Kate Chopin's View Of The Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin chose to exemplify her views on marriage through the narration of the last hour of Louise Mallard's life. She highlights Louise' discontent with her married life in " The Story of an Hour" with varied sentence structure, contradiction of societal expectations, and discreet symbolism. The reader is introduced to Mrs. Mallard and her heart condition as her sister and a family friend share the news of her husbands death with her. They take care with how they convey the misfortune in order to avoid any unnecessary agitation. The narration reflects the fervor or lack thereof in Louise' emotions through the variation in sentence length and complexity. The more complex reflections of her thoughts stress inner frustration with her marriage by emphasizing that even though it was not an unloving union, she still views it as smothering. She viewed her husband not as an object of affection, but rather as the "powerful will bending her[s]". He had no cruel intentions seeing how he had " never looked save with love upon her" and yet she still views his dominance as imposing and a crime against herself. When her affections or lack thereof are described the narration becomes basic and dry in order to match her emotions. The way " she loved him -- sometimes" contrasts sharply with the " self-assertion which she [had] …show more content…
The passion with which the narrator expresses in the prospect of a widow's life juxtaposes sharply with the stifling and constraining depiction of having a husband. The societal standards heavily dictate the actions and reactions of Louise while contradicting her innermost thoughts and dreams. Simple word choice and character identification, reveal deeper meanings that in turn shed light onto the concept of marriage. The controversial view of marriage is brought to the foreground with a simple metaphor that many a wife has been able to empathize