If Cinderella was set in Auschwitz, nobody would think of it as a happy children's story. In this way, setting is vital to the overall tone and emotion of a story. In Kate Chopin's A Story of an Hour, such devices are used to set the tone. Louise Mallard, the protagonist, is an oppressed house wife whose death is caused by her husband. The story's theme is enhanced greatly through Chopin's imagery of Louise's dreary home. In Kate Chopin's A Story of an Hour, the plight and isolation of women, particularly the protagonist Louise Mallard, is depicted through the vivid symbolic imagery of Louise's home, or more appropriately, prison.
Of the numerous setting pieces used in the text, the arrangement of furniture in Louise's room raises many red flags. The description of her room has strong implications of isolation, especially concerning the placement of the chair in front of the window: "There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair" (Chopin 1). The prominence that this piece of furniture takes in the room, particularly in front of the window, is symbolic for the fact that Louise is confined to her house. She is merely watching life through her window, living it as an observer. Louise is a prisoner in her own …show more content…
What Louise catches a glimpse of is a vision of serenity: "She could see ...the tops of trees were all aquiver with the new spring life ...there were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other ...facing her window" (1). This detailed explanation of the day outside is all told from her perspective. It is prefaced by the phrase "she could see" (1). This symbolizes Louise's plight as a woman in that the description of the outside has a stark contrast to the rest of the scenery. Louise is only seeing the world as this beautiful place now, because her husband's oppressive nature had always eclipsed the light of life from
Of the numerous setting pieces used in the text, the arrangement of furniture in Louise's room raises many red flags. The description of her room has strong implications of isolation, especially concerning the placement of the chair in front of the window: "There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair" (Chopin 1). The prominence that this piece of furniture takes in the room, particularly in front of the window, is symbolic for the fact that Louise is confined to her house. She is merely watching life through her window, living it as an observer. Louise is a prisoner in her own …show more content…
What Louise catches a glimpse of is a vision of serenity: "She could see ...the tops of trees were all aquiver with the new spring life ...there were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other ...facing her window" (1). This detailed explanation of the day outside is all told from her perspective. It is prefaced by the phrase "she could see" (1). This symbolizes Louise's plight as a woman in that the description of the outside has a stark contrast to the rest of the scenery. Louise is only seeing the world as this beautiful place now, because her husband's oppressive nature had always eclipsed the light of life from