Preview

Reaction to the Story of an Hour

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
292 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Reaction to the Story of an Hour
Reaction Since I have already read this story as a junior in high school I do not have a very strong reaction to it, although I can recall my reaction from when I first read this sad short story. I read this in my AP English class in high school and I had the teacher that stressed how everything had a meaning. Since this skill was already burned into my brain by the time we read this work by Kate Chopin, I could easily pick apart and decipher the meaning of this story. I believe that Kate Chopin carefully picked each word and sentence in this story to get the ultimate impact, and she surpassed her goal by miles. After reading the entire story I had a sense of sorrow and grief upon my shoulders not only for what Mrs. Mallard was experiencing after losing her husband, but also for the loss of Mrs. Mallard’s life at the closing of the story. It truly saddens me when anyone has to experience the loss of a loved one; but what saddens me even more is that Louise Mallard lost her life because of the sheer force being restrained back into the role of nothing but Mrs. Mallard hit her with. I do not believe that Louise had an amazing marriage but I will say I think she had a good one. If she did not have a good marriage or did not love her husband then she would not have wept as she did when she was told the news. So, my initial reaction to this short story was of sorrow and grief, but then also happiest for the brief sense of freedom and true identity Louise Mallard got to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Story of an Hour

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How might heart trouble be more than a physical ailment? Note that this is the first thing we are told about her and how other people respond to her. Evidently this is--at least for those around her--an important part of who she is. Who took care? Why is this written in the passive voice, with a "hidden" subject? What does this construction suggest about Mrs. Mallard's customary environment?…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Two Old Women

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Louise Mallard has been married to Brently Mallard for quite some time. She has become sick of the standard routine lifestyle that she has been sucked into, the stay at home wife with no excitement. She has no job, very little friends and lives with just her husband. Mrs. Mallard was given news one day about her husband and a railroad accident. The opening sentence which states, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death”, sums up what the short story is about. Louise has had a heart condition for a while and the news of her husband’s death was told to her in the softest way possible so she would not have her heart cause any further complications. Louise’s sister, Josephine told her of the disastrous news and Louise immediately fell weeping in tears in her sister’s arms. She realized after thinking about the whole situation that her love for her husband was not as strong as she thought it was. This lack of love for her husband can be better seen when Chopin writes, “And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!” These thoughts have been racing through…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Story of an Hour

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Story of an Hour: Discuss three examples AND kinds irony used in “The Story of an Hour.” Make sure to have one example of verbal irony, one of situational irony, and one of dramatic irony.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Story of an Hour

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Central character: Mrs. Mallard- Mrs. Mallard is a dynamic character. She was the wife of Brently Mallard who was assumed to be killed in a train wreck. She was sad her husband was dead, but has an awakening.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1) Chopin heavily utilizes symbolism in her story. Describe three symbols in detail, making sure you discuss their relevance to the story's themes.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Story of an Hour

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The story of an hour” Kate Chopin’s “The story of an hour” perceives this seemingly normal middle-class family with an extensive amount of colorful irony. Louise Mallard is a housewife who tries to lead the most standard life possible with her all-powerful husband. The many years of marriage has brought the feeling of emptiness and vacancy into the soul of Louise Mallard. Through her tribulations of marriage, releasing herself and setting both her body and mind free, and the deaths throughout the story irony encompasses and unifies this short story.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber both captured my interest from the very beginning. These short stories represent gender roles and marriage. They both are about married couples with controlling mates. “The Story of an Hour” is about a young married woman and how she reacts to the news of her husband dying in a train accident. The story takes place in the home of the young woman, Mrs. Mallard. Several things took place within an hour but “the joy that kills” (Clugston, 2010) made me more interest to find out what was happening to Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard died of “joy that kills” (Clugston, 2010) because she was happy after finding out about her husband and he coming home was the hour of her life. I believe she chose to die happy than live miserably with her husband because she was so happy thinking she had her life back only to go downstairs and see Brently walk in. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was about a husband who continuously daydreamed about the life he wanted. Both of these stories have symbolism of the unhappy mates whose being dominated by their spouse and the desire to escape it. The difference in the stories is in “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard is dominated by her husband and she sees an escape through his death. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, has a controlling wife and escapes from her through his daydreams. In this paper I would like to discuss the elements of setting, plot, characters, and conflict found in these stories that will bring out the theme of the will to escape.…

    • 2000 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kate Chopin tackles complex issues involved in the interplay of female independence, love, and marriage through her brief but effective characterization of the supposedly widowed Louise Mallard in her last hour of her life. After discovering that her husband has died in a train accident, Mrs. Mallard faces conflicting emotions of grief at her husband’s death and exultation at the prospects for freedom in the remainder of her life. The latter emotion eventually takes precedence in her thoughts. As with many successful short stories, however, the story does not end peacefully at this point but instead creates a climactic twist. The reversal—the revelation that her husband did not die after all, shatters Louise’s vision of her new life and ironically creates a tragic ending out of what initially appeared to be a fortuitous turn events.…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was written in 1894. In the beginning of the story, we discover that Mrs. Louise Mallard has a heart condition, but she is also said to be young. Which to me seemed odd, but I overlooked this detail so that I could continue the story. Mrs. Mallard’s sister Josephine and Mrs. Mallard’s husband friend Richard came to her house to break the news of the death of her husband in a railroad disaster. They tried to tell her the news gently, because of her condition. To them she seemed to react how a new widow should. She wept and collapsed in her sisters’ arms, before running to her room to be alone. This is where the story soon takes a turn. There in her room, she was actually crying because of happiness of the death rather than sadness. Her sister thinks Mrs. Mallard is making herself sick. In the final paragraphs, Mrs. Mallard leaves her bedroom, when her husband walks into the front door, Mrs. Mallard than passes away at the sight of her husband.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chopin tackles complex issues involved in the relationship among female independence, love, and marriage through her brief but effective characterization of the supposedly widowed Louise Mallard in her last hour of life. After discovering that her husband has died in a train accident, Mrs. Mallard faces conflicting emotions of grief at her husband's death and joy at the prospects for freedom in the remainder of her life. The latter emotion eventually takes precedence in her thoughts. As with many successful short stories, however, the story does not end peacefully at this point but instead creates a climactic twist. The reversal--the revelation that her husband did not die after all-- shatters Louise's vision of her new life and ironically creates a tragic ending out of what initially appeared to be an unexpected turn of events. As a result, it is Mr. Mallard who is free of Mrs. Mallard, although we do not learn whether the same process of conflicting emotions occurs for him.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Story of an Hour- Analysis

    • 1415 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Extract: “When the doctors came they said she died of heart disease–of joy that kills.”…

    • 1415 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, Louise Mallard is a dynamic character who went from a state of grieving to being overjoyed by her new freedom. When she first hears of her husband’s death, she is overwhelmed with misery. After reflecting on what happened, she looked outside and realized the new life ahead of her. Kate Chopin relates what she observes in simple prose, but when her emotions are described, the words are vibrant and powerful. This suggests that Louis has a deep inner-life that is not connected to the outside world of her husband or friends. This can be seen Page 652 in the line when Kate says,”…she went away to her room alone.” The fact that she cloisters herself in her room to discover her feelings is important. The world outside of her own bedroom is only minimally described, but the world inside of her mind is lively and well described by the narrator.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “ The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard, who learns that her just died in an accident. As I continued to read the story I learned that Mrs. Mallard, was not your ordinary grieving widow, she is actually somewhat happy of the news of her husband’s death. Chopin uses symbolism and irony to show readers the world through Mrs. Mallard’s eyes. Symbolism was a strong term in the story, mainly because Chopin uses symbols in many of her paragraphs. Also the author uses irony to get readers to understand why she is so happy that she is free of her husband. The two literary elements that are prevalent in the story is symbolism and irony because Chopin uses them the most to create different feelings in the readers’ minds.…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I think the reason Kate Chopin’s reason for writing this story was to make the reader understand what it's like losing a loved one in a tragic accident, and the conflicts that come along with it. Like for example on the second paragraph it says “she did not hear the same story as many women have heard the same” i think that means there was some rumours going around and the story of her husband's death wasn't exactly being told right. I guess they had to tell Ms Mallard a different way about her husband's death because she had heart problems and they did not want her to get even more sick. Kate then goes on to explain the aftermath of being told the horrible news. She explains all the exact feelings and pain ms mallard feels. She actually explains in great detail, as if she knew what it's like. It can also be a personal conflict she's been through, or someone she knows…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Story of an Hour

    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” she uses different kinds of literary elements to clearly define her story and to show all of the meanings behind what happens in the story. There are many different kinds of literary elements used in this short story but I believe the most important one is irony. Irony is what she used the most throughout the story all the way into the conclusion which was by the far what gave the story a tragic and ironic ending. If she did not use all of the literary elements that were used in this story then the story would not be a whole and it wouldn’t all come together and make sense. It would be more dull and completely uninteresting and confusing. The literary elements used in this short story help make it surprisingly unpredictable and help it all come together in the end. If you took irony out of the story then there would literally be no point to the story. It would just be a boring thing to read with an ending that’s predictable and dull. The only surprising thing to this story which gave it a little bit of livelihood was the ending and if that wasn’t such an ironic part of the story then this wouldn’t even be considered a short story it would just be two pages of dull reading.…

    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays