The Story of an Hour
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. The tribulations of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s marriage escalated through the feeling of love. Love seemed to be no longer a never-ending bond between the most important person in their life, but yet a chore, something they regretfully did everyday. “And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not-What did it matter!”(13) When told of the news or her husband’s death, Louise Mallard reacted in the only way she knew how; she completed her “job” as the wife by storming into tears and weeping in her sister’s arms. She felt no horror or shock, just grief that this person, this “friend”, had passed away. “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.”(12) The irony had finally creeped through into her life, her inexplicable and “sometimes” loving marriage had finally come to a sudden halt; Louise Mallard no longer had her dreadful job. The feeling of freedom, the feeling Louise Mallard never knew still existed warmed her body from head to toe. Although the news of someone’s husband dying would come as a complete shock to most, Mrs. Mallard looked upon this despairing moment as a time to finally set
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. The tribulations of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s marriage escalated through the feeling of love. Love seemed to be no longer a never-ending bond between the most important person in their life, but yet a chore, something they regretfully did everyday. “And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not-What did it matter!”(13) When told of the news or her husband’s death, Louise Mallard reacted in the only way she knew how; she completed her “job” as the wife by storming into tears and weeping in her sister’s arms. She felt no horror or shock, just grief that this person, this “friend”, had passed away. “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.”(12) The irony had finally creeped through into her life, her inexplicable and “sometimes” loving marriage had finally come to a sudden halt; Louise Mallard no longer had her dreadful job. The feeling of freedom, the feeling Louise Mallard never knew still existed warmed her body from head to toe. Although the news of someone’s husband dying would come as a complete shock to most, Mrs. Mallard looked upon this despairing moment as a time to finally set