Story Of An Hour Analysis

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” allows one to explore many ironic instances throughout the story, the main one in which a woman unpredictably feels free after her husband’s assumed death. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s bizarre story to illustrate the struggles of reaching personal freedom and trying to be true to yourself to reach self-assertion while being a part of something else, like a marriage. In “The Story of an Hour” the main character, Mrs. Mallard, celebrates the death of her husband, yet Chopin uses several ironic situations and certain symbols to criticize the behavior of Mrs. Mallard during the time of her “loving” husband’s assumed death.

The definition of freedom, according to Dictionary.com, is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. In the declaration of independence, American citizens are given freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to vote, right to a fair trial, and freedom of assembly to name a few. These rights that we have enable us to form communities and have our voices heard regarding issues that negatively impact us as a whole or prevent us from moving towards a brighter and hopeful future because that is what freedom is. It is about hope. It is about being your own person without hesitation, without judgement. “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin and “A&P” written by John Updike encounter two very

Anyone who receives notice of a loved ones death is never expected to take it lightly. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard is informed of her husbands “death” as gently as possible, and immediately she understands the enormous significance this loss will have on her life. Unlike many widow’s, her feelings of utter devastation do not last. Mrs. Mallard’s sobs of loss turn to cries of joy after she reflects upon her own character and discovers truths about her marriage.

In Kate Chopin’s 1894 short story The Story of an Hour, a woman processes the announcement of her husband’s death. The story revolves around Louise Mallard, a young, pretty woman who has just received word that her husband, Brently Mallard, died in a train accident. Upon receiving the news from her sister Josephine, Louise immediately bursts into tears, an emotional display that, once spent, prompts her to retreat to her bedroom. After a time, Louise repeats her emotional outburst—this time with excitement at the idea she will be able to live her own life. However, Louise’s joy is cut short when her husband, having been nowhere near the accident, arrives home. Her disappointment is so profound she dies.

Mrs. Mallard, who is the protagonist, experienced different emotional transformation in a short story “The story of an hour” written by Kate Chopin. The story describes the protagonist variation of emotion and the epiphany moments developed after she was informed the death news of her husband. As a wife, her reaction gives the readers another kind of sentiment: she was so calm and indifferent that is out of the reader’s expectation. Moreover, she suffered from heart disease and was under control by her husband, which means she had no freedom, regardless of mental or physical. On the other side, Mrs. Mallard lived in 19th century, a period that women had to obey their husband and the entitlement of them was limited.

In Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour,” a whirlwind of events occur in a short amount of time. The story begins with the protagonist, Louise Mallard, being told that her husband has died from a railroad disaster. She grieves for a while and then goes upstairs to her room. She stares out an open window for a while until she realizes that she is finally free. She is liberated by her newfound freedom, but unfortunately, Mrs. Mallard’s freedom is snatched away from her in the matter of moments because, surprise, Mr. Mallard was nowhere near the railroad disaster. Once Mrs. Mallard discovers that Mr. Mallard is alive, she dies from a heart attack. This dynamic short story takes place in only an hour. One may ask how could this short of a story can have such an expansive array of events occur, but the answer is simple. The plot of “The Story of an Hour” is able to unfold quickly due to Chopin’s use of irony, her heavy use of symbolism, and the time period in which she wrote.

In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin describes the series of emotions a married woman with a heart condition, Mrs. Mallard, endures after hearing about the death of her husband, Mr. Mallard. She assumes that she will be a mournful widow, but she ends up silently rejoicing. It turns out that she was not happily married and the thought of freedom from her attachments of marriage gave her

“The Story of an Hour” follows an eventful hour of a particular day in the life of Louise Mallard during the late 19th century. Over the span of an hour, Mrs. Mallard receives the news that her husband had died in a terrible railroad accident and she goes through the typical mourning stage that most people do when they find out a love one is lost. But within a few minutes of being alone Mrs. Mallard starts repeating, “Free! Body and soul free!” From this moment she begins to envision a life on her own where she does not have to live for anyone, especially not a husband, she can do what she wants and follow her dreams. She’s more confident and ecstatic about her new life and finally goes to be with her sister again but in doing that, Brently Mallard, her husband comes home and indirectly kills her.

“The Story of An Hour” focuses on sixty minutes in the life of a young nineteenth-century woman, Mrs. Mallard. Upon learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard experiences an epiphany about her future without a husband. Her life, due to heart problems, suddenly ends after she unexpectedly finds out her husband is actually alive. Mrs. Mallard’s actions cause the reader to cogitate a hidden meaning weaved into Kate‘s short story. Chopin had an idea that women felt confined in their marriages, and the idea is brought out through the protagonist’s initial reaction, excessive joy, and new perspective of the world following the upsetting news.

Being a woman has not always come with the freedoms like it does today. Kate Chopin portrays an image of the life of women in the nineteenth century in her famous short essay, “The Story of an Hour.” She describes the feelings of a woman after learning about the death of her husband. The woman becomes overwhelmed with emotions, she is upset but at the same time feels a sense of relief. “The Story of an Hour” is a wonderful, highly recommended essay because of how it displays the emotions that were hidden by most women during that time period.

This text was slightly overwhelming because of the length, which was three pages. It hinted at information here and there but it did not seem like a complete story. I did not find it entertaining per se but it did intrigue me how the writer described certain aspects of the story. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life (Chopin 66).” After reading the story for the first time I wondered why she went into such detail about the surroundings outside. Then,

In her article Kate Chopin’s View on Death and Freedom in The Story of an Hour, Xuemei Wan proposes that Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour expresses birth and death, psychology of Mrs. Mallard, and freedom. The Story of an Hour written by the American woman writer, Kate Chopin (1851-1904) fully shows us the tremendous conflict between life and death among those women who had more self-awareness. Who had less social living space according to the established social norms 100 years ago in a dramatic way. The heroine’s strong desire for freedom and sudden death. This reminds us of the philosophical thought on life and death of Zhuangzi, ancient Chinese thinker, Martin Heidegger, which deconstruct and transcend the conflict between them, and many more. In this essay, I will be critiquing Xuemei Wen article showing the strengths, weaknesses, and notable features.

“The Story of an Hour” written by the author Kate Chopin describes a different unusual view of marriage. Chopin’s main Character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, encounters the excitement of freedom rather than the melancholy of loneliness after she receives news that her husband has died in a train accident. But later when Mrs. mallard finds out that her significant other Brenley still lives, reality sets in and she knows that all hope of freedom is gone. The devastating disappointment kills Mrs. Mallard instantly. “the Story of an Hour” being published in the late eighteen hundreds may well be a reflection of the harsh nature of marriage that couples underwent in that time period.

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a story that happens in one hour and it presents how women were viewed in the nineteenth century. The story is about a woman named Louis Mallard, who just received news that her husband has died in a train wreck. Kate Chopin is a modernist and feminist writer of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Kate Chopin has a similar life to the character in this novel because she lived through the women’s suffrage movement and her husband died at a young age. Kate Chopin began her writing career when her husband passed away. Her writing career ended when she started expressing her feminist views of society. In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour”, the author uses Louise Mallard husband’s death to justify that death can bring joy, freedom, and independence to a person’s life. Mrs. Mallard has taken on a different view of life now. The title of the story shows how much can occur in an hour. Now that her husband has passed away, is Mrs. Mallard happy because she is now her own person? Kate Chopin wrote this story in a time that women really didn’t have any rights. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a great example of the roles of women in marriage in the late Nineteenth century and how it affected their lives.

What does it mean to be happy and have your own identity in life? In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, some of the family and friends must deal with telling a loved one about the death of their spouse and one seems to be hasty and the other seems to be reluctant and tries to think of their loved one’s feelings and health to ensure that it’s not detrimental to their well-being. How Josephine felt about telling her sister about her husband’s death was like pulling teeth. Josephine beat around the bush so to speak when she was trying to explain, her brother-in-law’s death. Josephine felt that she needed to protect her sister because of her heart condition which she felt could’ve killed Louise Mallard, her sister.