely and he finds comfort in the cafe, because although he is suffering, when he is in the cafe he feels as if he isn’t suffering alone. Sadly, the young waiter does not see the bigger picture that one day he will become the old man sitting in a cafe in

In the Story of an Hour,Louise’s reaction to her husband’s death is obvious grief,although her reaction was perhaps more violent than other women, it was an appropriate one.However,Louise began to realize that she was an independent women,a feeling that enlivens and excites her.She at first tries to destroy the joy she feels to “ beat it back with her will.”(sparknotes 1)

A clean well lighted place by Ernest Hemingway has a few themes that stand out clearly but the one theme that stands out to me is despair. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, despair means to lose all hope or confidence. In the story, the older waiter and the old deaf man somehow share a common bond of despair. Both men are of age and like to be out, late at night, alone. Asides from the story alone, the theme of the story can be brought out by the setting. The setting contributes to the story’s theme in different ways. The setting contributes to the mood of the story, to the structure of the story, and to the lesson of the story. The café represents salvation for despair which is shown through the setting of the

The timeless story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, has a descriptive setting and plausible characters. In this story, the reader can also ground herself and feel that she is truly a part of what is occurring. If the story were to lose its believability, its connection with the reader would be severed. This story allows the reader to grasp the main concepts that Hemingway is trying to convey, while also leaving her to expand upon it in great detail through her own experiences, imagination, and research.

6. There are three unnamed main characters in the story, the older waiter, the younger waiter, and the deaf, old man. Through being introduced to these characters and their personalities, we learn the similarities between the old man and the older waiter, and the differences between the younger waiter and the two older men. As the story unfolds we learn the internal struggle of unhappiness and loneliness of the old man and older waiter. We also learn the impatience and eagerness of the younger waiter. The main personality trait for the old man would be sadness or depression because of his attempted suicide and desire to stay up late and drink at the cafe. The main personality trait for the older waiter would be loneliness because of his view on nothingness and the despair the comes with it. The main personality trait for the younger waiter would be impatience because of his outlook on the old man staying late on the cafe and his eagerness to return home to his wife.