Story Of An Hour 'And Strong Independent Woman'

Not only did these women not have a way to get out of their crisis, but they were also prohibited from being themselves and from doing what they want. In “A Sorrowful Woman,” the main character is exhausted from being “a wife and mother one too many times” (189). When her son says, “She’s tired of doing all our things again” (193), this tells us what her life was like. She was constantly feeling the stress of trying to be a housewife against her will, although she did have the ability to write and wasn’t given much of a chance to write. Only once in her life does she have a chance to write “mad and fanciful stories nobody could ever make up again, and a table full of love sonnets…”(192-193); that is before her death. This woman is in a tough predicament. While the person herself tells her to do whatever she wants to, the person that is affected by social expectations inside her tells her to do other things. She completely loses controls of herself. Even though she was unable to do things she wants, she still had to pretend as if she was the luckiest woman (189). In “The Story of an Hour,” on the other hand, Mrs. Mallard’s overwhelming joy when she received the news of her husband’s death indicated for how long and how much she wanted to be “Free, free, free!” (19). Only alone in her room could Mrs.

Mallard has a heart condition, which makes it very hard to anyone to break to her the sad news of the death of her husband in the beginning. Everyone treats her cautiously and with care, and they tiptoe around the issue of the death of her husband. When her sister and close family get the news that Mr. Mallard had died in an accident, they take time and gently break the news to her, fearing that any carelessness could be fatal to her due to the heart condition she suffered from. She weeps and cries, then goes ahead to lock herself up in her room. She seems terrified and in awe about something that is about to come to her, which is her freedom.

This personal confession shows that Mrs. Mallard, though she will mourn at first, now is free to “live for herself,” (228) not for her imposing husband. Before her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard believed she was in a healthy, normal marriage. This death revealed to her how while she cared about her husband, she despised the lack of freedom her marriage had given her. All of the realizations that Mrs. Mallard reaches during her time of reflection shows the readers exactly why she will no longer mourn the death of her husband.

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.

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.

“Knowing Ms. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break it to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.” Her sister and husband’s friend Richard had to be careful when telling Ms. Mallard about her husband’s because it may give her problems with her heart. Ms. Mallard had to lock herself in her room and look out the window to calm down after hearing the news. She even knew that death is inevitable.

In the psychological lens, the brain is separated into three different parts. The three parts are the superego, the ego, and the id. The superego is the way society expects you to react to different problems and situations. The ego is the conscious decisions that you make. The id is your unconscious desires.

Her reaction is one that every wife would express with the cries and sorrows. Mrs. Mallard is not only suffering from her troubled heart but also her marriage. Isolated in her room, Mrs. Mallard realizes her future of long independent days. In hopes of her future endeavors, she gets knocked by the truth which causes her death. Mrs. Mallard’s independence and happiness becomes oppressed by marriage.

Traditionally, women have been known as the less dominant sex. They have been stereotyped as being only housewives and bearers of the children. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Kate Chopin‘s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, focus on a woman’s dilemma near the turn of the 19th century. Contradicting the “normal” or sad assumption of death, “The Story of an Hour” illustrates the significance of death representing freedom. The Story narrates about an hour of Louise Mallard’s life, as she tries to understand, and deal with her feelings of her husbands death.

Mallard begins to realize that she is free of her husband’s control. She kept whispering to herself that she was free and that her body and soul was free. She had realized that there would be many years to come where she would be free and she was happy to be a free woman. She had finally realized that there would be no one else to live for in her life except herself. There would be no powerful will binding herself.

“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.

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

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.

At the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard’s husband walked through her front door in the flesh, but Mrs. Mallard’s heart could not handle the excitement. The

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin describes an hour in the life of an oppressed woman bound by marriage in the nineteenth century. It is only when Mrs. Mallard’s husband dies in a sudden railroad accident that she realizes she is no longer tied together by the ropes of man. At first she is shocked and horrified by the tragedy, for she did say “she had loved him – sometimes” (Chopin). However, once the tears were wept, a new bountiful life of freedom was now in the eyes of Mrs. Mallard. Chopin uses imagery, third person omniscient point of view, and concepts of relief and joy in “The Story of an Hour” to convey the true feelings of Mrs. Mallard as she is freed from the strenuous and unjust oppression of women due to society’s expectation of gender roles.