The first paragraph of The Story of an Hour summarizes the main elements of the short story. We can begin to see the story take shape as the author gets straight to the point by stating Mrs. Mallard’s health ailment and the possible danger of unexpected news is highlighted with the words, “…great care must be taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Mays 278). We can start to see the direction that Chopin is headed by this first paragraph and the title of the short story is a nod to the duration and the form of which this story will exist. I will begin my analysis by examining the title of this short story. Chopin is all too clever when she thought of this title. Chopin includes the duration of the short story (an hour) as well as letting us know that within this hour, the story will conclude. This gives us a time frame that will put the story into perspective when we continue reading about the events that will later occur to Mrs. Mallard. The title tells me that all the events in the story can be limited to an hour time frame and adds to the sense of immediacy to Mrs. Mallard’s situation. It gave me the feeling of being a part of Mrs. Mallard’s story as I was reading the words. The “Story” portion of the title I interpreted two different ways: we are reading a literary tale about fictional characters that Kate Chopin created and we are reading a story that Mrs. Mallard lives in. Chopin successfully wrote a story within a “story” in my
The author starts setting the tone in the title. “Story of an hour” is a commonplace term for gossip, and implies that the story of Mrs. Mallard and the “joy that kills” will be told in countless parlors (Chopin line 1) (Chopin paragraph 22). However this story will be twisted when it's told. Up until Mrs. Mallard
Setting in a story can create certain moods, influence the way we feel about a character, and change the reader's perceptions. “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story about a woman named Mrs. Mallard, who learns of her husband’s death. This tragic news causes a range of emotions and internal conflict for the main character. The century, season, and room, in which the story takes place, prepares readers for the overflowing emotions and gives clarity to the character’s frame of mind. Kate Chopin uses the setting to help set the structure of the story.
The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin is the tragic story of a woman whose newfound position as a widow gives her strength. She develops a sense of freedom as she embraces her husband's death as an opportunity to establish her own identity. The tragedy is when her newfound identity gets stripped away as the appearance of her husband reveals that he is still alive. The disappointment from this tragedy kills her with a heart attack symbolizing the many conflicts that she faced throughout the story. The conflicts the character faces within herself and society show that the social norms for women were suppressing to their strength and individuality as human beings.
In "The story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the complex character, Mrs. Mallard, In a most unusual manner. THe reader is led to believe that her husband has been killed in a railway accident. The other characters in the story are worried about how to break the news to her; they know whe suffers from a heart condition, and they fear for her health. On the surface, the story appears to be about how Mrs. Mallard deals with the news of the death of her husband. On a deeper level, however, the story is about the feeling of intense joy that Mrs. Mallard experiences when she realizes that she is free from the influences of her husband and the consequences of
Kate Chopin 's the "Story of an Hour" includes a vast amount of literary devices. Irony, foreshadowing, personification, imagery, symbolism, metaphor and repetition are some of the major literary techniques used by Chopin within this short story about a woman named Mrs. Mallard. Although the story covers only one hour in the life of the main character, the use of these various literary techniques present the theme of the story to the reader in a very entertaining manner.
Most stories have more than one conflict, some bigger than others, but all important as a story progressives to the very moment everything clicks and comes together. After that point, the story starts to wind down, lose ends are tied, and the reader gets the satisfying feeling of a happy ending. The Story of an Hour is not your typical short story; but is similar to others in the way that conflicts are the leading force behind a short story. This story starts with Mrs. Mallard finding out any wife’s worst news and realizing it is the best news she has ever heard. Within the short hour of the announcement, the news that was going to save her, ended up killing her. The internal conflicts Mrs. Mallard faces in Chopin’s The Story of an Hour are subtle, but lead to a resolution that makes the reader question if they believe the author or not.
How would one feel to hear the news of a significant other or loved one who has passed away due to an accident? The news is heartbreaking and rather unimaginable. “Sorry to say but your husband has died due to an accident.” No one wants to hear those words or go through the painful time. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin’s, the death of her husband meant freedom and happiness. Chopin’s uses a great deal of symbolism throughout the story in order to depict the theme of freedom and happiness.
The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, is a wonderful short story filled with many different peculiar twists and turns. Written in 1894, the author tells a tale of a woman who learns of her husband’s death, but comes to find joy in it. Many of the things Kate Chopin writes about in this story symbolize something more than just the surface meaning. Through this short story, told in less than one thousand one hundred words, Kate Chopin illustrates deeper meanings through many different forms of symbolism such as the open window in the bedroom, Mrs. Louise Mallard’s heart trouble, and Chopin’s physical description of Mrs. Mallard.
Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour" presents a young married woman named Mrs. Louise Mallard, who has a "heart trouble"(26). Suddenly, Mrs. Mallard receives a news that her husband, Brently Mallard has died in a train accident. She weeps and ascends to her room. Within a short period of time, she is able to fully come to terms with her husband's sudden death. Instead of mourning over his death, she feels joy and excitement. She can now act as herself and has the freedom she is longing for. Ironically, her husband comes home alive and she dies of the realization that her freedom and identity will be taken away again. The imageries that Chopin uses help the readers imagine Mrs. Mallard's excitement and the new life waiting for her.
The Story of an Hour is about a woman, Mrs. Mallard, who suffers with a heart problem. Her husband’s friend, Richards, and her sister Josephine have to tell Mrs. Mallard that her husband has died in a train accident. They are both concerned that this news might danger Mrs. Mallard’s health. However, when Mrs. Mallard hears about the news, she feels excitement
Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"--which takes only a few minutes to read--has an ironic ending: Mrs. Mallard dies just when she is beginning to live. On first reading, the ending seems almost too ironic for belief. On rereading the story, however, one sees that the ending is believable partly because it is consistent with the other ironies in the story.
“The Story of An Hour” focuses on sixty minutes in the life of a young nineteenth-century woman, Mrs. Mallard. Upon learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard experiences an epiphany about her future without a husband. Her life, due to heart problems, suddenly ends after she unexpectedly finds out her husband is actually alive. Mrs. Mallard’s actions cause the reader to cogitate a hidden meaning weaved into Kate‘s short story. Chopin had an idea that women felt confined in their marriages, and the idea is brought out through the protagonist’s initial reaction, excessive joy, and new perspective of the world following the upsetting news.
Chopin began “The Story of an Hour” by pointing out that the main character, Mrs. Mallard has problems
Freedom and control are concepts everyone wishes to possess, but some struggle to obtain them. For example in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin the main character is told that her controlling and repressive husband has died in a train accident. At first she sobs like a small child and hides in her room, but she soon realizes she is free to live a life for herself. With her newfound happiness, she returns downstairs right as her husband, alive and well, is walking through the front door. Mrs. Mallard is said to have died “of a joy that kills” (qtd. in Meyer 16). Another example of a struggle to obtain freedom is in “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The main character, Emily, is controlled by her father. After her father passes away she is desperate for a loving relationship. Her last
In the short story "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin, the author, presents the reader with an obscure view of marriage. Chopin's main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, experiences the excitement of freedom instead of the devastation of loneliness after she receives the news of her husband's death. Mrs. Mallard disturbingly finds out that Brently, her husband is still alive. She know knew that her only chance at freedom is gone. The disappointment instantly kills Mrs. Mallard. Published in the late 1800s, the overbearing nature of marriage presented in "The Story of an Hour" may very well reflect, but not restricted to, that era.