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In the beginning, we find out that Mrs. Mallard is afflicted with heart trouble, and news about her husband’s death is brought to her “as gently as possible” (45). Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards, who bring the news to her, believe that Mrs. Mallard will be very sad and upset and think that once she hears the news she will become even more ill. Here, at this moment all the readers expect her to react this way, because this is normal behavior for a person who has lost someone. When Mrs. Mallard first gets the news, she is devastated and heartbroken. As evidence, “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment” (46). After weeping, and thinking about this tragedy, Mrs. Mallard was, “pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (46). Her soul was in fear and pain because she didn’t know anything other than being someone’s wife. . But what we don’t expect to happen to Mrs. Mallard’s behavior is; for it to change to the complete opposite.…
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Her elusive search from freedom and self-identity is finally over with her husband’s death. While her husband is alive, she feels she must live for him, and only when he dies does she feel her life once again become her own. Mrs. Mallard even prays at one point, hoping for a long life so she could then enjoy her newfound independence. It is marriage itself that she finds so oppressive due to the fact one is not independent anymore and most live for someone else and is so bound to that person for…
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Men were superior than women in those times. Women had no identity and no place in the world but to attend to their husbands needs. So Mrs.Mallard had a husband who she had to obey and proceed with everything he told and asked her to do. She was a very fragile woman who had to be treated almost like a child because they didn’t want to trigger her or cause her heart to race. Her husband “died” and she was relieved.…
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Kate Chopins short story , “The Story of An Hour”, describes Mrs. Mallard as being ienslaved in an idealistic marriage during the nineteenth century. Mrs. Mallard, unlike the stereotypical women of the time, tastes the momentary sweetness of freedom when she hears the false news of her husband’s death.…
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Mallard receiving the troubling news of her husbands' sudden death from a railroad accident. The use of symbolism is made through connections with nature. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring of life" (Chopin). Mrs. Mallard begins to experience a sensation of a new being. What is expected of her reaction is that of deep sorrow and regret, but in direct contrast, she is reborn. "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully she felt it creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air" (Chopin). What was finally coming to her was her deserved freedom. She was no longer Mrs. Mallard, but her own individual. She would finally be able to "live for herself spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own" (Chopin). Unfortunately, the news of her husband's accident was in itself an accident. In the end of the story, her husband walks through the front door, and in the process Mrs. Mallard "had died of heart disease- of joy that kills"…
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Mallard, in her final moments of life. As the reader shares in the heartache, joys and conflict, that Mrs. Mallard feels at the news of her husband’s death, to the moment of her realization of what that would mean for her future, the reader is reluctant to tear their eyes away from Chopin’s plot twisting story. In a twist of fate, Mr. Mallard appears unharmed and the hopes and dreams of poor Louise, just recently resurrected from the grave, die and are buried along with her. Through key literary elements and devices, the author creates a stunning and surprising work that highlights the joy of remaining independent, and the suffrage that may come along with marriage. Chopin uses this short story to share an insightful underlying message that continues to resonate with me: to live for…
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Mrs. Mallard has heart problems, and she hears the news that her husband, Brently, has died in a train accident from her sister, Josephine, and her husband's friend, Richards. At first she starts crying thinking about abandonment, but that ceased when Mrs. Mallard goes to her room. She becomes filled with joy when she realizes that she is free. Louise and Brently love each other, but Louise still feels oppressed. Louise feels oppressed because Chopin lived from 1851-1904 and during those times women's rights weren't a priority. The wives were supposed to listen to their husbands and do as they said. The story never talks about Brently forcing Louise to do anything, but when Louise is being described, it states: "She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength" ( 516). Mrs. Mallard's lines on her face are caused by repression. She has a strength of being a woman and is able to handle being in a marriage. When Louise is sitting in her room staring out the window at the sky, she realizes she has regained her independence and is excited about it. She is free! She thinks about the future and feels a joy about living for herself and says a quick prayer that her life will be long. On page 517 it states, "There would be no powerful will bending hers…
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Mallard began to come to terms with the implication of her husband’s sudden death. The passage reads, “She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!”… She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her.” Mrs. Mallard is quite aware of how wrong it must look to be feeling liberated by her husband’s death, however she would not let herself feel guilty. She had lived long enough under her husband’s will and now she gladly welcomed the freedom that came with his passing. Thus, this passage is effective in illustrating that the societal expectations for her marriage had ultimately subdued and repressed Mrs. Mallard’s…
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Mallard’s, but rather tell a tale of an unhappy woman’s view of the world. After all, no reference is made towards Josephine (Mrs. Mallard’s sister)’s happiness. There is evidence suggesting Mrs. Mallard could have been a selfish person such as, “there would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” This idea can be considered, although it is important to recognize that the Josephine, the only other women present in the story, isn’t alerted or concerned at either the beginning stages nor the end stages of Mrs. Mallard’s grief. She teats it as if it is the norm, inferring that she lives a similar life.…
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We are first introduced to Mrs. Mallard, but the reader is not given a first name until closer to the end due to it is not considered important. Louise Mallard suffers from a heart problem and by reading the story seems very delicate. . They are considered a working class couple where Mr. Mallard is a railroad worker and Mrs. Mallard is a housewife. When looking at the Mallards they seem to be a pretty normal married couple in the nineteenth century. Mrs. Mallard was told that her husband was in a dreadful accident by the railroad. When Josephine, her sister, broke the news to her along with her husband’s friend Richard, at first Louise shut down. She cried in her sister’s arms and then grieved alone in her bedroom. Chopin was very descriptive when she says that Mallard was sitting looking out into the blue sky, then leaning her head back into the cushion falling asleep until a sob came up into her throat and shook her. All of…
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Mrs. Mallard goes on to realize how much she really didn't love her husband. She doesn't feel the need to have guilt over it since he is already gone. Through her grief of losing her husband she is still Mrs. Mallard to us. She has no identity as her own; she is just a woman that belongs to Mr.…
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At first, the most interesting thing in this story is that the reaction about Mrs. Mallard when she got the news that her husband was dead from her sister Josephine. Her reaction was not as usually as other people thought. We can get the idea that others thought that she could not accept the news that her husband was dead. To most readers surprise, she did not…
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“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a story that delves deep into the emotions of the main character Louise Mallard. The action takes place within one hour at the Mallard household, where Mrs. Mallard spends most of her time due to her severe heart issues. In this hour Mrs. Mallard receives news of her husband’s tragic death in a railroad accident. At the breaking of this news Mrs. Mallard is swiftly taken to her room where she goes through a series of emotions that ultimately lead to a shocking revelation. “The Story of an Hour” is a work of literature that presents numerous ironies and emotional conflicts that have resulted in two distinct themes. The first being that sometimes the greatest things we find in life may not always come in the way we expect, and the second is to enjoy things while they last. While there are…
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Everybody approaches death in different ways. Mrs. Mallard takes an unconventional approach to hearing about her husband’s death. She does grieve for a moment, but is then consumed with joy. She is not joyous about his death, but she is happy about the sudden loss of dependence upon him. She believes her future to be bright and she is happy about the things that she wants to do. She feels as if she will be able to take back control of her life. The Story of an Hour gives insight into a woman feeling stifled under the confines of a marriage during a time when men were in control of woman and had all of the legal authority to do…
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In this story the description of Mrs. Mallard in a lifetime of emotional torment, dawning comprehension. liberating, that ended in ironic detachment. Mrs. Mallard brushes off the idea of love and marriage for the wonderful and glorious idea of at last freedom. The other characters around her such as her sister Josephine and Richards which is the husband 's friend though she was crying her eyes out over the death of her husband and she was actually relieved to be a free woman. At the end, it was understood that she died from sudden shock of seeing her supposedly dead husband alive after all "joy that kills" (23). The only piece of the puzzle that is left unanswered for sure is what really killed her and the narrator left that up to the reader to…
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