Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Throughout the story, Chopin adds bits of foreshadowing to hint at the demise of Mrs. Mallard. On the opening page of the story, the first sentence states, “Knowing Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break her...husband's death” (6). This sentence leads the reader to believe that Mrs. Mallard is already gravely ill. On the final page of the story, Mrs. Mallard argues with her sister, Josephine, who fears that Mrs. Mallard is making herself sick from heartbreak. Mrs. Mallard shouts, “Go away. I am not making myself ill” (8). This foreshadows that she is already making herself sick.

The doubt and misconstruction placed upon the women in the stories is a huge factor in the way their characters develop. Mrs. Mallard's sickness was misdiagnosed by both her family and doctor. They believed she suffered from heart problems but no evidence of this was produced during the story. When Mrs. Mallard was up in her room, her sister, Josephine, was worried that Mrs. Mallard would make herself ill because she was alone and suffering from her husband's death. Chopin gives the reader an insight as to Mrs. Mallard's thoughts by using a third person limited omniscient narrator, and by doing so, allows the reader to understand that Mrs. Mallard's family's ideas of her health were false. Near the end of the story the doctors and Mrs. Mallard's family believe that she has had a heart attack because she was happy to see that her husband was alive, while in actuality, she died because didn't want to live if she had to live with him.

Mallard after her sister tells her the news of her husband is not the common reaction expected when someone suddenly dies. Her reaction quotes, “She did hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment” (Chopin 653). This quote indicates the fact that she does not react the way that a spouse would when he or she’s spouse has passed and having the utter feeling of denial. Though uncertain of her own feelings, Chopin begins to describe Mrs. Mallard’s decaying thoughts of her former lifestyle into something more

When it is revealed that she has “heart trouble”, her sister uses extreme caution when breaking the news about the death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband. Chopin makes use of certain things in the short story where things can be taken literally and figuratively. Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition can be looked at literally and figuratively because Chopin incorporates it as both a physical and symbolic problem. Mrs. Mallard did have mixed feeling about her marriage and the lack of freedom that she had. When Mrs. Mallard realizes that she has this

Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble is symbolic of her broken relationship with her husband, Brently. Of all the possible health issues that Mrs. Mallard could have been battling, it is heart trouble that she if faced with. It is noted that Josephine speaks “in broken sentences; veiled hints” (Chopin, “The Story”), so that the news of Brently’s death is revealed to Mrs. Mallard as carefully as possible. However, the news of her husband’s death actually brings a new life to Mrs. Mallard: “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin, “The Story”). Mrs. Mallard’s marriage has confined her to her home and has caused the loss of her freedom, which is represented by her heart trouble. Her death is not caused by the joy of seeing her husband like the doctors thought, but rather due to a loss of joy, as she loses her newly found independence upon seeing Brently walk through the front door. Chopin shares: “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills” (“The Story”). The window in Mrs. Mallard’s bedroom also serves as an important symbol in the story, representing Mrs. Mallard’s freedom. Upon seeing the beauty throughout the streets as she looks out her window, Mrs. Mallard is finally able to realize that the rest of her life is full of countless possibilities (Rosenblum,

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.

She was heartbroken, to begin with, but realizing that between her husband and her there was not much love and their marriage had already been falling apart since the beginning made her mixed emotions that she was feeling a change. She accepted that her husband had passed away but when Chopin says "she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." and most women do not tend to react the same way that she did but because most women did not have to go through what she did. Times were different but that still does not change the fact that her husband had to leave her at home keeping her as a housewife. That made her feel lonely and sad, which was affecting her heart trouble making it worse. When they find out that after all her husband was fine and he had not passed away Mrs. Mallard was in the room looking out the window, not knowing yet that her husband was still alive, Chopin says "when the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease of the joy that kills." (Chopin 2). She died happy knowing that her husband was gone. Mrs. Mallard wanted to be independent women but could not which was why she was very happy to know that now she was free to become that independent woman she has been wanting to be. She finally had freedom because her husband never made it on time to tell her that he was fine and that

“The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin is about Mrs. Mallard, a lady with heart troubles who is married to Brently Mallard. At the beginning of the story, her husband’s friend Richards and her sister Josephine informed Mrs. Mallard that a railroad accident had killed her husband. After she had received the news, she then went by herself in her room alone (Chopin 337). The story then goes on to say, “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it repeatedly under her breath: “free, free, free!”

Mrs Mallard's awkward attitude after learning of her husband's death establishes an irony- somebody who is really happy in marriage will not enjoy nature in peace and have mixed emotions; the person will feel genuine grief upon hearing of the death of her husband. Here, Mrs Mallard's reaction portrays the extent to which her thirst for freedom was strong. Kate Chopin allows us to visualise the moment that Mrs Mallard is able to shed the bondage of marriage: "free, free, free!." She feels liberated through her husband's death. Much emphasis is laid on her joy upon finding freedom- "there would be no one to live for." The author also points out that "she knew that she would weep again.....folded in death." This only highlights the fact that it is not an expression of love but seems more like a duty that

Mallard’s realization of the freedom she has gained. Three types of symbolism that are used is the music, the window, and the clouds. When Mrs. Mallard goes up to her room after receiving word that her husband has passed she can hear music wafting in from the streets.” The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly” (Chopin, 476).

Mallard does not feel guilty about not loving her husband due to the fact that he is already gone. Because of all these new feelings and emotions that she is experiencing she starts to form a identity. She does not have to be this perfect wife anymore, because she is free. She can finally come out of her shell. Kate Chopin creates this for the reader in order for the audience to not view Mrs. Mallard as a weak character, but now as a actual person. The story goes deeper into making Mrs. Mallard a actual person that she stated thinking of her future with a new life she has found. The story does this by saying “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long . It was only yesterday she had though with a shudder that life might be long.” Now that she could live for herself and not her husband it made her want to become healthier. Being forced into playing a boring, timid, obedient wife made her not see the point in life. She was content with the fact of dying young due to her heart problems, rather than live a long life being the woman her husband wanted her to be. The ironic part about it is that she was viewed as a weak character. But everyone thinks she dies because of her heart condition. But actually it was because as soon as she saw her husband alive she did not want to go back to being the ‘weak’ person her husband wants her to be.

Some of the women at some points in their lives are tripped by their marriage. The story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin is a story about a women who is sad at first when she hear the news of her husband’s death feels release when she realizes that she is free from her marriage and finally dramatically died of shock because of seeing her husband alive. From the story it is clear that there are many objects that are actually important symbols. In the Story of anHour two of the most important symbols are the heart trouble that represents unhappiness in a marriage and the open window that represents freedom. What is more, both symbols help to illuminate that marriage in the 19th century results in repression as well as a loss of freedom and man and

Mallard’s despair shifts to pure and utter joy, her characterization is further presented through personification and imagery. Suddenly, Mrs. Mallard no longer seems severely unhappy, instead she appears to be hopeful for the potential change in her lifestyle, "There was something coming for her," Chopin describes. As the depression shifts to jubilation Chopin paints a picture of freedom creeping up onto Mrs. Mallard and grabbing hold of her entire persona. “She did not stop to ask,” Chopin describes, “if it were a monstrous joy that held her.” Through this personification, Mrs. Mallard is characterized as a restricted woman who had been trapped in an unhappy marriage, obediently bent to do whatever her husband asked or wanted of her.

In the opening, Chopin presents us with the immediate fact that Mrs.Mallard, “was afflicted with a heart trouble”(179), and that “great care was taken to break to her… the news of her husband’s death”(179). Chopin leaves room for discussion by not directly telling us what exactly is wrong with Mrs.Mallard’s heart, which in turn, allows it to be interpreted and applied to different speculations throughout the course of the story. Did Mrs.Mallard truly die of heart disease? Or did the arrival of her once “dead” husband extinguish the joyful flame brought on by her previously acquired independence? The main speculation of this theme is that by feeling the euphoria of becoming independent and in control of her life, Mrs.Mallard has ultimately led herself into her untimely death once laying eyes on her returned husband and having that independence stripped from her once again.

Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart condition; thus, her sister Josephine gently and carefully breaks the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Richards, a close friend of Mr. Mallard, is the first to discover the news of Mr. Mallard’s railroad tragedy. When hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard collapses in grief into her sister’s arms and retreats upstairs into her room. While her sister begs Mrs. Mallard to open the door, Mrs. Mallard reflects on her feelings. She sinks into an armchair facing an open window noticing the “new spring life, the delicious breath of rain in the air, the peddler in the street crying his ware, the notes of a distant song which someone was singing and countless sparrows twittering in the eaves” (Chopin 556). This signifies a new blossoming life: a life that she would live for herself. Although her husband is loving, and she knows that she will weep again when she sees his dead body, she realizes how confined marriage is for her. Robert Evans, author of “Literary Contexts in Short Stories: Kate Chopin's “‘The Story of an Hour,’” claims that Mrs. Mallard looks forward to a bright future rather than a dreadful life. She becomes aware that she must live alone rather than being imprisoned by marriage. As these thoughts circulate in her mind, she keeps whispering, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 557).By conveying the story through Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, Chopin portrays how women actually feel compared to what they present in society. While Josephine and society expect Mrs. Mallard to be grieving, Mrs. Mallard is actually looking forward to the days ahead of her: “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin 557). When Mrs. Mallard discovers that the news of her husband’s death was inaccurate, Mrs. Mallard dies from a heart attack after seeing her husband alive. The