Story Of An Hour And Trifles: A Literary Analysis

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Have you ever experienced being trapped in something or somewhere, but there is no way out? Such is the case with Mrs. Mallard, from “The Story of an Hour”, and Mrs. Wright, from Trifles. At first, Mrs. Mallard does not realize that she is trapped, but after her husband dies, she has an awakening. Mrs. Wright, on the other hand, knows that her life is like a cage. Everything thing that is special is taken away from her, therefore she takes matter in her own hands. Even though these two stories have a different opening and a different storyline, both Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Wright experience freedom and relief after the deaths of their husbands. First, the two stories have different beginnings. Even though both stories are set in a home setting, …show more content…
Mallard and Mrs. Wright experience freedom and relief after the deaths of their husbands. In Trifles, Mrs. Wright was a completely different person before she got married. “She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that—oh, that was thirty years ago” (Glaspell 1042). After she got married, her husband seemed to suppress everything about who she was. She stopped singing and the only thing left was her bird. Her life became like that bird in a cage. It went “from singing bird to muted caged bird” (Mustazza 494). But, even that didn’t last long. “No, Wright wouldn't like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (Glaspell 1045). When her husband killed that bird, she had nothing left to live for, therefore she did to him what he did to her bird. She killed him. Even though it might later be known that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband, the thought that he cannot ruin her life anymore gives Mrs. Wright the freedom to live life as she pleases. When we look at “The Story of an Hour”, we see Mrs. Mallard who is grieving for her husband, but she feels something that she never felt before. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (Chopin 15). This feeling is freedom. Even though she tries to fight it at first, it still escapes her mouth. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!’" (Chopin 15). She let herself go, and great big joy overcame her. “She saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome” (Chopin 16). She can

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