This short story describes the main character, Louise Mallard, as we see her “metamorphosis” throughout Chopin’s work of fiction. “The Story of an Hour” refers to Mrs. Mallard’s life where she gains her liberty. This scene, where Mrs. Mallard will supposedly grieve for her husband, deliberately exposes a lot on her character and her new discovery of living. “The Story of an Hour” makes us see some perspective on a married woman who opens up herself and shows her true feelings deep down there, for what we called “inner-self”. Chopin’s use of foreshadowing and irony gives us a look of what is to come in the story. One specific example of this is when Chopin portrays the character so calm after the death of her husband. Chopin portrays this conflict to be very wearing on the…
“Knowing that Mrs.Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death”(Chopin 278). This is the first sentence in “ The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and in this sentence we can tell an already broken women will be grieving. Mrs.Mallard is the protagonist of this story and as well as a dynamic character who is changing rapidly.…
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…
Kate Chopin’s,”The Story of an Hour,” is an ironic and symbolic story as it portrays an innuendo of repression through the example married women. Chopin’s short story begins with Mrs. Mallard becoming lurid as she hears of her husband's death. Consequently, Mrs. Mallard underwent changes from depressed to an elated state of emotion. Chopin displayed Mrs. Mallards’ grievances and attitude towards freedom through her diction. Just as Mrs. Mallard perceived that she gained her freedom, news was delivered to her stating Brently Mallard was alive. Without hesitation Mrs. Mallard died not only because her freedom was gone, but because she felt guilty when she happily reflected upon her husband's death. Presumably, the cause of Mrs. Mallard's death was heart disease, thus making Chopin’s…
This device is used in the beginning of the story. From the way the story begins something bad was going to happen to this lady. Somewhere in the course of the story she was likely to die of heart disease. There are also other things throughout the story which makes us understand that something will go wrong but the writer tries to make us feel that everything is going to run smoothly .Chopin ends the story in a manner which leaves us with a lot of surprise. She did not take much of her time to give out the story neither did she use a lot of materials to convey the information. As the title of the story indicates this is the story of the last hour of Mrs. Mallard’s life. In the process of telling us about the last moments of her life, Chopin also gives us her life history until that…
When she portrays Mrs. Mallard as " young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength." (paragraph 8, line 1), she is telling a lot about the protagonist before the death of her husband. The words "whose lines bespoke repression" expose the fact that Mrs. Mallard has felt oppressed by her marriage, and the "certain strength" with which the writer describes Mrs. Mallard may make reference to the power the protagonist has had in order to be able to bear her marriage. In addition, in describing Mrs. Mallard behaviour after she has learned the news about her husband, Chopin uses metaphors, such as " she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window." (paragraph 18, lines 1-2), to illustrate the happiness Mrs. Mallard is feeling now that Mr. Mallard has passed away. Another example of Mrs. Mallard behaviour can be seen in…
In Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” the protagonist, Louise Mallard, is going through a life-changing event that is brought on by the news of the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. During this hour, she is told of her husband’s death, grieves for a short time, discovers that she will now be able to “live for herself” (16) and is finally able to free herself of the restrictive marriage she has been living in. The end of her last hour comes when she sees her husband walking through the door. There are many varying opinions as to why she actually died. Chopin does not directly state what Richards, Brently Mallard’s close friend, is shielding from view or why Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, cries out in the last few seconds of the story. There are a few symbols that Chopin uses throughout the story to show meaning beyond their literal sense. These symbols allow the reader to imagine, without having to be described in full detail, what the mood of the scene is and what the protagonist is feeling at that moment. There are three primary symbols found within this story: Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition, the window in her room, and the staircase leading to and from her room. This essay will attempt to analyze these symbols and discuss what their meanings are from multiple points of view.…
In Kate Chopin’s 1894 work, “The Story of an Hour”, symbolism and figurative language are utilized to express the central theme of freedom. Mrs. Mallard believes the she has been granted freedom in the form of the death of Brently Mallard, and, ultimately, finds freedom from her unhappy marriage in death.…
The intent of Kate Chopin’s story was to show the limited options of a woman. Mrs. Pontellier was one who broke all the expected roles of an upper class woman. Mrs. Pontellier became extremely bored with her lifestyle and her husband. Her husband was never around, nor did he appear to be…
Kate Chopin invokes different emotions for the reader throughout the story. In, “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin uses suspense as a method of anticipation when Mrs. Mallard goes to her room alone. What is she doing? What is she thinking? What emotions is she feeling? What thoughts are racing through her mind as she leaves her sister and Mr. Richards downstairs? The uncertainty and anxiety of Mrs. Mallard raises questions in the mind of readers about how they would react if they just heard a loved one died. It makes the reader empathize with Mrs. Mallard and evokes excited expectation or uncertainty about what may happen next. The opening sentence of, “The…
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…
It is written well enough that the reader can feel the sadness she dealt with in her relationship and you are almost excited for her future by the end of the story. Chopin has written it in a way that the reader does not feel Mrs. Mallard is mean or selfish for her feelings towards her husband’s death, but you are excited as well for future as a single woman. Being released from a loveless marriage opens the door to her characters ability to become her own person. I feel this is something that even now women tend to do. Women often feel stuck in selfish or loveless relationships and cannot leave on their own. Throughout the bad relationship a woman will lose her own identity and end up being defined only by the man she is…
Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and William Faulkner's "A Rosefor Emily" both characterize the nature of marriage and womanhood by delving into the psyches of their female protagonists. Also, although Chopin makes no clear reference to geographic locale in "The Story of an Hour," both authors usually set their stories in the American South, which impacts these characterizations. These two tales share many other points of reference in common. For instance, Mrs. Mallard in "The Story of an Hour" and Emily Grierson in "A Rose for Emily" die at the end of the story, and both deaths are in some way related to how the women felt about their male partners. In fact, in both cases, the women are deeply affected by the men in their lives: their personalities and lifestyles have been shaped and molded chiefly by men. However, Mrs. Mallard and Emily Grierson develop differently. Mallard is a relatively young woman, while Grierson When Brently Mallard is presumed dead, Mrs. Mallard and Grierson also exhibit different physical characteristics. Mallard grieves when she hears her husband is dead but embraces the "long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. In the end, both women die, but Mallard's death is precipitated by "a monstrous joy," unlike Grierson, who simply left behind a legacy of sadness and pity. This aspect of her character is paralleled in the springtime setting of "A Rose for Emily," in which "topsof trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. While Grierson holes up and hides from the world, Mallard has as upportive network of friends and family to which to turn. Mallard experiences an epiphany that can potentially transform her life and which brings her immense joy; Grierson, on the other hand sank into madness and depression and killed the man she loved. Emily Grierson killed the man who spurned her, only to sleep next to his decaying corpse each night. " In stark contrast to this...…
One major theme in Kate Chopin’s story is freedom. In the beginning of “The Story of an Hour” the scene opens up and we are introduced to Mrs. Mallard who has been told that her husband has died in a horrible train wreck. Mrs. Mallard reacts to this news like any other wife would. Yes, she is upset so she excuses herself and rushes off to her bedroom to be away from everyone who has come to see her. While in her room we as the reader see a completely different side of Mrs. Mallard. She in some sense is happy yet she is upset that her husband is dead. However she now…
Scharnhorst, Gary. "Gilman." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. 209-210.Print.…