Preview

Freedom In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
363 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Freedom In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour
“The Story of an Hour”

The story of an hour’s theme is about freedom. It tells about how Mrs. Mallard feels about freedom. The message it sends is that freedom can be stripped away from you within a small amount of time, and how it can come unexpectedly. The word free starts to repeat in Mrs. Mallard’s head and soon she starts to say it over and over.
In the story her sister, Josephine was the one who told Mrs. Mallard about the death of her husband. Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble so they took great care of telling the news. Mrs. Mallard could not accept that he had died. She went into her room and locked the door behind her. She sat down looking out of the window thinking about how she was free from Mr. Mallard and how her life would be better.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Story Of An Hour Theme

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The theme of “The Story of an Hour” to me is sad, there is a moment of joy, also there is confusion in the story. I think it’s sad because there is death in the story. Nobody likes death! Mrs. Mallard has a moment of joy, she feels free. She has freedom from her husband's death. I find it also confusing how Mrs. Mallard celebrated her husband's death. She didn't seem sad one bit. I feel these are the reasons these are the themes of “The Story of an Hour”…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The news struck her, like a lightening bolt striking a tree. Josephine, the sister of Mrs. Mallard, now realizes what she has to do. Mrs. Mallard is suffering with heart disease, so telling her won’t be easy. There was a railroad disaster reported and her sister’s husband, Mr. Mallard, was one of the firsts on the ‘dead list.’…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mallard's Loneliness

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the short story “A Story of an Hour”, Mallard is portrayed of being alone due to the “death” of her husband. That “alone” feeling starts to clear away as she notices that she was confined and followed everything that her husband told her to do. Even though Mallard was confined in a room, she starts to see how her husband was acting like a dictator and was moving Mallard as a puppet. At first, when she thought how freedom was coming towards, she dreaded it. But, as freedom arrives and enters her mind, it fills Mallard with an overpowering joy and comfort that she’s not controlled. Yet, she still experiences this mental and emotional freedom still in a small confined room all by herself when staring at the window. “She said it over and over…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Girl by kincaid

    • 820 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin the character Louise Mallard has to be gently told that her husband has died tragically. Her sister Josephine tells her that her husband Bentley died in a railroad accident. Louise Mallard cries and mourns her husbands death but in the back of her mind, she is thinking she will finally be free. Although Bentley was always good to her, she can now have a life of her own without feeling oppressed. She feels that men and women oppress each other even if they do it out of kindness. She fantasizes about how her life will be without her husband and hopes that she will live a long life. Suddenly the door opens and Bentley walks in. He is alive and was not in the accident. Louise mallard dies of a heart attack the doctors say it was from happiness.…

    • 820 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Story of an Hour” is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard whom has a heart problem. The “story” of her husband’s death was first…

    • 2338 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour' is a short yet complex piece describing the feelings of Mrs Mallard. This story is overflowing with symbolism and imagery. The most prominent theme here is the longing for freedom. Chopin focuses on unfolding the emotional state of Mrs Mallard which can be separated into three stages: quickly moving to grief, through a sense of newfound freedom, and finally into the despair of the loss of that freedom.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Remember the Titans

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Mrs. Mallard died of heart disease—a joy that kills.” Knowing that Mrs. Mallard had heart trouble, her sister Josephine, broke the news to her as easily as possible that her husband had been killed. It was then that she wept and sank into an armchair her room. Was she weeping with tears of sadness or tears of joy? Mrs. Mallard and her husband had a strange relationship that left her feeling like she was free from prison.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Story of an Hour

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This story has a good use of metaphors to show how the widowed wife is feeling out her husbands death. She obviously is not upset once she realizes she has no one to hold her back now. This is exemplified by how the author presents this to us, in such metaphors as ""(). This clearly shows her turning feeling, from the pain and anguish, to the joy and relief from being free. In all it shows in a very clever way how the woman changes her emotions.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "[Edna] was flushed and felt intoxicated with the sound of her own voice and the unaccustomed taste of candor. It muddled her like wine, or like a first breath of freedom (Chopin)." In chapter seven, Edna has a very deep conversation with Madame Ratignolle. This validates many of Edna's feelings and this allows her to feel comfortable enough to move along in her awakening. This moment is a very crucial portion of her steps towards freedom. As Edna talks to the Creole woman, she feels more open to seemingly taboo subjects.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mrs. Loise Mallard husband, Brently Mallard, has died in a train accident, according to a report received at a newspaper office.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “ She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to "feed upon opinion" when her own soul had invited her.” (32)…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Her hour

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The story begins when Mrs. Mallard is told her husband is believed to have died after a railroad accident after Richards, a family friend, hears of the news in the local newspaper office. With Louise, having a weak heart with suffering from a heart disease, Josephine, Louise’s sister, and Richards try to break the news as gently as possible. Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room immediately after hearing the news to grieve the loss of her husband; however, once she’s alone in the room, she begins to feel an unexpected sense of happiness and a freedom she has never felt before. Although she’s alone, Louise begins to realize that she is now an independent woman. Even though these are her private thoughts, she at first tries to hold back the joy she feels, and according to Chopin, she tries to “beat it back with her will.” (404) Finally accepting the joy and happiness, she feels like she must let herself go to it as the word “free” (404) is murmured from her lips. Terrified her sister is making herself ill, Josephine begs Louise to open the door to the bedroom at once. Louise was far from making herself ill; she was soaking up the happiness and thoughts of being on her own. She finally worked up to the courage to open the door and clasped at her sister’s waist, together they went downstairs where Richards was waiting for them. Suddenly the sound of a latchkey is heard and the front door opens where Brently Mallard enters. Seconds later, doctors say Louise died of a joy that…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Story of an Hour

    • 2421 Words
    • 10 Pages

    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", the second sentence introduce characters to the readers ” It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." These sentences are the exposition of the story. When Mrs. Mallard finds out about the death of her husband starts the complication in The Story “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms.” The narrative hook marks the beginning of the collision mentioning some queer changes in Mrs. Mallard’s feelings: “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”.…

    • 2421 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The nuances of irony add to the riches of “ The Story of the Hour” because they are all based around her failing heart. In such a short period of time Mrs. Mallard experienced so many emotions such as the shock and horror of the initial news of her husbands death. The feeling of guilt at the joy she felt from his demise. Yet, the most detrimental was the shock and surprise when her husband walked through the front door and in an instant she realized that her dreams of freedom where all but a dream. In the end her troubled heart just couldn’t withstand all of these…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Short Story Summary

    • 1098 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When they tell Mrs. Mallard that Mr. Mallard died, it is different because she is different. She doesn’t think that it is true, and she thought that it is made up. She cries a lot because she does not believe that Mr. Mallard has died. She cries for a long time. When she stops crying, she is in her room for a long time too. She sits a long time in a big chair, and she looks outside at the blue sky. She has a lot of things to think about. She looks at the things outside. She sees a lot of green things outside, and she thinks that these are about life. Everything that she sees is very pretty, and she thinks that the world is a happy place. She hears people talking on the street, and she hears people singing on the street. All of the people are happy, and Mrs. Mallard watches them.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays