Story Of An Hour Critical Analysis

Death can cause a person joy instead of sorrow or grief. “The Story of an Hour,” a perfect example, was written by Kate Chopin. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story that shows how the main character, Louise Mallard, views her marriage and the death of her husband. Mrs. Louise Mallard brings several different themes into the story that may be viewed very differently by different readers. The two themes, confinement and freedom, show how Mrs. Mallard feels before and after learning the news of her husband’s death. “The Story of an Hour” shows how several incidents can occur in just one hour. Set in the home of Mrs. Mallard, the story originates when Mrs. Mallard is told by her sister, Josephine, about her husband’s death. Normally, when a person’s spouse passes away, the passing brings grief, regret, and sorrow. However, Mrs. Mallard feels as if she is confined to her husband; therefore, she is now free and can enjoy life by herself. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to illustrate how confinement, freedom, and irony can occur from marriage and death.

Everyone has lost a loved one or has seen and experienced a situation in which another person has lost their loved one. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, published in 1894, details that moment in a woman's life when her world is shattered and the process of self-consciousness begins. Louise Mallard, wife of Richard Mallard, a successful businessman. Louise Mallard is a woman ahead of her time, by the standards of the 1890’s she should be happy. Her husband loves her; she herself acknowledges that he “had never looked save with love upon her.”(Chopin, p.477) In the 1890’s women depended on their husbands financially. There was an unspoken rule that the man was the powerful one, the wife would conform to the

The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin is the tragic story of a woman whose newfound position as a widow gives her strength. She develops a sense of freedom as she embraces her husband's death as an opportunity to establish her own identity. The tragedy is when her newfound identity gets stripped away as the appearance of her husband reveals that he is still alive. The disappointment from this tragedy kills her with a heart attack symbolizing the many conflicts that she faced throughout the story. The conflicts the character faces within herself and society show that the social norms for women were suppressing to their strength and individuality as human beings.

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” focuses on a woman named Louise Mallard and her reaction to finding out about her husband’s death. The descriptions that the author uses in the story have significance in the plot because they foreshadow the ending.

Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour" presents a young married woman named Mrs. Louise Mallard, who has a "heart trouble"(26). Suddenly, Mrs. Mallard receives a news that her husband, Brently Mallard has died in a train accident. She weeps and ascends to her room. Within a short period of time, she is able to fully come to terms with her husband's sudden death. Instead of mourning over his death, she feels joy and excitement. She can now act as herself and has the freedom she is longing for. Ironically, her husband comes home alive and she dies of the realization that her freedom and identity will be taken away again. The imageries that Chopin uses help the readers imagine Mrs. Mallard's excitement and the new life waiting for her.

Kate Chopin describes in "The Story of an Hour" a short story, a opposing point of view of marriage by giving the reader a woman, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard who is somewhat unruffled and calm by the news of her husband, Brently’s, death. After she learns that her husband is still alive, it caused her heart to give out and she died. Though the “The Story of the Hour” was published in the eighteen hundred, the opinions of marriage in the story could correspond with this day in age as well. Louise felt trapped in her marriage. The lines of her face "bespoke repression" (paragraph 8) expresses her hidden feeling of entrapment.

Themes and symbols were the first two relevant terms that entered my mind after reading “The Story of an Hour”. The central themes I gather were freedom and death. Death is used in "The Story of an Hour" to explore the effects of death and the lethal pain it can bring upon someone. This story also explores a different side by allowing an outside character to explore the same pain without the death of a love one. For example, Mrs. Mallard’s husband friend who worked at newspaper had first-hand knowledge of his death. The story tells his pain and how confirming his friend was dead hurt, but watching his wife react to this was going to be even more painful. Freedom was another theme that spoke for its self throughout the story. The aspect of

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"--which takes only a few minutes to read--has an ironic ending: Mrs. Mallard dies just when she is beginning to live. On first reading, the ending seems almost too ironic for belief. On rereading the story, however, one sees that the ending is believable partly because it is consistent with the other ironies in the story.

In Chopin’s The Story of an Hour Chopin shows that, Independence is something that can be enjoyed very much however when they lose such a joy, their feelings can come to be worst than without their independence in the first place.

“Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, exemplifies the inner conflict of many women during the late 1800s, living in a suppressed patriarchal society, without the freedom and individuality afforded the men of this era. The story conveys the theme of conflict between displayed social identity and suppressed private identity through point of view, and symbolism, and plot development. To begin with, the point of view assists in effectively conveying the conflict between Mrs. Mallards public and private identity. Use of a third person point of view, is critical in identifying the conflict between her public identity and private identity by allowing the reader to see the outside perspective of her public identity and also her views and thoughts from

“Story of an hour” by Kate Chopin, a short story that eliminates the thought that true tragic stories can only be achievable if the protagonist is a man of high estate. This short story exhibits the effects that a superficial marriage can have on a woman and exudes pathos from the audience, an essential quality of a tragic story. Mrs. Louis Mallard, unable to extricate or relieve herself from this relationship, she endures it and this takes a severe toll on her mental and physical wellbeing, this is represents her hamartia as she does not possess the self-confidence required to stand up for herself. Furthermore, the plot of a tragic story must be in close proximity to Aristotle’s ideology and the tragic hero must meet with an untimely demise which is in parallel to the main story line. “Story of an Hour” is a tragic short story with all the qualities and attributes that both Aristotle and Shakespeare write with. It possesses a key aspect of a tragedy, which is having a tragic hero that evokes pity and is burdened with a tragic flaw. Moreover, this story follows many of the other elements of a tragic story such as catharsis and the recognition of potential.

In the “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, freedom is a luxury that can only be dreamed. The story is set in the 1890's, the Victorian era, a time before the nineteenth amendment, a time when the women suffragists were found in prison as regularly as in the streets. The main character, Louise Mallard, is like every other woman in this time; she struggled to get any freedom of her own. When Louise gets word that her husband Brently died in a railroad accident, she was saddened for a moment, but quickly realized that she was now free. Brently Mallard was in control of Louise’s life, so his death gave her hope for a life of freedom.

In the short story "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin, the author, presents the reader with an obscure view of marriage. Chopin's main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, experiences the excitement of freedom instead of the devastation of loneliness after she receives the news of her husband's death. Mrs. Mallard disturbingly finds out that Brently, her husband is still alive. She know knew that her only chance at freedom is gone. The disappointment instantly kills Mrs. Mallard. Published in the late 1800s, the overbearing nature of marriage presented in "The Story of an Hour" may very well reflect, but not restricted to, that era.

Kate Chopin’s “Story of An hour”:I’d rather die than live a life that’s not mine.

Written April 19th, 1894 “The Story of an Hour” is to be said one of Kate Chopin’s most controversial pieces. Published on December 6th, 1894 in Vogue magazine under the title “The Dream of an Hour” readers first meet Lousie Mallard. Set in the 19th century, a time when women were to be seen as merely an appendage to their husbands, readers are taken on an emotional roller coaster finding of the death of Brently Mallard. It was said that a woman isn’t anything without a man leading her, yet no one person can control a woman’s happiness given that she controls her destiny.