Tone In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

In 1940’s, women are expected to bear children, take care of their husband and children and keep the house clean. Chopin points out that Louise was happy to be free, body and soul free from her husband which shows that men believes women are considered weak. Louise seeks freedom from their marriage and she believes the only way to be free is the death of her husband. Women couldn't divorce their husbands and if the husband left the wife, he would get their children, home, money and all the women owned. But now, women can divorce

Louise wants to live her own life, she wants to be her own person but she cannot because of the restrictions her husband and even her sister put on her. Louise has a heart condition and that along with her husband stop her from living freely and doing what she wants. She cannot divorce her husband because women in this time were supposed to have a husband, they were thought of as lesser. Women were seen as feeble and weaker than men in the late 19th century. When Louise realizes the silver lining of her husband’s death means she can finally be free of her oppression she is overrun with joy.

Chopin employs the use of symbolism to further her theme by using Louise’s heart and its disease as key symbols. In the beginning of the short story, the author informs the audience that Louise “was afflicted with a heart trouble,” which caused her husband’s friend and her sister to try to tell her about the mining accident gently. Shockingly, after her worrying phase of initial grief, Louise becomes joyful and “her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” Her sister was worried that she was stressing her

In the story, a woman thought her husband was killed in a railroad disaster. After she learns of her husband's death, Chopin describes Louise's reaction, "She said it over and over under her breath: 'Free, free, free!'" (65). This reaction caused by Louise losing her husband, shows that she felt as if her husband's presence caused her to be trapped or oppressed in some way. Chopin writes further, "But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely" (66). This sentence implies that with her husband living, her life belonged to him.

Really though, she's relieved to be free but no one understands her. Louise begins to realize that she is now an independent woman, a realization that excites her. When she acknowledged her relief, she becomes possessed stating” "free, free, free!" Free!

Louise is informed that her husband has been killed in accident, and due to a heart disorder, the news is broken to her very carefully. The reader acknowledges that Brently was oppressive by her reaction to the news of his death. Instead of reacting with melancholy feelings, she expresses her joy for her fallen husband. Chopin writes, ?She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial? (par 12). Louise knows that she should feel upset about her ?dead? husband; however she cannot help to feel relieved that the oppression has ended and that she can finally behave in the manner in which she chooses. It is soon discovered that Brently did not actually die in an accident, which causes the Louise to die.

If she didn’t feel free being with the same guy then they shouldn’t have ever gotten together. In the story by Kate Chopin it states,”she said it over and over her breath “free, free, free” the vacant stare and the book of terror that had followed it when from her hair” when she starts crying and feels really bad. Louise feels bad that her husband died but she also crying because she also feels some what free. Like I can imagine what she feels because she pretty much has been in a prison in her own house and

Due to that the story is short there’s no room for background information, flashbacks or excessive description, Chopin’s succeeds in making each sentence very important by employing a poetic tone to the story. For example, she uses repetitions of words to highlight important points in the story. For example, she repeats the word OPEN to emphasize the importance of Louise freedom. Since the death of her husband Louise feels a great deal of freedom and could start to enjoy life ones again. Chopin has Louise repeat the word freedom as well to emphasize the importance or meaning of the short story.

Chopin makes it clear that the intention of a person who inhibits another is irrelevant, because the outcome is still the same. So while Louise does not have animosity towards her husband, she is just overjoyed to be finally free of oppression. She is not celebrating his death; she is just embracing her newfound liberation. ** Also, it should be noted that at the end of the story Chopin referred to her as “Louise.”

Chopin's use of language effectively conveys the intensity of the emotions that overcome Louise. Repetition of the word "free" reveals the exaltation Louise experiences in being released from possession by her husband's will. The diction aptly portrays the significance, emotionally and physically, of Louise's transformation. Tumultuously, Louise's bosom, the seat of passion, rose and fell as the "monstrous joy" possessed her. As the elixir of life "courses" through her once weak heart, Louise's "pulses beat fast." When Louise's fancy runs "riot along those days ahead of her", the reader feels the excitement Louise feels. Through the image of Louise as a winged "goddess of Victory", her inner strength from triumph over repression becomes palpable. That strength is reaffirmed in Chopin's use of words that connote potency. Louise has a "clear and exalted perception" of herself.

This stereotype is negative, as if having emotions is a bad thing. However, it is the women’s emotions that alters the course of their stories. According to Jamil, Louise has been repressing her emotions for many years to avoid this stereotype and to please her husband. When she looks out the window and sees the spring weather, it causes her to feel joy for the first time in a long time. All of a sudden, a rush of emotion crashes over her, and she discovers her true self (Chopin 15). Jamil contends that emotions are an enormous part of who one is, and without them, life is far harder to endure. This is exactly what happens to Louise. When she thinks that her husband is dead, these emotions return, and she can be her true self (Chopin 15-16). However, Jamil explains that psychological health can affect physical health, and the effect of repressing herself for so long might be a direct cause of Louise’s heart troubles. When she allows herself to feel, her heart pounds strongly and surely, but when she sees her husband again, her heart troubles return. In that moment, she allows herself to succumb to her failing heart. It is a lack of emotion that kills her, not a

Once again, Chopin wastes no writing and immediately employs the use of irony in the very first line of the story. Chopin’s reference to Louise’s “heart trouble” in the first line of the story becomes apparently ironic by the time the story concludes (Evans). The introduction of Louise’s heart trouble would lead the reader, as it did Josephine who took “great care. . . to break [the news] as gently as possible”, to believe the news of Louise’s husband’s death would pose a danger to Louise’s well-being, but the opposite is true (Chopin 307). Louise seems to be rejuvenated by the news of her husband’s death, as she contemplates the “years to come that would belong to her absolutely [and] spread[s] her arms out to them in welcome” (Chopin 307).

Berkove argues that Louise is usually depicted as a victim of oppression but in reality Louise is egotistical and is only aware of her own freedom. According to Berkove, Louise seeks a freedom that cannot be obtained. Berkove states that Louise is “corrupt” because she feels relief once her husband dies. Berkove believes that Louise is physically and most importantly mentally ill and that she is delusional; Louise is also characterized as selfish because she strives to be isolated. According to Berkove, Chopin uses irony to depict Louise as unhealthy and

The narrator shows that Louise does feel some grief when she first hears the news of her husband. However, there is a shift in how the narrator presents Louise and her role. When she begins to think about Brently in a coffin or grave, the narrator states that “She knew she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death...But she beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin 1). This section that the narrator displays, reveals that Louise acknowledges that Brently’s death is upsetting but she is is willing to attain her independence from her him and shape her own identity without him. Furthermore, the narrator illuminates Louise’s want for liberty, when they make Louise compare love to freedom. The narrator show Louise contemplating this idea by saying “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” (Chopin 2). This illustrates that Louise would prefer to be completely free, rather than have love, because to her love means very little in comparison to not having any ties to someone or something. Louise, according to the narrator, is looking forward to being completely alone, and no longer have to live for her husband, as women had to

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.