(Introduction) The most frequent theme demonstrated in Kate Chopin’s short stories is the theme of marriage. Chopin was an author that believed strongly in women’s rights and conducted that idea in a majority of her pieces of work. “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm” are two of Chopin’s stories that revolve around marriage as the theme. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard is a woman who has heart problems, and receives the news that her husband has passed. At the end of the story he arrives back home and she dies when she sees him. The doctors claim she died of an attack due to being so happy. The readers know that it’s just the opposite. She died because she was happy to finally be free, but in reality her husband never passed away.
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One day a horrible storm arises and the son and father have to wait it out at the nearby grocery store. While they are gone Calixta, the mother and wife, cheats on her husband with an ex boyfriend. Once they return home Calixta is an extremely good mood and is happy to see them. Meanwhile, Alcee, the ex boyfriend, writes to his wife and tells her she can stay longer on vacation. She gladly accepts his offer. Mrs. Mallard and Calixta both felt a satisfaction in their lives when they did something against what their husbands would have wanted them to do. Like many other stories written by Kate Chopin, both of these expressed marriage as a common theme and revealed how trapped they felt in their marriage.
(Paragraph 2) Kate Chopin illustrates the theme of marriage throughout her stories by using different literary elements. In “The Story of an Hour” she uses irony to show the theme of marriage. The first use of irony is when Mrs. Mallard locks herself into her bedroom after hearing her husband has passed away. Her sister, Josephine, is worried that she will make herself ill by doing that. The reader soon learns that while she was locked in the bedroom, she was doing just the opposite. Mrs. Mallard was …show more content…
One symbol she uses is spring time. After Mrs. Mallard locks herself into the bedroom, she looks out the window and notices “the new spring life” (Chopin, 553). The beauty of spring indicates the beauty that her new life of freedom will have. “Just as spring symbolizes the ‘new….. life,’ so the natural world symbolizes the vigor and power Louise’s ‘wild abandonment,’ her passionate outburst” (Jamil, 218). A second symbol in the story is Mrs. Mallard’s heart problems. The first sentence in the story lets the reader know that she has an existing heart condition, which made it difficult to tell her the news about her husband’s death. The story ended with Mrs. Mallard dying when her husband returned home. The doctors diagnosis was from a heart disease that occurred from joy that kills. The heart condition symbolized not medical heart problems, but emotional heart problems with her marriage. “Thus, her death represents the futility of her freedom” (Diederich, 117). Divorce was not acceptable during this time and she felt the only way out was the death. The third symbol is Mrs. Mallard. She symbolizes the women as a whole during the nineteenth century. Marriage could easily begin to feel more like a prison for the women because it was common for them to be treated like property and not a person. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mr. Mallard is described as loving man, but yet
One day a horrible storm arises and the son and father have to wait it out at the nearby grocery store. While they are gone Calixta, the mother and wife, cheats on her husband with an ex boyfriend. Once they return home Calixta is an extremely good mood and is happy to see them. Meanwhile, Alcee, the ex boyfriend, writes to his wife and tells her she can stay longer on vacation. She gladly accepts his offer. Mrs. Mallard and Calixta both felt a satisfaction in their lives when they did something against what their husbands would have wanted them to do. Like many other stories written by Kate Chopin, both of these expressed marriage as a common theme and revealed how trapped they felt in their marriage.
(Paragraph 2) Kate Chopin illustrates the theme of marriage throughout her stories by using different literary elements. In “The Story of an Hour” she uses irony to show the theme of marriage. The first use of irony is when Mrs. Mallard locks herself into her bedroom after hearing her husband has passed away. Her sister, Josephine, is worried that she will make herself ill by doing that. The reader soon learns that while she was locked in the bedroom, she was doing just the opposite. Mrs. Mallard was …show more content…
One symbol she uses is spring time. After Mrs. Mallard locks herself into the bedroom, she looks out the window and notices “the new spring life” (Chopin, 553). The beauty of spring indicates the beauty that her new life of freedom will have. “Just as spring symbolizes the ‘new….. life,’ so the natural world symbolizes the vigor and power Louise’s ‘wild abandonment,’ her passionate outburst” (Jamil, 218). A second symbol in the story is Mrs. Mallard’s heart problems. The first sentence in the story lets the reader know that she has an existing heart condition, which made it difficult to tell her the news about her husband’s death. The story ended with Mrs. Mallard dying when her husband returned home. The doctors diagnosis was from a heart disease that occurred from joy that kills. The heart condition symbolized not medical heart problems, but emotional heart problems with her marriage. “Thus, her death represents the futility of her freedom” (Diederich, 117). Divorce was not acceptable during this time and she felt the only way out was the death. The third symbol is Mrs. Mallard. She symbolizes the women as a whole during the nineteenth century. Marriage could easily begin to feel more like a prison for the women because it was common for them to be treated like property and not a person. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mr. Mallard is described as loving man, but yet