The Story of an Hour/the Joy That Kills Essay

Her husband labels her as crazy and restricts her to a single room and forbids her to do most activities. Her husband demeans and belittles his wife’s condition by dismissing the severity of her depression. The Narrator has no say or control in her relationship. She has no control over the activities she’s allowed to do while in her room so she takes control of the only thing she can, her mind. She soon begins to imagine images within her room and within her wallpaper. The Narrator says, “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be” because every day she now looks forward to helping the women behind the wallpaper escape. Now that Louise has complete control over her mind, she is beginning to taste freedom, even if she is destroying herself. Because John thinks he’s superior to his wife, he misjudges her condition and ends up making her condition worse by repressing her even

An intelligent woman, Louise knows that she must conform to societal expectations and act distraught at her husband’s death. This does not mean Louise is cruel; in fact Chopin writes that “she would weep again (Chopin 57)” when she saw her husband “fixed and gray and dead (Chopin 57).” She feels emotions deeply, and while she had not always loved him, she sometimes did, and knows she would mourn him later. But now, Louise mostly feels free to live her life the way she wants to. Upon the realization that her husband lives, Louise’s shock and despair is so intense, she dies of sorrow.

48-55, ProQuest, http://nclive.org/cgi-bin/nclsm?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 226924170?accountid=3442. Literary critic Mark Cunningham presents personal views and ideas about the character, Louise Mallard, in “The Story of an Hour.” He presents the argument that Louise did not pass away after seeing her husband, Brently Mallard, arrive home. Rather he argues she passed away from the emotional strain brought on by the awakening moments of freedom experienced soon after learning of her loss. Cunningham also explains

This newfound freedom is in effect a new motivation for Louise. Before experiencing such freedom, Louise was petrified of the thought of life being long; now however, she felt herself wishing, even praying for life to be long. This is evidenced with the following quote, "She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long." (15). This depicts an ever embracing Louise, finally liberated of the powerful institution of marriage. What is more, this quote serves to further support the idea that Louise indeed felt trapped, she was unhappy and yet, the thought of her husband dying hadn't crossed her mind, only the relief from her own passing was her wish.

Another conflict in this story is the role of the wife versus the role of the husband. For instance, Louise struggled with her feelings about her marriage for years. Louise thinks "what could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being." She admits that she did love Brently, but often she did not. On the other hand, the story suggests that Brently was completely content in the marriage and assumed that Louise was too. This conflict is reflected in Louise's internal struggle. When she realizes that Brently is alive, she must die. This is the only way she can win the freedom she was struggling for within herself. She dies because he is alive, he is ultimately responsible for her death.

     I just accepted Louise's reaction to her husband's death, when the most unexpected happens; her husband is actually alive and he enters the room shocking everyone, and Louise especially, as she is shocked to death. The doctors say she died of joy, when the reader knows that she actually died because she had a drams of freedom and could not go back to living under her husband's will again. Then her dreams were shattered yet again due to this terrible man.

In “Story Of An Hour”, Louise locks herself in the room after discovering her husband has died only to find more confidence in herself. She shouts “Free body, free soul” over and over expressing her new found freedom. After she believes her husband has died she finally had to take control of her life and did not have to live a life of the expectations of someone else. Just as John’s wife did in “The Yellow Wallpaper” As the wife’s sickness gets worse her worry over the wallpaper increased, the patterns shown the yellow wallpaper displays a woman and shadows casting from the window. As the time goes on John’s wife is able to successfully idenitfy who the woman was and by the end of the story she locks herself in the room and frees the woman behind those bars while doing so she believes shes freeing

In “The Story of an Hour” there is conflict that states why Louise would want to be free; the role of the wife versus the role of the husband. For instance, Louise struggled with her feelings about her marriage for years. Louise thinks "what could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being" (16). She admits that she did love her husband, but often she did not. On the other hand, the story suggests that her husband was

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.

The beginning of the story sets the theme for the whole story. We are told about the heart condition that inflicts Louise. This is significant throughout the story. The heart condition is a symbolic way of describing her thoughts of oppression she felt about her marriage. She was trapped and isolated by the marriage. She felt the need to hide these feelings. Women of her era were supposed to be home and under their husbands command. The story has her going through this journey privately. That is significant in the fact that now in her husband’s passing, she will be alone. She will need to work through things by herself. She will be able to go through the whole process on her own, without being judged and persuaded to feel differently.

In “The Story of an Hour,” one of the messages about marriage that is trying to be sent is that the system of marriage itself, not the husband, does women wrong. The narrator shows that Louis crying at the news of her husband’s death, “with sudden, wild abandonment” (169). The word “wild” implies a sense of nature and that her initial reaction was instinctual and natural. Such a reaction is normal towards a husband who has been very loving of Louis as far as the narrator reveals. Although remorseful in front of others in public, Louis feels very happy in private. Louis feels liberated that she is no longer held in bondage to her husband, but still feels depressed as she is

By the repetition of the words as a reader we come to understand the meaning behind the story and how Louise actually felt towards her husband. The theme of the story is mainly the forbidden joy of independence. Due to that the story was written years ago where women were very dependent to their husbands Louise actual feelings of joy and happiness towards her husband death was forbidden by society during this

In ‘The story of an hour’, it is set in a house in the 1890s, a time when women had little to no rights. Louise was the typical housewife married to the working man. She was to keep the house in order and have dinner ready when the man got home. This confinement and role Louise had to play gives her “heart trouble”. At first when Mr. Mallard is reported dead, Louise weeps suddenly then goes to her room. She spends the next several minutes looking at how free she is now that her husband is gone. The setting of the story affects the context greatly. If it had taken place in the 21st century, Louise might not

This essay is an attempt to describe the females’ characters between three of the most powerful short stories I ever read. My goal is to describe and compare three different women, in their different circumstances and environments. I will try to analyze all three of them, physiologically and morally, while keeping in mind their time and place in history. This three short stories have a feminist point of view, among others, but I would like to focus on this one. While I compare I will give my opinion and share my views, based on their actions and behavior.

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