The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

In the “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, is about pleasure of freedom and the oppression of marriage. Just like in Kate Chopin’s story, inside most marriages, even the ones that seem to be the happiest, one can be oppressed. Even though, one might seem to be happy deep inside they miss the pleasure of freedom and living life to the fullest. Just like, in this story Mrs. Mallard feels trapped and when she hears about her husband’s death she first feels distraught, but ultimately realizes that she has gained her freedom. This news leads her to an inner battle within herself, as she tries to keep those feelings from coming out. The story culminates when she dies of a heart attack, because she realizes that her husband is not dead and she would be returning to her old pointless existence. This story has many great literary elements that keep the story interesting throughout its plot, by using great foreshadowing and symbolism.

Death can cause a person joy instead of sorrow or grief. “The Story of an Hour,” a perfect example, was written by Kate Chopin. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story that shows how the main character, Louise Mallard, views her marriage and the death of her husband. Mrs. Louise Mallard brings several different themes into the story that may be viewed very differently by different readers. The two themes, confinement and freedom, show how Mrs. Mallard feels before and after learning the news of her husband’s death. “The Story of an Hour” shows how several incidents can occur in just one hour. Set in the home of Mrs. Mallard, the story originates when Mrs. Mallard is told by her sister, Josephine, about her husband’s death. Normally, when a person’s spouse passes away, the passing brings grief, regret, and sorrow. However, Mrs. Mallard feels as if she is confined to her husband; therefore, she is now free and can enjoy life by herself. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to illustrate how confinement, freedom, and irony can occur from marriage and death.

The short piece by Kate Chopin, ‘The Story of an Hour’, is about a sickly wife who finds out the news of her husband’s death, which seem to make her happy that she is liberated from the husband’s controlling ways, even though she is supposed to be really sad and in grief. The story is about a protagonist, who undergoes certain changes throughout the story’s continuity. The irony of the story is how the author ends the book. We expect that since the woman, Mrs. Mallard is supposed to be happy all through, the twist with which the book ends with is that of her dying. Her happiness killed her.

In the past many decades the definition of what a marriage means changed dramatically in some areas. For the author of both stories, Kate Chopin, she wanted the reader to get something out of the story. She likes to explore all types of themes in her stories such as, racism, the roles of women, and adultery. With these themes and messages she struggled to have most of her stories published. In many of her stories she passed along these messages through the manner of a marriage. In her short stories “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree 's Baby” she showed just how different marriages could be as well as how similar they can be. Chopin portrays the lives of the main characters, Louise Mallard from “The Story of An Hour” and Desiree Aubigny

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is a woman with a heart problem that gets horrifying news that her husband has passed away in a train crash. When she starts thinking about her freedom, she gets excited; she is happy to start her new, free life. However, a few hours later her husband walks in the door and she finds out it was all a mistake. When she realizes her freedom is gone her heart stop and she then dies. In “Desiree’s Baby” Desiree is an orphaned woman who married her loving husband, Armand, and they are very much in love. In Kate Chopin’s short story is says, “"He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?" (24-26). When they finally have a baby, they notice that the child is showing marks that he is a mix of two races. The husband blames the wife because of her unknown past and sends her and the baby away for good. Later, as he is cleaning out their old stuff, he finds a letter that says, in fact, he is the one of mixed race and not her. The husband then realizes he gave up everything he cared about over a silly mistake. Both of these stories show the women struggling in their marriages. It is typical for Kate Chopin to show the dominance in the male characters, especially in the marriages as it was in the “Old South”, when women were meant to serve their husbands. Rena Korb says, “In certain ways, "Desiree 's Baby" is

In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.

“The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin was a story that was ironical yet profoundly deep. As a student I have been asked to read “a story of an hour” many times, and every time I’m surprised by how I enjoy it. People can read thousands of stories in their life times and only a handful will every stand out to them, stories that can draw out an emotion or spark a thought are the ones that will standout more. For me and “a story of an hour” the thought of freedom is what draws me the most as a teenage I would feel a deep and heavy cage that traps me in its invisible snarl. It is hard to explain why one feels that way many a times feelings are just a way of showing frustration. Mrs. Mallard I assume has many frustrations, and she associated her imprisonment with her marriage to her husband. In many versions Mrs. Mallard says he is not a mean man and she did have feelings. It is just an unexplainable blanket of depression that anyone can fall through. Like a cold or an unsuspecting wounds one cannot prevent what one does not know of until it becomes apparent .as the story progresses I add more of my own emotion and slowing I draw a bridge that connects me to the basic feel of the story. In the begging I am just an outsider looking in not yet connected with their feeling, then the realization hits one and so does mine, and finally when Mrs. Mallard freedom from her is taken yet it is not. This is what make the story believable the unchained freedom of feelings that is taboo for

In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin focuses on the idea of freedom throughout the story. Mrs. Mallard is a lonely wife who suffers from heart trouble. She is told by her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards that her husband has passed away in a train accident. She locks herself in a room expecting to be devastated, but instead feels freedom. Later, she exits her room and her husband walks through the door, causing her to die of a heart attack. Chopin uses this story to demonstrate that too much freedom is often dangerous.

Feminism is played out in a major way in Kate Chopins’ “The Story of an Hour.” The story portrays a story about the lack of freedom that all woman had in the 1800’s. The word feminism as defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes. A woman’s job and duty in the 1800’s was to tend to the needs of their husband’s needs. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard, one of the main characters, was told about her husband’s death and she was initially very emotional. Her sadness was quickly turned into a burst of joy because she felt a sense of freedom. The story takes a very weird and ironic twist because her husband was really not dead and when Mrs. Mallard finds out about this she regretted abandoning her moment of freedom. If we were looking at this story through the historical and feminist lenses one would suggest that this story is about a male dominated society in the 1800s. This male dominated society caused the woman to have a lack of freedom and really made it hard for woman to have a self-identity.

In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin describes to her readers a young woman’s response to her husband’s death, or at least his presumed death. The opinions readers will draw from this story will vary from person to person due to personal experiences. The experience and wisdom that I have gained through the trails and tribulations of my life help me to understand, relate, and even despise Mrs. Mallard’s character. On one hand, I feel pity for Mrs. Mallard. I think she felt trapped in a situation that she found to be inescapable. She felt lonely, restless, and did not know how to help herself. Yet, on the other hand, I do not feel sorry for

“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.

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin involves a woman, Louise Mallard, with heart disease discovering news of her husband 's death in a train accident. At the end of the story, as Mrs. Mallard is walking down the steps with Josephine and Mr. Mallard walks through the door. Mrs. Mallard died as a result of stress on her heart. The narrator reports, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-- of joy that kills” (181). Chopin makes this quote the last line of the play; this leaves readers with the question of what actually killed Mrs. Mallard.The doctors think that Mrs. Mallard died because of the joy of seeing her husband again. However, Mrs. Mallard dies because of the shock of seeing her husband and sadness from realizing that the joy she felt was over. So in reality, Mrs. Mallard died of heart disease—of sorrow that kills. Some reasons Mrs. Mallard felt so much sorrow when she saw Mr. Mallard are the time period, her loveless marriage, and her being robbed of the joy she felt.

Most believe that Mrs. Mallard died at the sight of Brently Mallard; however, I believe that Mrs. Mallard did not even see her living husband. The narrator says that Brently came through the door, Josephine shrieked, and Richard tried to shield Brently from his wife; however, it never says whether or not she was already dead. I believe that Mrs. Mallard died of the overwhelming joy of her new freedom. Mark Cunningham brings a similar thought to light in the critical essay “The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin's “Story of an Hour,”saying “Chopin's wording in the passage concerning Louise's death leaves it open to question whether Louise actually sees Brently's return. I believe that Louise does not see him, and that the cause of her death lies elsewhere”

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.

Kate Chopin provides her reader with an enormous amount of information in just a few short pages through her short story, “The Story of an Hour.” The protagonist, Louise Mallard, realizes the many faults in romantic relationships and marriages in her epiphany. “Great care [is] taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 168). Little do Josephine and Richards know, the news will have a profoundly positive effect on Louise rather than a negative one. “When she abandoned herself,” Mrs. Mallard opened her mind to a new way of life. The word usage shows that the protagonist experienced a significant change. This life wouldn’t be compromised by her partner’s will, which will enable her to live for