Essay Story of an Hour

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin portrays one significant hour in the life of Mrs. Mallard. She has two problems at the beginning of the story. She was afflicted with heart trouble, and she has just been told her husband, Brently, was killed in an accident. Mrs. Mallard initially cannot contain her grief as “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.”(Chopin) She soon goes to her room to rest and contemplate this life altering news.

Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.

Women are taught from a young age that marriage is the end all be all in happiness, in the short story “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin and the drama “Poof!” by Lynn Nottage, we learn that it is not always the case. Mrs. Mallard from “The Story of an Hour” and Loureen from “Poof!” are different characteristically, story-wise, and time-wise, but share a similar plight. Two women tied down to men whom they no longer love and a life they no longer feel is theirs. Unlike widows in happy marriages Loureen and Mrs., Mallard discover newfound freedom in their respective husband’s deaths. Both stories explore stereotypical housewives who serve their husbands with un-stereotypical reactions to their husband’s deaths.

However, the story ends with Mrs Mallard’s freedom being ripped away from her as she dies from shock upon seeing her husband walk through the door. When the doctors come to pronounce her dead, they said “she had died of heart disease, … the joy that kills”. This is foreshadowed that the beginning of the story when it is said that Mrs Mallard “was afflicted with heart trouble”. Also this use of irony suggests how the male ideology of the doctors is foolish and misplaced.

Although some people react dramatically when facing a situation, after reflecting on their initial reactions, their previous emotions may be affected by a previously unknown feeling of freedom. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, receives some sad news. Initially, Mrs. Mallard reacts with great sadness over the news of her husband’s death. As the story progresses, Mrs. Mallard begins to reflect on her previous emotions alone and begins to develop her true emotions towards her husband’s death. Finally, Mrs. Mallard realizes that the wonderful feelings of individual freedom overpower her feelings of sadness. Therefore, although Mrs. Mallard reacts with sadness over the death of her husband, Brently, after reflecting on her previous emotions, she discovers that the feelings of individual freedom overtake the relationship with her husband.

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 “The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s ‘Story of an Hour,’” Mark Cunningham expresses his opinion on how he believes Mrs. Mallard dies in Chopin’s short story. “The Story of an Hour” was written in the late 1890s, during a time when it was controversial for women to be independent. The ending of her story has created somewhat of a dilemma among readers for years. Some people conclude one ending based on the details and clues Chopin wrote throughout the story, while others come up with a totally different opinion. Mark Cunningham writes a brilliant article on his view of the story’s ending, where he clearly conveys his take on Louis Mallard’s death. Although there are many times when he repeats the same information, Cunningham makes good use of textual evidence and authorities, as well as logic, which makes it easy to agree with his claim.

When it is revealed that she has “heart trouble”, her sister uses extreme caution when breaking the news about the death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband. Chopin makes use of certain things in the short story where things can be taken literally and figuratively. Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition can be looked at literally and figuratively because Chopin incorporates it as both a physical and symbolic problem. Mrs. Mallard did have mixed feeling about her marriage and the lack of freedom that she had. When Mrs. Mallard realizes that she has this

Mrs. Mallard’s life has not been her own ever since she got married. When Louise marries Brently she becomes Mrs. Mallard, she loses her identity and assumes a new and strange one. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky” (Chopin 2). Love, in “The story of An Hour” I believe is somewhat superficial. Mrs. Mallard tells that “And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often she had not” (Chopin 3). The short amount of time it took her to mourn the death of her husband also helps to support the argument that there was no real love in that marriage. When she learns of her husband's death, her thoughts on what life would be like without her husband are pleasing. "Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 3). Mrs. Mallard wants to live without her husband. She believes freedom is hers; however, when she finds out her husband is not dead; she had shock of her losing it again causes her to have a heart attack and die. However, death is eternal freedom for her.

There is immense power in well-written satire: it can make its audience laugh with witticisms rooted in truths, even make them think differently about any subject, mundane or critical. Bad satire, however, emphasizes all the wrong parts: it gets its facts wrong, goes off track, and closes its audience’s minds to any new way of thinking it might present. Li Chongyue and Wang Lihua’s article would be bad satire, a bad argument. Chongyue and Lihua’s “A Caricature of an Ungrateful and Unfaithful Wife” distorts Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” through imaginative exaggeration of character interaction, emotional ignorance, and its simplification of the characters and the text.

In "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, there are many different themes that depicts the relationship between Mr. And Mrs. Mallard throughout the story. These themes such as freedom, confinement, loss of self, escape and alienation. These themes shows the life of a woman's life in the mid 1800's, irony and marriage. The apparent death of Mrs. Mallard's husband shows us that she was living a life without freedom, suggesting that marriage in any form is confining.

For this assignment I decided to compare and contrast two short stories, “The story of an hour” written by Kate Chopin and “A good man is hard to find” written by Flannery O’ Connor. Both stories were written by amazing writers who provide a unique style of writing, characters and narration. In the “Story of an hour” Chopin employs specific structural and stylist techniques to exaggerate the drama of the hour. The story is told in different small paragraphs making it easier to read and comprehend. Since the story is considered a short story the structure of the story is made up of short paragraphs, many which only consist of two or three sentences.

“The Story of An Hour” focuses on sixty minutes in the life of a young nineteenth-century woman, Mrs. Mallard. Upon learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard experiences an epiphany about her future without a husband. Her life, due to heart problems, suddenly ends after she unexpectedly finds out her husband is actually alive. Mrs. Mallard’s actions cause the reader to cogitate a hidden meaning weaved into Kate‘s short story. Chopin had an idea that women felt confined in their marriages, and the idea is brought out through the protagonist’s initial reaction, excessive joy, and new perspective of the world following the upsetting news.

“Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey, it was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine 's piercing cry; at Richards ' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife” (Chopin, 16). Josephine rushed to the door looked at Mr. Mallard with great amazement, “Am I dreaming or in trance?” She asked, she walked around Brently in an anticlockwise manner, Brently Mallard was losing his patience, he yelled ‘’can someone tell me what’s

Kate Chopin’s impressive literary piece, The Story of an Hour, encompasses the story of an hour of life, an hour of freedom. We must seize the day and live our lives to the fullest without any constraints. This very rich and complete short story carries a lot of meaning and touches a readers feelings as well as mind. Throughout this piece much symbolism is brought about, which only helps us to understand the meaning and success of Kate Chopin’s work. Kate allows her reader to think and allows us to understand the meaning of her story with the different uses of symbols such as heart troubles, the armchair, the open window, springtime, and the calm face and goddess of victory. We eventually realize little by little that Mrs. Mallard