Story Of The Hour And The Interlopers Analysis

Thesis statement: The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin has a unique and intelligent concept, but is defeated by lack of story building and a rushed, badly constructed ending. The Interlopers by Saki has a much more basic premise, but uses natural storytelling elements to create seamless story progression and a more powerful message.

In this essay I will be comparing the two short stories “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”. “The Story of an Hour”, written by Kate Chopin, is centered around a woman by the name Louise Mallard and her reaction after being informed of her husbands “death”, On the other hand “The Yellow Wallpaper” Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about Jane, A young, newly married mother who at the time is undergoing care because of her depression. Although both essays have their similarities and differences I will be focusing mainly on the themes of Freedom, Isolation and Oppression. I will also be focusing on how the themes appear within both short stories and do a compare and contrast about the way the themes appear in the two short stories.

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.

Some of the things that are very different about these two stories are the setting. In The Interlopers the setting is outside in the woods on a cold and stormy winter night. In the story of an hour the setting is in an apartment building during a warm sunny spring day. Another thing that is very different between the two stories is the characters in the story The Interlopers the characters are two rough German men who are are disputing over a piece of land. The story of hour however a features a woman in a cozy little apartment with a heart problem. You also see her sister friend and

"The Interlopers" an "The story of an hour" are both very eventful short stories. The characters and setting of both stories have big life changing decisions. There is a lot of differences but there is also a lost of similarities.

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.

In the first story, Mrs. Mallard is within the privacy of her home, unlike “The Interlopers” which takes place in the outdoors. “The Interlopers” had a long standing rivalry and wished ill upon each other, while in “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is sad to hear of her husband’s death, even if later she feels it has set her free. The death at the end of the two stories differs as well. In “The Story of an Hour” Louise dies from sadness that her newfound freedom is now taken away, in contrast to “The Interlopers” where the two men die from man eating

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 environments of these two stories are opposites. “The Interlopers” is set in a rugged forest in the Carpathian mountains. The atmosphere is cold, dark, and desolate on a “wind-scourged winter night”(Saki). On the other hand “The Story of an Hour” takes place in a large city. The atmosphere is bright and sunny with the trees, “all aquiver with the new spring life”(Chopin). The physical state of the characters in the two stories are also opposites. For most of the time, the characters in

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.

“The Interlopers” and “The Story of an Hour” both have some similarities and some differences between them. They both start out as completely different stories, but further into the stories, it is easier to find the similarities between the two. The main storylines are nothing alike. The settings of the two are completely different, such as both stories have happiness before they die, which in both stories they do in fact die; and while one deals with physical struggle and the other with emotional, they both contain emotional resolutions. However, they share similarities in terms of use of irony and also the ending of each story.

The two short stories The Story of An Hour, written by Kate Chopin and The Interlopers, by Saki, are both remarkably interesting, and thought provoking.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of an Hour” portray similar and different structured themes. “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Gilman, is a short story where the marriage of a middle-class couple doesn’t seem to run so smoothly due to the husband abruptly diagnoses his wife with a “nervous depression” disorder. The husband would go on forbidding her from leaving the room and all things she loves to do.“Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin is truly a short story as a young lady, Mrs. Mallard, who has a serious heart condition. Unfortunately when is comes to the families surprise when they find out Brently, Mrs. Mallard’s husband had died. Mrs. Mallard locks herself away in her room but soon discovers a feeling of freedom rush over her she finds out that a feeling of freedom has rushed over her. It’s a shame the feeling of freedom she has longed for is cut short when she leaves the room. In these two short stories there are two major themes. They are the lack of independence and the subordination and oppression of women in marriages.

Compare and Contrast Essay Reading short stories is often enjoyable, as each individual story varies quite a bit from the others. Although short stories follow a pattern, they have many different themes. Though ‘The Story of an Hour’ by Kate Chopin and ‘The Interlopers’ by Saki seem unrelated at first glance, there are similar themes in both. The main character in ‘The Story of an Hour’ is quite fragile and has a weak heart, making her prone to heart attacks under duress, since she was “afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin).

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.