Even marriages that seem so wonderful on the outside can embody oppressive tendencies. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin presents the reader with a woman, Louise Mallard, who is clearly overjoyed that her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard is a young woman with severe heart trouble who is subtlety informed by her sister and her husband’s friend that her husband was involved in a train accident and has passed away. Louise is initially inconsolable, “[weeping] at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister 's arms”(1).…
Authors criticize society by presenting characters who are somehow trapped or imprisoned. In The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, Louise Mallard is trapped in an unhappy marriage. After some initial sadness, Mrs. Mallard experiences a newfound sense of freedom when she is told that her husband has died in a railroad disaster. The story comments on the expectation of American women to pursue marriage and motherhood instead of seeking an education and a job in late 19th century American society. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death shows a contradiction of an American norm during the 19th century.…
In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, a married woman receives news of her husband’s death. The reader follows Mrs. Mallard through her unusual emotional reaction to her husband’s death. In this time period of this story, the late 1800s, it was not unusual for women to marry young and take on all of the household responsibilities. Not many people cared whether the women loved their husbands or their families; the primary focus was on their purpose in the household. The language used throughout the story contributes to the imagery of freedom and life, and shows the reader that marriage is a form of oppression in this time period.…
During the nineteenth century, the time in which Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” takes place, women are considered inferior to men. Mrs. Louise Mallard, the protagonist, lives in a generation where women are expected to live in the shadows of their husbands. And while Mr. Brentley Mallard is alive, Mrs. Mallard fulfills her designated role in society. However, the supposed death of her husband changes her and makes Mrs. Mallard reflect on her true role in the world. Louise Mallard, in wake of her husband’s death, begins to imagine a life where she is no longer constrained by her husband- a life where she is free from the social restrictions society places on nineteenth century women.…
Chopin and Gilman do not only use the setting to present the profound desire of freedom and autonomy of their main female protagonists; they also employ irony to criticize and to change the misogynistic society. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” uses many deep ironies to express the desire of freedom and selfhood. For example, as other characters (Josephine and Richard) think that Louise is “making [herself] ill in her room” (Chopin 426), after her husband dead she is “she was drinking the very elixir of life through [the] open window” (Chopin 426). There is no grief and no pain associated with the loss of her husband. The irony is indicative of the need to suppress patriarchal oppression.…
The film complys completely with trend and framework of the novel and take three-step composition to describe the three women’s one day in different spacetime. At the beginning, it builds an atmosphere of death, and the environment is water. Water has always been a symbol of softness, which fitly suggests that the female theme of this film, from the beginning to let audiences find everything fresh and new. At the end of the movie, it repeats this picture. The sound of water for a long time can be heard.…
The perception of death poses a variety of emotions for different individuals across cultures. There are some who associate it with grief, sentiments of sadness, and fear because they perceive death as the end, while others find death inevitable and decide to face it with a mere appreciation of life itself. Despite the different emotions corresponding with one’s perception of death, there is a unique twist on this inevitable part of life in Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour.” Death indicates an initial sensation of freedom for the main character Louise Mallard in this story when she believes to have lost her husband in a tragic train crash; however, one may see it later controlling Mrs. Mallard with her own sudden death at the…
Louise’s heart was weak in many ways. The health of her heart was not good and caused many of her problems. Not only was the health of heart weak but spiritually she was a weak person. Chopin states, “She did not hear the story as many woman have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance” (516). Louise had a very cold heart and would rather think of her husband’s death as a gift.…
Chopin uses the literary devices, irony and imagery, to depict spring and rebirth in contrast to the death of her husband, Brently. As Louise “stares out a window she faces a scene of natural beauty and vitality that seems, at first to contrast with her own bereaved suffering.” (Evans) The “patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” represent the hopeful future that awaits Louise now that she is free from her restrictive marriage to her husband and no longer tied down. (Chopin) Outside her window, the smell of rain permeates the air and sparrows fly all around.…
The author’s physical description of Louise again reflects the inner restraint that she had endured throughout her life. Louise is a woman who was not able to express her needs, longings or individuality; her appearance also reveals her mundane past. Her face is described as “young and calm,” this is because she never experienced the independence and maturity needed to give it character. Chopin described Louise as having a face “whose lines bespoke repression” -- she is portrayed as having a face without depth or spirit, it also provides a graphic representation of Louise’s soul. As Louise’s contemplates the possibilities of a new life, her expressions and outward appearance mimic her inner transformation.…
Many readers while reading narratives, tend to focus on elements of the plot; however, many writers utilize elements of the setting to show the progress of certain characters or events throughout the story. Kate Chopin is one of those author's whose usage of symbolic setting is displayed in the short story, "The Story of an Hour." The setting of the story, such as spring and the west, carries many symbolic elements that complement Mrs. Mallard's response to her husband's death within the story. The season of spring in "The Story of an Hour" is a symbolic element of the setting that complements Mrs. Mallard's response to the death of her husband.…
Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour, is set in the late nineteenth century in the home of Brently and Louise Mallard. The story describes the sequence of emotions that Mrs. Mallard experiences after hearing the news of her husband’s apparent death in a train accident. Louise’s heart affliction is a concern of her sister’s in telling her the news. The theme of “Story of an Hour” focuses on a women’s discovery of self-awareness and the transformation that takes place caused by the oppression of the institute of marriage. We see this theme represented in the multi-dimensional, complex characteristics of Louise, the changes that occur in Louise, and the irony of the joy that kills…
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is more than a grieving widow experiencing euphoria and finding her sense of self; it’s a statement of how a woman’s value and independence was worth during the 19th century. A wife was few more than a trophy for their husbands to showcase towards his fellow compatriots with children and homemaking skills being her only noteworthy talents. The life and death of Louise Mallard shed light on marriage being equivalent to surrendering one’s identity as an individual. The introduction of Mrs. Mallard described her as a meek young woman with a weak heart. Upon being told the news, she grieved loudly over her husband’s sudden death as if she had forgotten how coddling he was.…
The story of an hour, by Kate Chopin is a good short story about a woman, Mrs. Mallard and and her husband, Mr. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard is known to have heart problems so her sister was very careful when telling her about the death of her husband. "But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely" (Chopin 517). This information shows that Mrs. Mallard is hiding something from everybody, she acts distraught around her friends and family, and she even cries in the privacy of her room, but deep down she feels a sense of relief. Josephine insists that Mrs. Mallard goes downstairs and she does.…
In this story, Kate Chopin was attempting to accurately display the emotions that she had felt at the time of her husband 's death through the emotions of Louise Mallard. Yet another example of how Chopin’s life influenced this piece of work was how Louise felt free after learning of her husband’s death. This is a raw display of just how oppressed women were during Kate Chopin’s lifetime; where a woman may feel free and happy when her husband died. In summary, “The Story of an Hour” is an eye-opening piece of literature that drew heavy influence from Kate Chopin’s life and the time she lived…