Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

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

Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour,” emotionally illustrates the hour in which a young woman with a heart condition finds out her husband has been killed in a mining accident. In the beginning, she grieves over the loss of her husband, but she soon becomes relieved and joyous when she realizes that she is now free. However, her husband returns after having been far from the mines for the day and her heart problems return and she dies. Kate Chopin was an early feminist author and was well acquainted with death after losing many siblings as a child, her husband (who left her a large amount of debt), and her mother with whom she was very close. As a means of therapy, Chopin took up writing and her ideas about feminism and death are very clear. In “The Story of An Hour,” Chopin uses multiple symbols and an allusion to a Greek god to illustrate and support the idea that male oppression harms the souls and lives of women.

Setting in a story can create certain moods, influence the way we feel about a character, and change the reader's perceptions. “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story about a woman named Mrs. Mallard, who learns of her husband’s death. This tragic news causes a range of emotions and internal conflict for the main character. The century, season, and room, in which the story takes place, prepares readers for the overflowing emotions and gives clarity to the character’s frame of mind. Kate Chopin uses the setting to help set the structure of the story.

I chose to do my analysis on the short story, “The Story Of An Hour”. The themes I see in this story is the quest for identity/coming of age, romantic/love, birth, and death. It is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard. She was an elderly lady and had a heart complications. Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards had to break the news to her that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard was sorrowful and sobbed in her sisters’ arms. After her grieving process, she wanted to be alone, so she went to her room and locked herself in. As she sat in the window, she seem to be calmer and accepted her husband’s death. She was not distressed of what had happened. She began to say the words “free” and her heart

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.

When first reading Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour," one may not typically be surprised at its ending, write it off as one of those creepy "back from the dead" horror stories and forget about it. There is more to this story than simply horror. The author is making a very strong, however subtle, statement towards humanity and women's rights. Through subtle symbolism, Kate Chopin shows how marriage is more like a confining role of servitude rather than a loving partnership.

On the other hand, the open window that Mrs. Mallard looked out of was the representation of her freedom to starting a new life. She is was excited to see her freedom out the window she could smell,” the delicious breath of rain”(720). Which symbolic to the calming sensation knowing soon the sunshine will come. She officially had control of what she wanted in life so she felt as if, “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own”(721). The spring is a representation of how beautiful change is and how warm weather brings happiness. Also, is a representation of new life that also comes out during the spring time. The window is providing Mrs. Mallard with a dream of her own her road to official independence.”There would be no one to live for her during those

There are a few symbols in the story, which are symbolic of death representing freedom. The setting in the story takes place during Spring. Louise sits in her bedroom and looks out the window. The spring day symbolizes a new beginning of her life in which she is free. Spring is the time when living things grow and are reborn. Likewise, Louise believes she will become productive, energized and reborn. Louise thought she had her whole life of freedom to look forward to. Another symbol is the open window in her bedroom. The open window suggests that there is no material object standing in the way of her new life. There is a clear passage between her life of captivity to her life of freedom. Her husband was the only person holding her back, but now that he is gone, she is able to look forward to the future when she can live her life for herself.

In “The Story of an Hour,” one of the messages about marriage that is trying to be sent is that the system of marriage itself, not the husband, does women wrong. The narrator shows that Louis crying at the news of her husband’s death, “with sudden, wild abandonment” (169). The word “wild” implies a sense of nature and that her initial reaction was instinctual and natural. Such a reaction is normal towards a husband who has been very loving of Louis as far as the narrator reveals. Although remorseful in front of others in public, Louis feels very happy in private. Louis feels liberated that she is no longer held in bondage to her husband, but still feels depressed as she is

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is a short story from the late nineteenth century centering upon a young woman as she processes newly received information that has reported her husband dead from a horrible train accident. Due to this sudden turn of events, she has been gifted a new outlook towards her potential future. Throughout the development of the story, many literary devices have been used in order to help facilitate a certain set of thoughts and themes by Kate Chopin. All of which have come together to make an extraordinary literary experience that helps

In “The Story of an Hour” (1894), Kate Chopin presents a woman in the last hour of her life and the emotional and psychological changes that occur upon hearing of her husbands’ death. Chopin sends the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, on a roller coaster of emotional up’s and down’s, and self-actualizing psychological hairpin turns, which is all set in motion by the news of her husband’s death. This extreme “joy ride” comes to an abrupt and ultimately final halt for Mrs. Mallard when she sees her husband walk through the door unscathed. Chopin ends her short story ambiguously with the death of Mrs. Mallard, imploring her reader to determine the true cause of her death.

This quotation appears after Louise has gone alone to her room to deal with the news of Brently’s death. After an initial fit of tears, Louise looks out her window at the wide-open spaces below. This quotation is our first hint that Louise’s reaction to Brently’s death will be surprising and that Louise is very different from other women. Whereas most women would gaze reflectively at the sky and clouds, Louise’s gaze suggests something different, something shrewder or more active. What she sees as she gazes out the window is different from what other women would likely see after their husbands have died. Not long after this passage, Louise acknowledges the joyous feeling of independence that Brently’s death has given her. Here, at the window,

The heart is a symbolization of the emotional roller coaster that Louise goes through in the hour.Futhermore her heart was broken when she found out her husband died but she was also happy that she got her freedom back so in a sense her life was dead with her husband but her heart begins to beat because she is

Kate Chopin's short story The Story of an Hour focuses on equal rights for women during the late nineteenth century. The Story of an Hour is a short ironic story about a woman, Mrs. Louise Mallard, who had just learned about the death of her husband, Mr. Mallard. Although Mrs. Mallard loved her husband; for they have traveled the world and built a stable comforting life together it seemed, she felt terrified after hearing of the tragic train accident that her husband was involved in. But at the same time, she also has a feeling of liberation and freedom from marriage for the first time. She may finally look forward to her upcoming days instead of dreading them. After later realizing that her husband was

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.