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The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

Decent Essays

Tick tock, tick tock goes the clock. What is time? A second, minute, hour, day, month or year, the list can go on; for time is eternity. As a matter of fact, time is measured and it must move forward. But more importantly, time is the essence of life. The average person considers time as measured and predictable. However, What about the time people create in their minds? Some call it psychological time, others call it time of the heart. Either way, this type of time consists of hope, opportunity and anticipation. Subconscious time is not a cycle, it can move forward or backwards in a flash. Thus, there are no rules to how time is spent in the mind. In the short story, “The Story of An Hour” Kate Chopin not only uses chronological time, she also dives into the psychological aspect of time as one woman’s life takes a drastic change in the course of sixty minutes. As the story begins, Mrs. Mallard’s sister Josephine and family friend Richards take care in informing Mrs. Mallard of her husband’s death; for Mrs. Mallard has “heart Trouble” (476), and must be given the news gently. However, time doesn’t stop as it would for others who hear such news. As Chopin illustrates, “She did not hear the story as many woman have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance.” (476). Chopin is using the term paralyzed as if to say, time has the ability to halt in moments of extreme grief. However, only the human mind can “stop” time. Instead, Mrs. Mallard’s

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