Hope In “The story of an hour” In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard, once she had absorbed the news of her husband's death, experienced a sense of self assertion. She had accepted the news of her husband’s death and almost immediately, different thoughts started coming in her mind. One of the stronger feelings was a feeling of being free. She started thinking of her life ahead, a life that would be entirely hers, that would only belong to her. She could lead her life on her own terms as her husband will not be there to impose his private will upon her. Mrs. Mallard is justified for feeling and for thinking the way she did, after getting the news of her husband's death. What she is feeling is perfectly natural. She has accepted the death
(654) It is quite apparent that Mrs. Mallard was struggling to fight back certain feelings about her husband?s supposed death. Although she is at first sad, she slowly begins to realize that the death of her husband can mean a number of great things for her. As the story progresses Mrs. Mallard eventually solves her internal conflict by accepting her husband?s death as a gift.
When Mrs. Mallard was informed of her husband’s death she reacted in a way that any wife was expected to act after the passing of their loved one. “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms (pg.395)”. She grieved on for awhile but then realized that life goes on with or without the love of your life. However many expect one to come to terms with someone’s death some point in life, they don’t expect it to be sudden as Mrs. Mallard’s epiphany.
Mallard, the protagonist in “The Story of an Hour” lost her husband, she began to feel a sense of relief and hope that she would finally be able to have the freedom to do what she wanted. Upon receiving the news of the death, Mrs. Mallard looked outside her house and started to notice a “delicious breath of rain” and multiple “patches of blue sky” that were beginning to “[meet] and [pile] one above” each other” (Chopin 1). While Mrs. Mallard was in her room thinking about the death, she imagined “a long procession of years” that would “belong to her absolutely” and was excited to begin living this new era of her life (Chopin 3). It is evident how the setting Chopin uses in this story goes along with the feelings of Mrs. Mallard, as the setting outside is depicted as wonderful and hopeful with “patches of blue sky,” which ultimately goes along with Mrs. Mallard’s hope she felt in the future without a husband (Chopin 1). The fact that Mrs. Mallard felt a sense of hope and joy in response to her husband’s death demonstrates how women did not even feel like they would have the opportunity to succeed at their ambitions unless they were without the influence of
In “The Story of an Hour”, the main character Mrs. Mallard, gets news that her husband has been killed in an accident. Her sister delays telling her the news because she has a bad heart, but when she finally tells the news, Mrs. Mallard wants to be left alone. They think that she is very upset by her husband’s death, but
Symbolism ties together these seemingly unalike settings. In the same way, these distinct stories can be connected by their irony. " The Story of an Hour" describes Mrs. Mallard's eagerness to begin a new, independent lifestyle after learning her husband had passed away. However, the story provides an ironic twist when she discovers Mr. Mallard is alive after all.
In "Story of an Hour", we begin with the climatic event, the news of her husbands death. Mrs. Mallard has heart problems so when her sister Josephine attempted to break the news to her; she tried to break it as gently as possible. Mrs. Mallard first seems to be in pain by going to her room and sitting in her armchair near the window while sobbing like a child. After a few moments, she begins to repeat the word free. This is one of the turning points in the story. We now realize that she's not in sorrow, but in glee that her husband is dead. She is now free; free from her unhappy relationship. Chopin now surprises everyone with another turning point. The husband walks in through the front door. He was alive, far from dead. As soon as Mrs. Mallard sees her husband, she collapses to the floor. The doctor claims that she died of a heart disease, but ironically the truth is, she died of despair. She was so glad that she was free, and then it all seemed to be a fantasy. It turned out that she wasn't free, and her heart couldn't take the pain to keep living in a suppressed relationship. She may just be better of dead although she did want a new life. Depending on how one looks at it, one may still argue that she was free in the end...free through death.
Mrs. Mallard husband Brently enters, as Mrs. Mallard falls apart and dies of shock. Mrs. Mallard death was described as "a heart disease of joy that kills". She didn't die of joy but the fact that her husband killed her joy of her living a newfound
The reader might question as to why Mrs. Mallard’s feelings towards her husband’s death change so quickly. Was she previously unaware of the “subtle and elusive” (227) thoughts that made her believe that this death might be a blessing in disguise? Mrs. Mallard, before her husband’s death, had a romanticized view of her marriage. While she believed she loved Brently and was happy, after his death she became aware of the freedom she would now experience without a controlling husband. The “powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence” (228) would no longer be present. Mrs. Mallard was aware of her yearnings of independence and joy, but would never voice them while locked into her marriage with Brantley. While at first, it may seem as Mrs. Mallard was unaware of these feelings, the death of her husband was just the catalyst that allowed her deepest feelings to be revealed and her dreams of independence to finally
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
2. I think that Mrs. Mallard was justified in feeling love for her husband, but also love for herself. She opened her mind to the freedom for herself, not grieving over her husband’s death eternally. She wanted to feel him in spirit and not be weighed down over the thought of her husband’s death.
In “The Story of an Hour” the main character Louise Mallard has just found out that her husband, Brently Mallard, died in a train accident. She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, (527) which means that she didn’t immediately think that her life was over and she could not go on without her husband, she thought of the rest of her life with open arms and excitement. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. (527) she was looking forward to a whole new life, a life of her own. Of course she was sad and knew that she would mourn her husband, be sad when she saw him lying in the casket at his funeral. And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. (528) She is saying she did love him but not most of the time. While she was alone in her room staring out the window a feeling came over her that she was unsure of at first, but when she let herself go she realized it was freedom, triumph, and victory. She kept whispering to herself “free, body and soul free!”(528) She and her sister walked down the stairs together to find her husband, Brently, walking through the front door, she died of a heart attack as soon as she saw him.
Mrs. Mallard is a woman that is suffering in marriage. We realize that she was not very optimistic about her married life. The night prior to the "death" of her husband, she had quietly prayed for her life to be short. She had reached a point of disillusionment and would gladly welcome death as an option out of the marriage. When she learns that her husband had perished in the train accident, she first reacts by
The focus of the “The Story of an Hour” is on Mrs. Mallard, who is the quaint and seemed to be frail women with a heart condition. Mrs. Mallard is told that her husband was killed in a tragic train accident. As she processes this devastating news, she realizes that she is free from the chains of her marriage. That she can finally be the woman
“The Story of an Hour” is a very short text, so the author does not have room to develop a complex plot. In the exposition, the reader learn that Mrs. Mallard has a heart problem, so the other characters wanted to be delicate while sharing the news of her husband’s death. The rising action is when Mrs. Mallard’s sister shares the news and Mrs. Mallard responds by weeping and going to her room. The climax occurs when Mrs. Mallard learns that she will be free from the restrictions the “civil law” forces on women at that time. According to the text, “When she abandoned herself a little whisper escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her
Within the story The Story of an Hour there is a train wreck that Louise Mallard’s husband is thought to be on and so his name is on the list of people whom have passed. Mrs. Mallard’s sister and husband’s friend, knowing that she has “heart troubles,” try to keep the news from her before they can enlighten her of the harsh news lightly and smoothly, with much success. She shows a face of how she should react, but on her own she thinks of all of the possibilities that she can do now. She actually feels better about life and wishes for it to be longer than she had when her husband is alive. Through his death she gains a sense of identity for herself. During the time of Mrs. Mallard’s world, a good wife would be one that “accepts the conventions”