Freedom And Freedom In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Reading this story you are given background information and details about the main story unlike “Popular Mechanics” therefore giving it more of a classic short story feeling. This story is about a woman by the name of Mrs. Louise Mallard who receives word that her husband has died in a trainwreck while away on business. In the opening of this story you are told that Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition and that any emotional breaking news would be bad and to be caring and gentle. When she received the news that her husband had passed and the news was a shock, she went to her room alone to weep and sorrow over his passing. As the news became processed, she became less sad and more relieved of her husband's passing. Mrs. Mallard felt as though she had been set free and the weight of the world was let off of her shoulders. She finally left her bedroom and returned to her sister’s company after this. But after leaving and walking downstairs that weight of the world fell onto her as her husband entered the front door. The shock of her husband’s presence and her failing, weak heart killed her and similarly to the other story, it ends with great irony, reading, “When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease- of joy that kills,” (Chopin

However, the story ends with Mrs Mallard’s freedom being ripped away from her as she dies from shock upon seeing her husband walk through the door. When the doctors come to pronounce her dead, they said “she had died of heart disease, … the joy that kills”. This is foreshadowed that the beginning of the story when it is said that Mrs Mallard “was afflicted with heart trouble”. Also this use of irony suggests how the male ideology of the doctors is foolish and misplaced.

Mallard after her sister tells her the news of her husband is not the common reaction expected when someone suddenly dies. Her reaction quotes, “She did 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” (Chopin 653). This quote indicates the fact that she does not react the way that a spouse would when he or she’s spouse has passed and having the utter feeling of denial. Though uncertain of her own feelings, Chopin begins to describe Mrs. Mallard’s decaying thoughts of her former lifestyle into something more

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.

Upon hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard is overwhelmed with grief, which swiftly turned into hope. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction upon receiving the news of her husband 's death is considered to be unusually by society’s standards. In the beginning of the story it is revealed that Mrs, Mallard suffers heart problems; however, when it is revealed that her husband is dead her heart is relieved. She was thrilled that she was able to be her own person again. It was revealed through her reflection on her marriage that she “had loved him - sometimes” (16). Mrs. Mallard overcame is quick to overcome her grief after the realization that she has been set free of her horrible marriage. As a married woman, Mrs. Mallard is miserable, but as a widow she feels a sense of relief that she is free of her marital vows. At the end of the story Mrs. Mallard dies of a failing heart which it ironic because typically a woman would be filled with joy to find out

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

In Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour," the main character, Mrs. Mallard is diagnosed with a heart condition. She is married to a traveling man, although news comes in unexpectedly that her husband has perished in a train accident. Only having known this terrible information from two telegrams, her sister relays the news gently. Oddly, the newly announced widow silently rejoices at the news of her husband's death. And "Although they thought the news would negatively affect her health, the irony comes in that she finds freedom and liberation in his death"(Tolentino 13).

Seth Schaller Chris Lipovsky Mrs. Costanzo English 11,Period 7 18 September, 2014 Story of an Hour Mrs. Mallard changes from a sick and unhappy young woman to a happy and independent widow as the result of realizing her freedom after her husband’s death. Death normally is not associated with happiness but with the overwhelming situation of being a woman in the 1800’s, it was almost a blessing to go from containment to freedom. Unfortunately, this feeling of freedom was only a feeling and nothing more.

The story begins by introducing Mrs Mallard as a woman afflicted with ‘heart trouble', 'and this meant that great care had to be taken while she was informed of her husband’s death'.

My thoughts were on the same lines as yours. What caused Ms. Mallard heart problems, was it physical or emotional? I suppose it could have been both. I could not help to wonder if Mr. Mallard had any idea of her sadness, nevertheless; she receive joy twice in in a moment in time his alleged death and her true death.

In “ A Story of an Hour’” Kate Chopin shows that women can be oppressed by the institution of marriage. In a man’s world a women's only way of freedom is through the man in their life. not for all woman, but some the idea of marriage is not ideal. Due to the death of Mr. Mallard you find that Mrs. Mallard experiences a sense of optimism instead of mourning her husband's death. Then she is overcome not by sadness but a certain joy. Just to have it all taken from her in the split of a second.

In this story the narrator focuses on how Mrs. Mallard copes with the death of her husband. The

I don't know if this is what I want, but if I do, I can have it without restriction. Kate Chopin, writer of "The Story of an Hour", writes a story about a woman who is living a repressed life that she doesn't know about. "Freedom" is never a word that Mrs. Mallard ever thinks about in her life, not until the moment where she is force to think about the possibility of leaving the cage. A possibility that can change her life forever and make her be the woman she always dreamed about becoming. Freedom is the cure for a damage heart, and no one has the power to stop us from getting it.

In the Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard to express how freedom is dangerous. Mrs. Mallard becomes so obsessed with freedom that she disregards her husband’s death. The narrator explains that Mrs. Mallard, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself”. Mrs. Mallard’s realization of becoming free, overtakes all that has happened and gets her to forget her husband’s death. Another way Mrs. Mallard obsesses with freedom is when she belittles her own love for her husband and love in general. Mrs. Mallard,” yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often, she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly

Kate Chopin’s short story titled “The Story of an Hour” shows us in a number ways that life without freedom is no life at all. In the story, a nineteenth century women named Mrs. Mallard finds out about her husband’s death. She has heart disease so Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, tries to break the bad news to her as calmly as possible. After hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard’s unpredictable reaction shocks us the readers as well as the characters in the story. Instead of feeling the sorrow of her husband’s death, she feels the joy of freedom from him as well. Freedom is something that we as humans take for granted, and this story shows the importance of it through Mrs. Mallard’s eyes.