Marcus Tullius Cicero stated, “What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.” Freedom is a gift many people crave, but often something that many people don’t receive. It is difficult to obtain full independence, and that is often a roadblock to the things one wants to achieve. This is demonstrated in Kate Chopin’s realistic fictional story, “The Story of an Hour.” This story introduces us to Louise Mallard, a dynamic character afflicted with heart trouble. One day, over the course of an hour, she is told that her husband has been killed in a railroad accident. Shocked and distressed, Louise falls into a state of grieving and depression as she stares through her bedroom window by herself. She begins to attempt to picture her life alone, without her husband, but it pains her to think about living in her lonesome. Her mood quickly takes a turn as she sits and thinks, realizing then that she would be living for herself- distanced from her troubled marriage and able to be free for the first time. She becomes thrilled to live her life independently and envisions her life finally belonging to herself. Her vision is quickly ripped from her when her husband walks through the front door of their house, completely alive, despite what Louise had been told. Louise dies instantly at the sight of her husband, her freedom- and her life- ripped away from her.
Every person has the right to be and feel free. They have the right to be independent and live how they want to. In Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour,” it discusses the death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband and her freedom. Chopin starts off the story by having Mr. Mallard die in a train crash, leaving Mrs. Mallard devastated. Instead of feeling sadness or grief, Mrs. Mallard actually feels free. To show this, Chopin uses a variety of literary terms in this story, but several are more of a focus than others. Chopin successful uses vivid imagery, point of view, and irony that gives a different view of marriage that is not usually viewed as such.
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.
Louise Mallard is the protagonist of The Story of an Hour. The entire story is about her preservation. Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard as a woman who is in deep suffering. She is not only suffering from a marriage she is not happy with, but she is also suffering from her medical condition. As if she had not suffered enough, she also puts a threat to her own life. We see this when Josephine is knocking on her door while she refuses to open it (Chopin). What is unknown to Josephine however is that her sister is in fact not suffering but savoring the moment.
Although some people react dramatically when facing a situation, after reflecting on their initial reactions, their previous emotions may be affected by a previously unknown feeling of freedom. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, receives some sad news. Initially, Mrs. Mallard reacts with great sadness over the news of her husband’s death. As the story progresses, Mrs. Mallard begins to reflect on her previous emotions alone and begins to develop her true emotions towards her husband’s death. Finally, Mrs. Mallard realizes that the wonderful feelings of individual freedom overpower her feelings of sadness. Therefore, although Mrs. Mallard reacts with sadness over the death of her husband, Brently, after reflecting on her previous emotions, she discovers that the feelings of individual freedom overtake the relationship with her husband.
When an author uses characterization in a story, the reader gets a better understanding of the character. In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin doesn't directly characterize Mrs. force the reader to infer Mallard, she uses more indirect characterization to force the reader to infer the traits of Mrs. Mallard.
The story of an hour by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to her husband’s death. In this short story, Chopin portrays the complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as she is saddened yet joyful of her loss. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” argues that an individual discover their self-identity only after being freed from confinement. The story also argues that freedom is a very powerful force that affects mental or emotional state of a person. The story finally argues that only through death can one be finally freed.
The “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story about a woman who struggles with the oppression she experiences at the hands of her husband and her secret desire for independence. Louise Mallard didn’t realize how upset she was in her marriage until she found out about her husband’s death. She grieves for only a short period of time before mentally creating a new life for herself. This new life she envisions help her to see the silver lining in a tragic event. Chopin uses symbolism throughout the story to portray the theme of a quest for identity.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.
As humans, we live our life within the boundaries of our belief systems and moral guidelines. Yet, one unexpected event can suddenly knock us out of our comfort zone and thrust us into a completely different arena. Such is the case of the central character in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Louise Mallard, upon hearing the news of her husband’s tragic death then subsequent revelation of its fallacy, finds herself quickly moving from grief, through a sense of newfound freedom, and finally into the despair of the loss of that freedom.
In “The Story of an Hour” the main character Louise Mallard suffers from a bad heart, but otherwise, she is young and cute. Louise learned from family members that her husband had just been killed in a railroad disaster. As she grieves alone in her upstairs bedroom, she suddenly is hit with new emotions. She realizes that she did love her husband and he loved her, but what she wants more than anything is to be free. Free to go and do as she pleases without anyone watching over her. Later
In “The Story of an Hour,” when Louise Mallard hears the news that her husband, Brently Mallard, was killed in a tragic train accident, she is devastated. After being left alone and having time to think, she realizes that she is now free to live as her own person. This occurrence is a prime example of how women were not treated as equals, but as servants to men and their husbands. Furthermore, it shows how women at the time had no way out of their marriage unless their husband passed away. Nonetheless, if it were written today, there is a possibility that Mr. Mallard would have treated her better and she would have been able to live her own life while still being married to him. If not this, she could have divorced him and found a husband that
In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin focuses on the idea of freedom throughout the story. Mrs. Mallard is a lonely wife who suffers from heart trouble. She is told by her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards that her husband has passed away in a train accident. She locks herself in a room expecting to be devastated, but instead feels freedom. Later, she exits her room and her husband walks through the door, causing her to die of a heart attack. Chopin uses this story to demonstrate that too much freedom is often dangerous.
Mrs. Louise Mallard has heart trouble and is about to learn that her husband has died in a railroad accident. That is the introduction, we have to the main character in the story. Is the heart trouble significant to the story? In the ensuing paragraphs there is great detail used to describe everyday occurrences. How can “aquiver with the new spring of life” or “the delicious breath of rain” lend its self to the story? Are these more important now than they would have been an hour earlier when she believed her husband was alive or does the author just enjoy using descriptive language? Louise slowly recognizes she is free of her husband’s “powerful will” and would be living her life for herself.
Kate Chopin is the author of many short-stories and novels. Her short story, “The Story of an Hour,” is about a woman named Mrs. Louise Mallard with a fragile heart that suddenly and unexpectedly loses her husband in a train accident. Throughout the story, Mrs. Mallard learns to embrace the accident because for her it meant she finally obtained freedom from her demanding life that she has been wanting to break away from. Freedom and independence is one of the themes of “The Story of an Hour” and appears in the story when Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband is in a train accident, when she secludes herself from everyone in her room, and when she learns that her husband is actually alive.
Freedom Matters Kate Chopin was born in 1851 with the life goal of creating beautiful and metaphoric short stories. These short stories would bring up negative opinions on the minds of human being within her society. Chopin uses conflict, symbolism, and character to show that Louise intensively goes through an emotional roller coaster filled with a sentimental symbolism in which it explains that her heart attack suffered toward the end of “The Story of an Hour” represents her dissatisfaction with her marriage and unhappiness due to lack of freedom in her life. It has being said that the death of her husband might inspired to write “The Story of an Hour” due to the similarities in her own life and the life of Louise.