Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

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.

At the beginning of this story Chopin makes the read feel sorrowful. The phrase “storm of grief” is a powerful metaphor that makes a feeling of somberness come over you. Later in the story, the mood shifts from sadness to suspense. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully.” That phrase makes the reader both wonder about and fear what is coming. Suddenly, the reader feels a rush of joy for Mrs. Mallard, the main character. She realizes that, “she would live for herself,” and the reader shares her joy. The emotional rollercoaster continues all the way to the end of the story, showing that Kate Chopin is a master of

In The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin uses the literary devices of imagery, symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony to support the theme that independence is sought after by women of Chopin’s time. Firstly, in paragraph 4, Mrs. Mallard has just arrived in her room after grieving the loss of her husband. Upon arriving at her room, she sits in a chair that faces an open window where, “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all acquired with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air.” It is evident that the spring of new life that Mrs. Mallard was seeing was a result of the rain.

Chopin uses common household features as a metaphor for Mrs. Mallard’s exclusion from the outside world. When she first learns of Brently’s death, Louise looks out an open window into an open square. Next, Chopin chooses to use treetops a quiver with new spring life as the first thing Louise sees prior to having her revelation, with a description of the delicious breath of rain in the air. Spring, of course is when things grow anew, and we know that water, as a a symbol cleanses ill pasts. This type of rich symbolism, returning to form, helped Chopin to make her story into simply “an hour”. As well, Chopin, makes use of parting clouds to provide Louise a blue sky, again, freedom like the

Women have not always had the freedom they do today. Today women are still pushing for more rights all over the world. In response, Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour” in 1894 to show how Louise Mallard finds her independence. Chopin means to use irony and it helps to gain effectiveness. In the beginning, the characters thought that Brently Mallard had died. Ironically, it makes Louise feel more alive when he is gone because of how bad her husband treated her. Consequently, dying is the only way possible for her to be free after she finds out her husband is actually alive. Therefore, Mrs. Mallard’s ironic life with heart trouble ends in death. The author’s use of irony produces a deeper importance in the story to help support the theme. Also, the ironic remarks make the story more intriguing. Situational, dramatic and verbal irony come together to provoke a plot twist in the end. Irony is found within heart issues, the setting, and the timing of Mrs.Mallard's death because they all apply to something bigger.

An underlying theme of Kate Chopin’s story , “The Story of an Hour,” is repression. Too often we recognize the term but don’t really think of the struggles that come as a result of its presence . What Chopin’s story has given us is a symbolic reflection of such effects. Though serious, the story addresses the common views towards women in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Women had no right to own property, pursue a career of their choice, or vote.

The last example occurs during and after Mrs. Mallard watches the “tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin 1). This shows that the character’s image of the world is already changed since she was informed of her husband’s death. In the twelfth paragraph, Chopin uses her character’s new perspective of the world to exemplify the confinement women felt. The character understood she had “no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself” (Chopin 2). Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts revolve around her limitations during marriage. She soon realizes that she would have “no powerful will bending hers” (Chopin 2). Mrs. Mallard was likely controlled her entire marriage; and now she is released from her husband’s dominance. Before opening the door for her sister, she was thinking about “all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin 2). The character looked forward to her new life ahead of her because of the new freedom she has gained; she thought about the future that involved her freedom from marriage. Mrs. Mallard eventually says a prayer to herself

Chopin tells the story through the narrator's voice. The narrator isn’t a spectator, however. The narrator, for example, knows that Mrs. Mallard, did not love her husband (paragraph 15). It is made clear that the narrator, knew more than what could be easily noticed by the reader. Chopin, never informs the reader what Mrs. Mallard is feeling. Instead, as the reader one is forced to observe all Mrs. Mallard's words and actions to understand how Mrs. Mallard feels.

The symbols and imagery used by Kate Chopin's in “The Story of an Hour” give the reader a sense of Mrs. Mallard’s new life appearing before her through her view of an “open window” (para. 4). Louise Mallard experiences what most individuals long for throughout their lives; freedom and happiness. By spending an hour in a “comfortable, roomy armchair” (para.4) in front of an open window, she undergoes a transformation that makes her understand the importance of her freedom. The author's use of Spring time imagery also creates a sense of renewal that captures the author's idea that Mrs. Mallard was set free after the news of her husband's death.

Kate Chopin's short story, "The Story of an Hour" is largely about the forms of repression that women were forced to endure during the epoch in which the story was written (1894) and during much of the time that preceded it. During this time period, women quite frequently had to subjugate themselves to the will of their husbands, or to some other man who had a significant amount of control over their lives. Chopin chooses to address this phenomenon in an indirect manner with this particular short story, although she does so in a thematic manner which, of course, is the ""¦idea that lies behind the story. Every story narrows a broad underlying idea, shapes it in a unique way, and makes the underlying idea concrete" (Clugston 2010, 7.1) The theme that "The Story of an Hour" is based upon is the notion of the liberation of women from the overbearing influence of men. Chopin chooses to illustrate this theme quite dramatically through literary devices of symbolism and metaphor.

In paragraph eight, Chopin begins to use personification as well as imagery. Mrs Mallard “young, with a fair, calm face” (158) is sitting in the armchair with a “dull stare in her eyes” (158) which “indicated of intelligent thought” (158). Reading this, the reader can form an idea of what Mrs Mallard looks like, and we understand that there’s something going on in Mrs Mallards head, something changing everything in her mind. Mrs Mallard is still struggling to figure it out but “she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching towards her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air”. From this we understand that she is beginning to realise it, and her soul is beginning to fill with happiness of freedom, which is in all the sounds, smells and things she sees. For one moment, however, she is somewhat afraid of feeling happy about her freedom and “she was striving to beat it back with her will” (159). This shows that Mrs Mallard is a “product” of her time, and is striving to feel what is socially accepted. She realizes that society would determine her thoughts of freedom inappropriate, but she can’t stop herself from feeling that way.

To begin with, Kate Chopin uses symbolism in a way that gives the readers multiple ways to interpret. The symbol of the open window could be interpreted many ways but I took this as a symbol of her newly found independence. She had just found out that her husband had died in the railroad disaster; after the news was given to her from her sister and husbands’ friend she found herself up in her room facing the open window. While in her room sitting by this open window she starts feel something new. Chopin illustrates that Mrs. Mallard was feeling something new by noting that “she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (39). By sitting near the open window, she starts

Mrs. Mallard’s roller coaster continues to climb to the peak as she begins to feel “something coming to her”, she does so “fearfully”, as she is not clear on what “it” is that is coming. In her article Jamil indicates, “The ‘it’ that [Mrs. Mallard] feels emerging from nature is the vision, or perception, of [Mrs. Mallard’s] freedom, which occurs through [Mrs. Mallard’s] aroused emotions” (217). Chopin thoughtfully deduces that Mrs. Mallard’s actualization of self is “too subtle and elusive” to be grasped with rational thought and that “it” can only be initially “felt” intuitively and then “it” can be processed emotionally (1). As Mrs. Mallard begins to acknowledge what

Kate Chopin's `The Story of an Hour' is a short yet complex piece describing the feelings of Mrs Mallard. This story is overflowing with symbolism and imagery. The most prominent theme here is the longing for freedom. Chopin focuses on unfolding the emotional state of Mrs Mallard which can be separated into three stages: quickly moving to grief, through a sense of newfound freedom, and finally into the despair of the loss of that freedom.

The use of imagery is displayed heavily throughout the story to reflect the feelings of Mrs. Mallard following the news of her husband’s abrupt death. The setting outside her window is very descriptive and allows the audience to connect this imagery to the future that Mrs. Mallard is now seeing opening for her. As she is looking out of the window in her bedroom, she sees “trees that were all aquiver with new spring life” as well as sparrows “twittering in the eaves” (Chopin). This represents the joy and realization of a new life for Mrs. Mallard. She can now start over as a free woman instead of living as a man’s property trapped inside the house; this is where the woman’s place was during this period while only