'Story of an Hour' by Kate Chopin - Character

In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the author depicts how someone can be trapped in an unproductive and unsatisfying reality because of other’s thoughtlessness, exploitation, and domination. When combined with the contemporary society’s belief, presumably the later half of the 19th century, a further understanding of Chopin’s thoughts and feelings can be realized. Mrs. Louise Mallard, the victim and messenger of this story, is the image of such a person. Her relationship with her husband is so oppressive and limiting that even death is considered a reasonable means of escape. The condition of life for Mrs. Mallard is terrible, yet for some reason she doesn’t seem to come to the full

In the short story, Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin uses diction and syntax to create a riveting and complex tone, that engages the readers and leaves them thinking long after the story is over. The story has many layers, and like a Kardashian, may make readers cry. With unexpected twists and turns, the reader must truly put themselves in Mrs. Mallard's position and time period to understand the dramatic irony used.

Kate Chopin (1850–1904), an American author, wrote two published novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her best-known work concentrates on the lives of sympathetic, intelligent women. Many stories ended up being published in high-status magazines such as Vogue and American Press Association. Chopin’s novels were mostly forgotten after her death in 1904, but several of her short stories appeared within five years after her death, some were reprinted and people started to read her stories again. Since 1969, numerous scholars have written about Chopin’s life and work. Feminist critics have had a massive influence. Most of what has been written about Kate Chopin since 1969 is feminist in nature or is focused on women’s

The Mallards' house, the area where the entire action of the story takes place, is extremely significant in understanding the subtleties of the plot and characters. The house is two stories tall, with two main rooms shown in detail: the front parlor, which is downstairs, and Louise's bedroom, upstairs. The two floors are significantly different, both in the mood and in the emotions brought out in each one. It is in the parlor that Louise first hears of her husband's death and later ultimately discovers that he lives. Yet she achieves true enlightenment and understanding upstairs, in her bedroom. The particular level of the house that Louise is in conveys certain emotions and reveals two different aspects of her character. Downstairs she is the good wife, mourning the loss of her husband at first and later swooning from what the doctors believe to be "joy that kills" (14). Downstairs she must act like the typical late-nineteenth-century woman, completely

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.

Moreover, "The Story of an Hour", shows that Louise felt her husband's domination through the "powerful will bending her" (14), later she is in "this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being." (15). This last statement indicates this newborn contention in Louise, made only possible by Mr. Mallard's death. In Mr. Mallard's death, Louise finds herself being able to assert herself in unimaginable ways; Mrs. Mallard is no longer limited to the confines of her marriage. Ultimately, all of this new brazenness and freedom is dependent

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 Story of an Hour” we are taken through a journey. The journey is the thoughts and emotions going through Mrs. Mallards (Louise) mind. The journey only takes an hour, so everything moves at a fast pace. Louise seemed to process the news of her husband’s death without an initial element of disbelief and shock. She goes right into the reaction of grieving for her husband. She quickly begins to feel other emotions. At first she does not understand them. The journey is a way that Louise comes to her final thoughts of freedom. She looks into the future and looks forward to living a long life on her own terms.

“The Story of an hour” a complex piece of literature by Kate Chopin, has various interpretations to it. This story has, one definite interpretation, which is the following: life has to go on no matter what is happened in the past. In this story, Chopin implies Ms. Mallard’s husband has been very cruel to her in her lifetime. However, she never lets her husband get in the way, finally he dies, and, she thinks she is free although she really is not.

Margarita Engle, a poet, and novelist, once said, “Marriage without love is just one more twisted form of slavery.” In the eighteenth century, marriage was the exit door of many women from their homes whether they believed in love and filled their hearts with hope, or had no choice, and they were sold to men as if they were cattle. In The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin shows complex issues such as marriage, independence, symbols, and ironies. After hearing the news that Brently Mallard was dead in a railroad accident, Richards, Mr. Mallard’s friend, went to the house to be next to Mrs. Mallard and to help her at this difficult moment. Contrary to what everyone was worried about, Mrs. Mallard knew that she would lament her husband’s death, but she was full of hope, dreaming of her freedom, appreciating life beyond the window, and a new beginning. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mallard’s dreams faded when she went downstairs and her husband arrived alive, and she could not stand it and died. Focusing on The Story of an Hour, there are three main points related to women in the early eighteenth century, such as oppressive marriages, women’s new perspective and ways of liberation, and women’s submission and obedience that demonstrates how women survived, even though they were not heard.

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”

In Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour," there is much hatred. The first hatred detected is in the way that Louise reacts to the news of the death of her husband, Mr. Mallard. Before Louise's reaction is revealed, Chopin turns to how the widow feels by describing the world according to her outlook of it after the bad news. Louise is said to "not hear the story as many women have heard the same." Rather, she accepts it and goes to her room to be alone. Now the person reading starts to see the world through Louise's eyes, a world full of new life.

The story of an hour by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to her husband’s death. In this short story, Chopin portrays the complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as she is saddened yet joyful of her loss. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” argues that an individual discover their self-identity only after being freed from confinement. The story also argues that freedom is a very powerful force that affects mental or emotional state of a person. The story finally argues that only through death can one be finally freed.

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” allows one to explore many ironic instances throughout the story, the main one in which a woman unpredictably feels free after her husband’s assumed death. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s bizarre story to illustrate the struggles of reaching personal freedom and trying to be true to yourself to reach self-assertion while being a part of something else, like a marriage. In “The Story of an Hour” the main character, Mrs. Mallard, celebrates the death of her husband, yet Chopin uses several ironic situations and certain symbols to criticize the behavior of Mrs. Mallard during the time of her “loving” husband’s assumed death.

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.