Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Louise Mallard began to grief her husband’s death in Josephine’s arm. When alone in the room the sobbing had stopped. She then reveals great joy as Louise realizes

Immediately after the news of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard races upstairs into her room where she settles into “a comfortable, roomy armchair” (para.4). The armchair symbolizes the rest from the oppressive life she had and freedom from society's expectations. Since it was tradition for women to be married by a certain age, Louise Mallard must have obligated to marry Brently. Sitting in the armchair, she gazes out of the window and starts indulges in deep thought, which establishes her as an intelligent individual.

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.

In this reading, the narrator talks about the reaction of Mrs. Millard who had heart problems, when she notices of her husband´s death. Louise Mallard is at home with her sister Josephine, when they hear of a rain accident; then Josephine tells Louise that her husband has been killed it in the accident.

At the beginning of the story no one wished to tell Mrs. Mallard about the death of her husband due to her heart condition. Her heart trouble is a symbol for the way she feels crushed or hurt by her marriage. During this time period women were expected to live under the control of their husbands, so while being married to Brently, she begins to lose her identity. In the story, she is only referred to as Mrs. Mallard she isn’t referred to as Louise until after her husband’s death. She is an accessory to her husband is forced to live in the shadow of her husband and as a result of this she has lost herself over the years. Louise’s character is used as a symbol to represent the women of this time period and show the sacrifices they make for their husbands and the troubles that come along with the inequalities they experience in marriage.

In the beginning of the story, we look at Louise Mallard from a bird's eye point of view. Louise is introduced as a devoted young wife who has been told the news of her husband's unfortunate death. When Chopin goes deeper into Louise's thoughts and feelings, they surprisingly contradict her initial description of her. I grew up in New Jersey my whole life. I lived in a huge house and everyone in

In the beginning, Louise Mallard is referred to as the wife of Brently Mallard instead of her own name. Showing us the she doesn't get to be her own person. Once she heard about his death she "went way to her room alone", and she began to think about the life she has waiting for her.

In addition, Louise will mourn her husband’s death, but she is now joyed that she doesn’t have to go through anymore pain from Mr. Mallard. After she realizes that she’s free, she starts planning her new future. Ms. Mallard loved her husband, but she believed that independence

She presents the protagonist to be a married woman, Louise Mallard, experiencing a ‘monstrous joy’ when she hears the tragic news about her dead husband and finishes

Mallard’s feelings of this. Chopin writes: "There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself.” The happiness Louise has isn't about the death of her husband, more so about being in control of her own destiny. Marriage in this time was known to be the male having complete control over the woman. It also seems like Mrs. Mallard thought that she wasn’t even allowed to have her own thoughts which was probably true.

From the opening it is mentioned that Louise has heart trouble, so everything has to be told to her in the calmest, most sudden matter in order to prevent accidents. Her weak heart can be seen as a symbol of the oppresing situation she finds herself in. “She carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory,” downstairs as if she had triumphed over her previous state of oppression; however, she did not know that there was something there, something that would take her freedom away. Consequently, when she saw Brently Mallard enter, she died of heart disease “of the joy that kills.” Furthermore, this event was ironic since her death was caused by the understanding of the unbearable impositions over her life that came with having a husband rather than of

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

Louise being so happy for her husband being dead is not something you would expect a new “widow” to feel or act. She is happy in her new freedom and imagines what life will now be like. I believe that Mrs. Mallard got what was coming to her; she should not have planned out her life prematurely. Kate Chopin does this intentionally to convey to the reader how this woman is so oppressed at this time that she would find joy in the death of her husband. Louise is quick to think about starting her new life with little to no mourning for her husband’s death.

This caused her to start visualizing a new carefree life after his death. In addition, Mr. Mallard cost Louise her life. After Louise pondered on her new exciting life without Mr. Mallard, he enters the house. Disappointed that her new life was immediately taken from her, Mrs. Mallard dies of a heart attack. These men could have been the best husbands of their time, but they were the reasons that their spouses ended up either psychologically disturbed or

According to Toth, she finds the doctors’ claim “an occasion for deep irony directed at patriarchal blindness about women’s thoughts” (Unveiling Kate Chopin). Toth also argues that “Louise must die at the end of the story because the idea that she could live on as a widow glad of her husband’s death would have been “much too radical, far too threatening” for editors and readers in the 1890s” (Unveiling Kate Chopin). Therefore, it implies that Mrs. Mallard did not have to love her husband to marry him because she was blinded by patriarchal codes. A single woman was looked upon as a social anomaly as she was a challenge to the institution of marriage so Mrs. Mallard thought it was in her best interest to marry instead of practicing autonomy for the sake of her well being in the society. Also, Mrs. Mallard being glad for her husband’s death validates that she did not truly love him. On the other hand, her dying to escape being a widow due to the standards of the patriarchal society is evident that she did not want to live a life of sorrow to care for a man whom she did not genuinely love, but would have much rather