Freedom and Kate Chopin's Story of an Hour Essay

As any woman would, Mrs. Mallard initially “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,” (227) at the news of her husband’s death. Her weeping almost seems forced as Mrs. Mallard’s true character is revealed later on. She is described as “young, with a

Kate Chopin is known for being criticized for empowering the subject of female sexuality and independence. In Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, it is placed in a time where men were known as being the head of the household while women were only in charge of raising the children and caring for the home. In the 1890s, women didn’t have so much power to themselves compared to today’s society where female empowerment is frequently encouraged. Chopin’s story narrates a sequence of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions that goes within the motion of the story. As she overcomes the sudden death of her husband, her emotion of grief soon turns into the sudden feeling of freedom, later on emerging into a strong independent woman.

It also gives you an insight of what was going through some women's minds during the time where the woman stereotype was so high and still is high today. After the news was broken to Mrs. Mallard she would say "free, free, free!" over and over under her breath. Knowing that she wouldn’t have to take care of anyone but only herself. After receiving the news about her husband’s death would have an monstrous joy. This let’s

Mallard being a bad husband, the author makes no implications to such a thing. In fact, we are told that he “had never looked save with love upon her,” (CITE) which would imply she had no real ill feelings toward Mr. Mallard. That is, she had no real grounds for her negativity towards him. She even tried to appeal to her own emotions by pointing this reasoning out to herself, but in the end, she put up a poor defense of how she deserved to feel elated over her husband’s death. “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion…” (CITE) Mrs. Mallard allowed her selfish emotions to take over, “her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her.” (CITE) This possibly even ruined a good thing between her and her husband. Then again, the love in the relationship seemed very one sided as Mrs. Mallard admitted that her love for her husband was not complete. The way she tosses aside a relationship like she did makes it challenging for one to sympathize with Mrs. Mallard's character.

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”

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' is a short yet complex piece describing the feelings of Mrs Mallard. This story is overflowing with symbolism and imagery. The most prominent theme here is the longing for freedom. Chopin focuses on unfolding the emotional state of Mrs Mallard which can be separated into three stages: quickly moving to grief, through a sense of newfound freedom, and finally into the despair of the loss of that freedom.

Mrs. Mallard reaction to her husband's death represents her marriage and how the lack of freedom and individualism in it takes a toll on her body and soul.

Mallard’s suppressed self that she has endured in the formalities of her life (1). Chopin continues to express how afflicted Mrs. Mallard is with her struggle to come to terms with her current state of emotions and her vision of self by describing Mrs. Mallard’s “dull eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.” While Chopin depicts Mrs. Mallard’s glance as not being one of reflection “but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought,” it can be inferred that Mrs. Mallard is processing her self-being not on a rational level but more on her emotional stimuli.

In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin describes to her readers a young woman’s response to her husband’s death, or at least his presumed death. The opinions readers will draw from this story will vary from person to person due to personal experiences. The experience and wisdom that I have gained through the trails and tribulations of my life help me to understand, relate, and even despise Mrs. Mallard’s character. On one hand, I feel pity for Mrs. Mallard. I think she felt trapped in a situation that she found to be inescapable. She felt lonely, restless, and did not know how to help herself. Yet, on the other hand, I do not feel sorry for

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is a short yet complex story, describing Mrs Mallard’s feelings. It focuses on the unfolding emotional state of Mrs Mallard after the news of her husbands death, and has overflowing symbolism and imagery. It is an impressive literary piece that touches the readers’ feelings and mind and allows the reader to have a connection to Mrs Mallard’s emotional process. Although the story is short, it is complete with each word carrying deep sense and meaning. It is written in the 19th century, a time that had highly restrictive gender roles that forbade women to live as they saw fit. Mrs Mallard experiences something not everyone during this time has the luck to have; the happiness of freedom that the reader only

Mallard when she does what is thought to be abnormal. When the sad news of her husband's death is broken to her, she does not react as other women would do in such a situation. We see this in her reaction, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,” (Chopin 169). We can understand this strange psychological behavior since her husband was oppressive to her life and therefore his death sound as a reprieve to her despite being a strange as we expect people to mourn their beloved

Mallard should have been in tears but it did not bother her. “ She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.” ( Chopin, 4 ) . Her marriage aged her, she was no longer the young woman she once was. The news of her husband's death did not upset or make her mad it gave her a sense of peace. Mrs. Mallard had a taste of freedom which gave her strength.

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.

Kate Chopin's short story, "The Story of an Hour" is largely about the forms of repression that women were forced to endure during the epoch in which the story was written (1894) and during much of the time that preceded it. During this time period, women quite frequently had to subjugate themselves to the will of their husbands, or to some other man who had a significant amount of control over their lives. Chopin chooses to address this phenomenon in an indirect manner with this particular short story, although she does so in a thematic manner which, of course, is the ""¦idea that lies behind the story. Every story narrows a broad underlying idea, shapes it in a unique way, and makes the underlying idea concrete" (Clugston 2010, 7.1) The theme that "The Story of an Hour" is based upon is the notion of the liberation of women from the overbearing influence of men. Chopin chooses to illustrate this theme quite dramatically through literary devices of symbolism and metaphor.