Although true to its name regarding length, “The Story of an Hour,” written by Kate Chopin published in the eighteen-hundreds, is a profound story with a deeply tragic implication. At first glance, one may assume that this story is a short and not very complex read, and while that is partially true, “The Story of an Hour” has so much more to offer upon further analysis. The main character, Louise Mallard, is a woman who feels confined by her “love”, Brently Mallard, who acts as the opposing force in this story; and throughout the plot it divulges a tale of freedom, which inevitably gets torn from her very grasp. This alone is evidence enough that among the devices Chopin uses, irony and foreshadowing being two examples; irony is the most important. While writing “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin brilliantly utilizes not only the rhetorical device of irony in order to add complexity to her short story, but she also includes the literary device, foreshadowing. …show more content…
Chopin also includes an example of what could set Mrs. Mallard into a fatal heart attack, when she mentions how Mrs. Mallard’s sister and husband try to tell her the news of her husbands alleged death as simply as they possibly can (par. 2). Moreover, Chopin has incorporated a forbidden topic, which is Mrs. Mallard’s happiness stemming from her husband’s death. Using this topic, the work then takes a dramatic turn, as she begins to realize that she’s “free, free, free” from the “oppression” that is her husband, and this aids in establishing a sense of dramatic irony nearing the end of the tale (par. 11). To further elaborate about her husband, she was in a position in which I would assume the marriage
Of joy that kill the snide note that Kate Chopin left to summarize the prompt “The Story of an Hour.” This note was quite fitting considering the circumstances of Mrs. Mallard’s situation. In any story of death normally you would hear the words depression, alcohol, and family surrounding it. However, in this story the words sob, free, and joy surround the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. These words represent the steps Mrs. Mallard and the rest of us should take when embracing the death of anyone close to us. The first step is the most obvious to accept the death and cry for your loss and the worlds loss of another mind. Next you should acknowledge that because of their death they are now free of the affliction of the the world. Lastly, you must
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” has a main theme of self-assertion and independence, the literary devices such as imagery, setting, and character help to convey this theme.
For many married women marriages can be a symbol of love, unity, and fidelity until death do us part. This story gives the perspective that love was not there from Mrs. Mallard towards Mr. Mallard. Chopin description of how some women think of marriage as the fulfillment in their life, while others see it as a cage is a good example of marriage in that era. Women in that time only live confined to the home and see little to nothing of their husbands. They spend their day taking care of the house, children, and have a small social life. “Middle-class women 1890s America, women who were subjected to a strict set of social codes that governed female…identity” (Emmert 56). Mrs. Mallard mentions she will cry again when she sees her husband’s dead body. The way she describes her husband’s kindness and love towards her makes the reader believe there is some love in that marriage. However, feels trapped by her marriage and her sickness. Her husband expresses his love for her by being
“The Story of an Hour” is one of Kate Chopin’s most studied and analyzed short stories. It is a seemingly simple story about a woman who is grieving the loss of her husband. Upon closer examination, it becomes evident that the woman’s grief has turned into enlightenment when she realizes that she no longer has the same restriction she had when she was married. One of the most fascinating aspects of the story is Chopin’s use of symbolism. She uses many objects, such as people and nature, throughout the story to convey her ideas. The ideas that she expresses are the feminist ideas many women had in the 19th century.
“The Story of an Hour”, told by Kate Chopin, is a story about Mrs. Mallard, a woman whose husband is assumed to be dead. Chopin conveys the feelings and thoughts Mrs. Mallard experienced after hearing news of her husband’s passing. Surprisingly, these emotions described were not anguish and grief, but something much different. The senses she felt were primarily feelings of relief, almost to a point of rejoice in the idea that her husband was no longer in her life. Throughout the story, by using a variety of literary elements, Chopin expresses this idea
Although it may not seem so on the surface there is significant conflict in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”. This story focuses on Mrs. Louise Mallard, who is informed at the beginning of the story that she has become widowed due to a horrific train accident. Mrs. Mallard goes on to contemplate her life bereft of her husband, which she thinks of in an increasingly positive light. Because of this, it is clear that Mrs. Mallard is in conflict with both herself for feeling the way she does, and with her reportedly deceased husband, Mr. Brently Mallard.
“Kate Chopin, a wise and worldly woman, had refined the craft of fiction... to the point where it could face her strong inner theme of the female rebellion and see it through to a superb female work” (Ziff 24). In Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” a recurring theme is the oppressive nature of relationships in the nineteenth century. Upon the death of her husband Louise Mallard has an epiphany that brings her to realize that the loss of her husband is actually quite freeing. This contradicts the expected response to such a tragic circumstance, and contributes to Chopin’s idea of relationships, however loving or good-natured, being inherently oppressive. Chopin’s short story showcases through the characterization of Mrs. Mallard, her thoughts and actions after her husband’s death, and the subsequent revelation of her oppression, that marriage in the 19th century was restrictive and misogynistic.
In her short story "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin’s brilliant use of words immediately captures the reader’s attention. There is no introduction of characters and no build up to this story. In the opening sentence, Chopin introduces the readers to Louise Mallard and informs them of her heart condition. Little do the readers know, this will be a huge factor at the end of the story. The readers also learn that Louise’s husband has died in a railroad accident. With the knowledge of these two events, Chopin takes the reader on a journey with the widowed Louise Mallard in the last hour of her life with all the conflicting emotions that go along with it.
Consequently, many refer to Chopin’s stories as having a unique approach to worldwide issues and concerns. Chopin doesn’t want to change the world; all she wants is to describe it as best she could through her pieces of literature. The goal is to expose the truth about the lives of many women and men in the nineteenth-century and how challenging it really is. There is an infinite amount of literary devices, including imagery, to show the reality of society’s situation back in the 18th century within the story. In, "The Story of an Hour,” her main idea/theme is the pure formality of Freedom and Confinement for women through marriage. Within creating imagery, there is robust continuously throughout the story itself. Accordingly, she gives the reader a sense of Mrs. Mallard's new life through the view of an “open window.” Nevertheless, she wants her audience to experience what Mrs.Mallard was so that the readers will fully understand the severity of women’s situations then and now who have to go through the pain that Mrs.Mallard did every single day. Bob Marley once said that, “Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad, but it’s everything in between that makes it all worth living,” and in Mrs.Mallard’s case, that reigns true. The emotions she feels when she liberates from her tight chains of marriage became the reason she wants to live and to keep moving forward. That feeling makes her life worth living again, but then disaster strikes and that feeling vanishes along with her living, breathing self. Mrs.Mallard didn’t die of ‘joy that kills,’ she dies of the darkness of her past, consuming every last breath she takes, and then... she’s
Kate Chopin published “The Story of an Hour” in 1894. This short story presents how a sick woman named Louise Mallard dies of a broken heart but not over the loss of her husband but over the loss of her recent independence. She appears distraught about Mr. Mallard’s death but realizes when one door closes, another door opens. She puts aside this time of mourning to instead rejoice about the days ahead of her. Louise’s weak heart does not falter during any of the commotion until she sees her not so dead husband in her doorway. In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin shows how Mrs. Mallard handles the news of becoming a widow, finding her new freedom, and when she discovers these two concepts are not entirely true.
In “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin, the author, tells the story of a woman who feels that she has lost her personal freedom because of her marriage. After learning of her husband’s sudden passing, Mrs. Mallard does not feel loneliness and despair, as one would expect. Instead, Mrs. Mallard begins to feel that she may be free from her husband. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself” (Chopin 533). Mrs. Mallard will be able to make her own choices in life.
"The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin is a powerful story about a woman, it is a mainstay of feminist literary study and a stark display of female rejection of the norms of society. It is a story about a woman experiencing true freedom, through the death of her husband. There are many symbolic and ironic references in this story. It is possible that this was just to set off the title of the news, but the foreshadowing it implies is far too great to disregard. It is this foreshadowing that gives the reader knowledge of the ending, the idea that Mrs. Mallard would rather see her freedom than the life of her husband. There are three ways to throughout her use of situational irony, symbolism, and dramatic irony in “The Story of an Hour”.
Consequently, many refer to Chopin’s stories as having a unique approach to worldwide issues and concerns. Chopin doesn’t want to change the world; all she wants is to describe it as best she could through her pieces of literature. She wants to expose the truth about the lives of many women and men in the nineteenth-century and how challenging it really is. She uses an infinite amount of literary devices, including imagery, to show the reality of society’s situation back in the 18th century. In, "The Story of an Hour,” her main idea/theme is the pure formality of Freedom and Confinement for women through marriage. She portrays that by creating imagery throughout the story. For example, she gives the reader a sense of Mrs. Mallard's new life through the view of an “open window.” Nevertheless, she wants her audience to experience what Mrs.Mallard was so that the readers will fully understand the severity of women’s situations then and now who have to go through the pain that Mrs.Mallard did every single day. Bob Marley once said that, “Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad, but it’s everything in between that makes it all worth living,” and in Mrs.Mallard’s case, that reigns true. The emotions she feels when she liberates from her tight chains of marriage became the reason she wants to live and to keep moving forward. That feeling makes her life worth living again, but then disaster strikes and that feeling vanishes along with her living, breathing self. Mrs.Mallard didn’t die of ‘joy that kills,’ she dies of the darkness of her past, consuming every last breath she takes, and then... she’s
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is an immaculate illustration of how a short story can have the ability to make a considerable impact on an entire nation. Chopin manipulates her writing effectively with her outstanding applications of certain literary techniques. Moreover, these techniques such as pathos, irony and symbolism, amplify the intensity and overall impact women oppression had on Chopin and many other women during the late nineteenth century. In addition, the story overshadows the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, and her persevering fight to overcome the mournful news regarding the death of her husband. She was informed about her husband's death by her sister Josephine, who told her in a rather gentle fashion which ultimately caused Mrs. Mallard to go to the hospital with an unfortunate affliction of heart trouble. Initially, Mrs. Mallard rhapsodically struggled in trying to cope with this news as it left her in a paralyzed state of sorrow but she then realized that she gained a great deal of freedom due to to her husband's death. Furthermore, Chopin leaves out many details within her text, which obligates the reader to fill in the gaps within Chopin’s iceberg imagery like writing and gain a perception of women’s mistreatment during the mid 1800’s.
Surely, there is enchantment established in terminology, words have the authority to rouse stimulation for change and/or summon strong emotional elements. Keeping this in mind, Chopin intentionally put consideration into finding specifically the suitable word selection and syntactical structure to further suggest the meaning and central idea in “The Story of an Hour”. The short story is extremely effective with only a small amount of short paragraphs consisting chiefly of only a few sentences. Style and Readability in Business Writing recognizes that "Very short sentences, isolated or in a series, are terrifically effective in the right place” (Olson, DeGeorge, and Ray, Para.2). Although “The Story of an Hour” can be read in but a glimpse of time, the short forceful syntactical configuration effectively invites the reader together with Louise on her journey for independence. Chopin manages to immerse the readers alongside Mrs. Mallard to no avail of popular thoughts at that time. Simply put, due to the short length of the story, Chopin tactically embellishes the need for self independence and how it can alter a person within a matter of an hour. In a speedy yet fatal hour, Mrs. Mallard lives in a conflicting past, an overwhelming present, and a hopeful future. Certainly, few stories possess the capability to capture the unities of such a complex character in so