Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Sommers have a fair share of intemperance. Mrs. Mallard has come to the realization that the death of her husband is not only a tragic occurrence, but also a beneficial cutting of her previously binding marital ties. The crisis of her grief has given her new insight on her life, and Mrs. Mallard understands that her marriage has limited her independence and freedom. Due to this realization she immediately forgets about the accident and starts to think about her freedom: ““Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering” (paragraph 14). It is only an hour after Mrs. Mallard has received the bitter news of her husband’s death. Considering that her husband is gone, instead of mourning, she is overwhelmed with the freedom she
Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist of this story, hears the shocking words from Josephine and Richards, who are her sister and husband’s friend. The news is on the death of her husband by a tragic accident. Her sadness is transferred to the unusual state of cautious
In “The Story of An Hour” Mrs. Mallard is told of her husbands “demise” and she had that of a considerably odd reaction. One that seemed unprecedented by her sister, who had delivered the news, who is obviously severely worried by this reaction. She, no doubt, thought Mrs. Mallard had gone mad with the news of her husband’s death. Proclaiming about how free and liberated she felt after hearing this “oh so devastating” news. This was all due to the fact that Mrs. Mallard did not all together love her husband. Instead of feeling dread and sorrow at the news she was overcome with a sense of immense liberation. She could finally live for herself. She could make her own decisions in her own best interest instead of what her husband would like. She had finally been
Initially, Mrs. Mallard reacts with great sadness over the news of her husband’s death. Knowing that Mrs. Mallard suffers from “heart trouble”, Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister decides to “hint” her the news of Brently’s death in “broken sentences”. Josephine assumes that Mrs. Mallard “[loves]” her husband, and naturally
The story begins with the passage; “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.” The conflict of the story begins here. Mrs.
Mrs. Mallard tried to act normal when she first heard the news of her husbands death. She eventually went into her room alone where she realized that she was free of the burden she felt
Next, Mrs. Mallard was a woman who suffered from the times where women were treated with less value and importance. She lost her own life because rejoice at her husband’s tragedy. Her uncontrollable desire to be free made her become a frivolous woman, who let his personal longing’s end with his own life. When she realized that her husband was alive all his plans vanished. Her happiness was a temporary happiness which lasted less than an hour.
1. My initial impression of this work was that it would be an emotional drama dealing with a woman mourning her husbands death. The story's twist caught me completely off guard. The story surprises the reader with the change in tone towards the end.
Mrs. Mallard had, "in that brief moment of illumination"(15), stumbled upon a truth: she was now her own person, free from the confines of her husband. She had loved her husband, "sometimes"(15), but that didn't matter: "What could love ....count for in the face of theis possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! THE theme of the story unfolds at this point: Mrs. Mallard, through the death of her husband, is able to experience the joy of the realization
“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (7). Mrs. Mallard started to feel a minimal amount of freedom from her husband. “ When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free! The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stared keen and bright. Her pulse beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (7). Mrs. Mallard’s emotions are described through imagery. Imagery helps us to get a feeling of what is happening in the story through wordplay, and
The audience would have expected Mrs. Mallard to be upset after learning of her husband’s death in “The Story of an Hour” but she expresses joy. Her joy does not come from a place of true hatred; she claims that she did love him at some point, she was just tired of her life being control by her husband. She realizes that her husband’s death means her freedom and that, “There would be no powerful will bending hers in
Throughout the story Mrs.Mallard goes through a copious amount of emotions, but in order to be able to verify each emotion one must play close attention to her surroundings and be able to identify the symbolism of each. In the
Mrs. Mallard is described as weak and “Afflicted with a heart trouble.” The statement: “…great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death,” show how the narrator has a tone of tenderness, talking about Mrs. Mallard as if she were a fragile child, even later saying, “[she shook], as a child who had cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.” Throughout this whole scene, the language is riddled with foreboding adjectives and phrases, perhaps foreshadowing her later demise. When she learns of her husband’s death, she weeps “with sudden, wild abandonment,” only going to her room when “the storm of grief had passed.” Then once in her room she sat in an armchair “pressed down by physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” This statement gives the physical exhaustion the same qualities one would normally give to a ghost, furthering the foreboding nature of the piece.
Cunningham’s belief on how the story ended varies from many other critic’s opinions. He points out how a great amount of readers believe the death of Mrs. Mallard was caused by her seeing Mr. Mallard walk through the door of their house, after receiving the news of his death in a train accident (par. 1). However, Cunningham states he does not believe Louise Mallard even saw Brently Mallard at all, and the cause of death was not from the shock of seeing him. In fact, he claims, “I believe that Louise does not see him… cause of her death lies elsewhere: in the joy… more ‘monstrous’ than Louise seems
While Mrs. Mallard remembers Mr. Mallard as a kind and tender man who loved her, she also viewed him as the oppression that marriage put upon women and men. While Mr. Mallard was kind and loving to his wife, he was also controlling and overbearing. Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister and Richards, Mr. Mallard’s friend is there to break the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Richards has learned of Mr. Mallard’s death at the newspaper office, not wanting to believe the information that was received, Richards waited for the new to be delivered for a second time before enlisting the help of Josephine. They are both there to support Mrs. Mallard and their support shows that they care for Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.