Symbolism In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Throughout the story, she uses detailed passages to describe how Mrs. Mallard feels about her husband and his death. Chopin uses scenic and beautiful words to describe the way Mrs. Mallard is feeling after the news of her husband’s death. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window”(Page 498). This use of imagery allows the readers to picture how Mrs. Mallard feels and how she looks at life now. Chopin also uses other passages to describe, in detail, how Mrs. Mallard looks, after all, this chaos. “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. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought (Page 498). This use of imagery allows the reader to grasp a full picture, in their minds, of what she looks

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.” 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

Richard was too late. “…She had died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” (Chopin, 58) In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin tells a story of women confined in a repressive marriage and uses a literary element called foreshadowing to add suspense or tension in the story and hints about things that will occur later in the story. Literary devices include imagery, foreshadowing, plot, setting, and point of view. The combination of these literary devices allows authors to effectively convey what message will be in the story. The literary device called Foreshadowing plays a significant role in the short story as well as other literary devices such as imagery and symbolism which combine and create a unique way of how the story unfolds.

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a tightly written short story that takes place within a single hour of Mrs. Louise Mallard’s seemingly unsatisfying marriage. Although the story is no more than two pages long, one should not look down upon the shortness of the story, but instead be amazed at how packed such a small piece of literature is. The major theme the story revolves around is the oppressive views of marriage that the main character, Mrs. Mallard experiences in the latter part of the 19 century, a time in which when women had very few rights and it was normal for women to keep a tidy house and stray away from any type of manual work, including the workforce. When Kate Chopin wrote the story, Chopin managed to use all of the

Mallard’s suppressed self that she has endured in the formalities of her life (1). Chopin continues to express how afflicted Mrs. Mallard is with her struggle to come to terms with her current state of emotions and her vision of self by describing Mrs. Mallard’s “dull eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.” While Chopin depicts Mrs. Mallard’s glance as not being one of reflection “but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought,” it can be inferred that Mrs. Mallard is processing her self-being not on a rational level but more on her emotional stimuli.

The Ironic Things of Life in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a masterpiece of the technique of irony; even the title is ironic in that so much that is unexpected happens in the life of Louise Mallard in just an hour. There are three styles of irony that show contrast in this short story. The three styles of irony that Kate Chopin uses are situational, verbal, and dramatic. Since irony always involves an incongruity, situational irony is one in which the expectation and fulfillment are not what is expected. Perhaps, the most salient example of situational irony is the turn of events in the hour that suggest that Bently Mallard is dead and

The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, is a protofeminist short story that contains emotional twists and turns of irony and tragedy in just an hour. Kate Chopin displays the dynamic between men and women in relationships during the nineteenth century as this story was written in 1894. The story begins with the main protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, who is introduced to us by the heart problem she has. Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richard, are with Mrs. Mallard to inform her with caution, due to her heart condition, the devastating news that her husband Brently, has been killed by a railroad disaster.

Kate Chopin, a feminist writer, writes “The Story of an Hour” to present a shocking twist for her readers. This story is about how a woman with heart trouble spends her last hour of life. In Mrs. Mallards last hour of life there are multiple examples of irony, but situational irony is the main one presented in the story. Situational irony is shown throughout the story, especially in the situation with how Mrs. Mallard felt toward her husband’s death, who really dies in the story, and the title itself.

A statement from Patrick Rothfuss states “We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”. Two writers from the 1800s, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Kate Chopin created a lot of compositions that really indicated how much individuals, particularly women, and African Americans needed to shroud themselves, or wear a "mask" with a specific end goal to be acknowledged by the overall population among their time. In numerous works of writing, realist writers shape subjects for a bigger political and social discourse. Kate Chopin, writer of "The Story of a Hour" utilized situational incongruity and inferences to pass on her message to her readers.

come to the realization of her husband’s death, she looks out to the window and notices the beautiful scenery of the spring time. Chopin describes it as, "Could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (223). Her heart comes into play as well, because it is revived with a new sense of life and hope. This describes Mrs. Mallard’s new life that is set for her, or at least she thought. Chopin also writes, "Patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window” (223). The light was coming through the clouds even when the clouds were supposed to be blocking it out. Mrs. Mallard wanted her life to end throughout the whole marriage, but she find hope within the sun. Lastly, when Chopin says, "there stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (223). The armchair in her bedroom symbolizes rest and tiredness of her life before the death of Mr. Mallard.

Kate Chopin used dramatic irony in “The Story of An Hour”to express her theme that women’s roles were changing in American Society. Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that other characters aren’t aware. Dramatic Irony happened when Ms.Mallard starts to realize that as a result of her husband’s death she can be free and no longer is bond to duty. Joyness and happiness starts to stir inside of her, and her sister Josephine doesn’t realize this and is assuming that her sister is in grief and in despair because of the news of her husband. These events is an example of dramatic irony because Josephine thinks that her sister is crying and wailing because of her husband's death but in reality Ms.Mallard is full with joy. Many wonder

Mallard is introduced as a delicate woman who is very dependent upon her husband to take care her. Her vulnerability is directed to her submission role in the marriage, and because her husband is no longer there to lead her life, she becomes fearful, “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment” (Chopin 1). As she was lying on her armchair, she looks out the window and falls into a trance of consciousness. There was a sudden pour of rain, cleansing all the impurities in her life to bring forth a fresh start, “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other” (Chopin 1). The clouds symbolize her husband`s interference to her freedom.

“The Story of an Hour” is a very short story but is packed with a mix of dark and vivid details from the life of Mrs. Mallard. The symbolism and themes used in “The Story of an hour” depicts freedom for Mrs. Mallard for years to come. Or so she thinks. The first symbol in “The Story of an Hour” is the open window that Mrs. Ballard stares out of after she is informed of her husband’s passing.

1- In the story, the open window and what Louise sees outside of it symbolizes the new life she is starting without her husband. This is evident because the spring landscape outside the window represents new beginnings, which is what Louise is going through. The closed door to her bedroom symbolizes conformity and resignation to customs. However, Louise breaks this resignation when she opens them and goes down the stairs confidently. The front door to the house symbolizes both the death of Louise and the "reviving" of Brently Mallard. To further explain this, when Brently enters through the front door it serves as confirmation that he is not dead. In Louise's case, the shock of seeing her husband enter causes her death. As we can see, all of

Kate Chopin is known as one of the greatest feminist authors of her time. She grew up around independent, widowed women: her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother. With her father’s death due to a train wreck, and her husband’s death from“swamp fever,” Chopin was left alone to support her six children. According to Nina Baym, the author of Chopin’s biography, influences from strong women in Chopin’s life led to why she wrote about desires, limited aspects of women’s lives, and how women began to challenge the male-dominated culture (550). A lack of men as chief figures in Chopin’s life prevented her from experiencing a tradition of submission by women to men. Additionally, many of Chopin’s works were influenced by realism and feminism.