Preview

Marriage In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1328 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Marriage In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour
Matias Flores Gleason
Saturday, September 6th, 2014
English “A” Class
Essay on “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin Marriage in “The Story of an Hour” Women in the 19th century had felt the oppression of marriage for centuries, and they had had enough of it. They began to rebel against it and to think differently of it. We can analyze this if we read the literature being published at the time. Great novels and authors such as Flaubert, Tolstoy, Austen and Chopin begin to question its authority and its use. Women are able to go against marriage for the first time, and they do so to express all of their misfortunes. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, the author uses irony and symbolism in order to emphasize her argument: even
…show more content…
Once on her chair, she starts to let her feelings flow through her, at first, there is sadness and mourning, but later on she realizes that she doesn’t feel all that bad about her husband passing away, instead, she feels happy and rejoiced, and starts to look forwards to those days she had dreaded the day before. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” She looks out of the open window in her room and sees the springtime in its bloom, with birds flying about, sparrows singing softly, patches of clear blue sky showing here and there. All of these are symbols for hope and freedom. Birds are creatures without boundaries, without limits and unbound to the ground, which we could take to mean marriage. She now feels like a bird, able to fly off into the sky, leaving her grounding marriage behind. It is basically a symbol of freedom and hope for the future. This also tells us that her marriage, even though it wasn’t a violent and unloving marriage was an oppressive one. ” She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.” And “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!” These two excerpts really help us understand …show more content…
Mallard is that she has heart problems “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble…” In this short story, Mrs. Mallard’s heart disease is a symbol for her marriage and marriage in general in the 19thcentury, in which marriage lies at the heart of society. Marriage is the beating heart of society, what binds it together, and is therefore an unbreakable bond, if you were to go against it you would go against society itself. This, from Chopin’s (Kate) point of view is unacceptable; marriage should be kept only if there is love, unlike Mrs. Mallard and her husband. “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!” The author makes the heart represent marriage, and to show that it is a broken institution she gives Mrs. Mallard heart problems. This is a clear statement against marriage, telling us that it has lost its meaning and has become a sickly form of binding people together. In the story, it also foreshadows the events that happen later on, namely, her death due to a corrupt and broken

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    In this story Mrs. Mallard is tired of being caught doing the chores that her husband expects her to do; she seeks freedom and liberation. Although death is ought to be a sad time, not all conditions would maintain that statement. For example if someone were suffering horrendously, it would actually be a good thing if he or she died. In the story it shows that Mrs. Mallard died at the end of the story but prior to that event it stated that Mrs. Mallard did actually love her husband, but often she did not. (Chopin 92) The story also suggests that she believed that her husband was frustrated with the marriage and assumed that she was too. This conflict revealed the sign that Mrs. Mallard was struggling for freedom, and when she sees that her husband is alive, she must die. This is the only way to be literally free from his gasp. When she had died of the joy that kills it leaves the reader to wonder about how she had died. Whether from the heart attack or she thought she had finally escaped her husband and is free at…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Chopin uses imagery and descriptive detail to contrast the rich possibilities for which Mrs. Mallard yearns with the drab reality of her everyday life. Chopin uses specific words to give the reader a background on Mrs. Mallard’s position. Chopin uses “Fearfully” to describe what Mrs. Mallard’s reaction is when she finds out her husband is dead and realized that she is on her own. The word “Fearfully” shows that Mrs. Mallard did in fact love her husband. It does this by giving the reader the implication that she was worried about how she would live without him to be there for her. She was afraid to go on without having him there for her. Later on in the story the use of the word “Unwittingly” describes Mrs. Mallard’s mood. This shows that Mrs. Mallard had made peace with her husband’s death, and she is doing what she has to do. Mrs. Mallard is not going to worry about her husband’s death because she has…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reading Kate Chopin's 'Story of an Hour' leaves on reader's mind a strong theme of the gender disparity present in the institution of marriage. The narrative about a woman's sorrowful state and life under her authoritarian husband introduces Mrs. Mallard first in the exposition paragraph as having a 'heart trouble' which requires 'great care'(pg. 15). It is quite ambiguous as to whether the trouble is physical or emotional. Even so, Chopin uses this trouble as a way of symbolizing the suffering of the woman in the institute of marriage. This central theme is also replicated in Gail Godwin's 'A Sorrowful Woman' as well as Sidonie Collette's 'The Hand'. Godwin depicts the man as the one with the last 'say' and that the woman has no authority of her own. She is to obey her husband, even forcefully. I think Collette on the other hand tries to show the husband's authoritarianism in the institution of marriage from a traditional perspective. This is so because according to her, the inequality has always been clearly set up and the roles well defined such that the husband may not even be able to able to tell how strong his influence on his wife might be. The three stories share the misery of the woman under the man in the institution of marriage.…

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Published in 1894, “The Story of an Hour,” has endured longer than the title would indicate and is a declaration of the support of independence for women from its author Kate Chopin. Having read this story before in other courses, and having spoken at length about how Chopin was in support of the idea of woman’s suffrage even before the suffrage movement caught hold, this story leaves a lasting impression and resonates deeper with me every time I read it. Chopin uses her work to illuminate the joy of independence and the oppression that marriage can bring. Whether intentional or unintentional, her message is not only meant for women but, extends to men as well. It is a timeless theme that anyone can learn from in every age. By her use of various literary elements such as, structure, and style, and the use of rhetorical devises such as pathos Chopin creates a work that provokes deeper though and asks a reader to delve into the emotional struggle of her character Mrs. Louise…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, Mrs. Mallard is said to have a troubled heart. The story begins with friends of the Mallards preparing to inform Mrs. Mallard that she is now a widow. Her husband was thought to have died in a railroad incident. She was said to have a troubled heart and they were having trouble on figuring out a way to break her the news. Although Mrs. Mallard heart problems are physical which one can assume its health related, it also can symbolize how unhappy she was in her marriage. It also can indicate her unhappiness due to her lack of independence and freedom. Mrs. Mallard is also a symbol in this story because she represents the women of her time frame that where married had restrictions and couldn’t have independence because the man controlled everything.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marriage. The American dream is to get married and start a family because of this, everyone interprets marriage as a happy concept. This word brings many thoughts to a person's mind, and is the majority of it negative? No, it is almost always positive. While everyone thinks marriage is happy, Kate Chopin disagrees. In her story, “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard discovers that her husband died in an accident. After Mrs. Mallard has cried about her husband’s death, she realized that she was free and started to celebrate it. Later in the hour, when Mrs. Mallard had walked downstairs, Mr. Mallard walks through the door, causing Mrs. Mallard’s heart problems to act up and gave her a heart attack. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," Chopin…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    What is marriage a union of two people who are held together legally, socially, and ritually? Everyone recognizes that they are legally bonded together until death due them part. Marriage is normally required to be assigned to a man and a woman who are free from a joint agreement to anyone else. The two people mutually agree to share their lives, bodies, and experiences. They share family values, traditions, and have children also. Then there is freedom both partners in a marriage are not involved or devoted to anyone else. Freedom is defined as the ability or power to talk, react, perform, or think without penalty. Each person has to be free to enter into the agreement of marriage. Marriage and freedom are a connected union which requires discipline and compromise. Freedom is the fact of how we choose to think and the reaction or actions of those thoughts and how they are played out in daily living. Which brings me to using marriage and freedom as topics for “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin.…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 19th century women did not really have much power or say in anything that went on. Women were really the ones that stayed home and took care of the family and tended to the house, while the husbands went out and worked. Women stayed out of the lime light and their opinions were never heard or considered. The short story “Story of an Hour” is about a woman who suffered from a marriage. As a reader we are not introduced to the conflict between the husband and wife. Throughout the story Kate Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard was actually happy that her husband died and that leaded to her tragic death, “The Joy That Kills.”(Chopin 517). On the other hand the play Trifles, has the same moral as, “the story of an hour” but a completely different outcome. This play is about a couple that does not take any part in the play, and we only learn about them throughout the character’s dialogue. As in the story Mr. Wright is killed by his wife Mrs. Wright. The way the play closes shows us that her reasoning for murdering her husband is more than just an unhappy marriage. Although both plays are harshly critical of the institution of marriage, the somber impact of the more realistic story within “Trifles” provides a more harsh understanding of marriage as opposed to the short story “the story of an hour,” which uses a plot twist to accomplish the intent to surprise the reader.…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Open Ended Ques

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Kate Chopin opens the story describing the scene to be one of epic emotion and made me believe that Mrs. Mallard was a woman madly in love with her husband; however as the story progresses the storyline changes. When Mrs. Mallard received the news of her husband and sat in the room alone and began whispering the words “Freedom” over and over again I realized that while yes she MAY have been in love with her husband, she felt a form of oppression by him. The narrator then continued and said that Mrs. Mallard did love Mr. Mallard, at certain times, but most of the times she did not. I believe the marriage was one in which the man demanded and commanded his wife to do a lot which in turn made Mrs. Mallard fall out of love with him.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Story of an Hour

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Age of Realism novelist, Kate Chopin, writes a short story to reveal a negative point of view of marriage. By examining the use of narrator, character and irony in "The Story of an Hour," the reader is left with a feeling that the author is not fond of the institution.…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The sadness and unhappiness displayed by both of the married women in “A Sorrowful Woman” and “The Story of an Hour” shows that marriage does not always bring the typical ending of most fairy tales. Thus being living happily ever after. It is evident that both of these women feel trapped in their marriages as many people feel today. Growing up with eight sisters I have also seen this feeling of entrapment in the world as well. In both of these stories the women display such a lack of love towards their spouses and in fact in “The Story of an Hour” it seems as though Mrs. Mallard never really loved her spouse and is the happiest for the hour that she thinks her husband is dead. The woman in “A Sorrowful Woman” is never satisfied with her marriage and life and feels trapped as well. The bizarre thing is that both of these women end up dead and do not find a way to get help or to get out of the marriages. The authors of these two stories Kate Chopin and Gail Goodwin both tie the unhappiness of these women to the way in which society impacts ones marriage.…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marriage and freedom are complex when connecting the two when considering how one can be tied down by the other. In the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, it argues about the ties that marriage has on freedom. In the short story, the protagonist goes through series of emotions when she hears that her husband has died in an hour. As the story progresses, the protagonist goes from sad to happy, although she ends up dying in the end when she sees her husband alive at the front door. By dying at the sight of her husband, it can be inferred that women weren’t allowed to have much freedom in deciding what their lives should be. Throughout the story, it can be seen that Kate Chopin uses various literary devices to promote the theme…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” explores a woman’s unexpected reaction to her husband’s assumed death and reappearance, but actually Chopin offers Mrs. Mallard’s bizarre story to reveal problems that are built-in to the marriage. By offering this depiction of a marriage that confuses the woman to the point that she celebrates the death of her kind and loving husband, Chopin challenges her readers to look at their own views of marriage and relationships between men and women. Each readers judgment of Mrs. Mallard and her behavior eventually stems from their own personal feelings about marriage and the influences of expectations in our society. Readers of different genders,…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kuwento Ni Mabuti

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages

    "The Story of an Hour" is a short story in which Kate Chopin, the author, presents an often unheard of view of marriage. Mrs. Louise Mallard, Chopin's main character, experiences the exhilaration of freedom rather than the desolation of loneliness after she learns of her husband's death. Later, when Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband, Brently, still lives, she know that all hope of freedom is gone. The crushing disappointment kills Mrs. Mallard. Published in the late eighteen hundreds, the oppressive nature of marriage in "The Story of an Hour" may well be a reflection of, though not exclusive to, that era.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays