Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, was published over a century ago in 1894, but even with its age the story manages to be relevant in modern times. Upon first glance the short story is fleeting at only two pages in length and lasts for only an hour and due to this it could be seen as simple. This short story tells the tale of Louise Mallard, who has heart issues, learns from her sister Josephine that her husband, Brently Mallard was killed in train accident. Upon hearing this terrible news, she immediately started to cry before retreating to her room. In her room Louise Mallard goes through a profound awakening. Sometime later, Josephine goes and gets Louise from her room and upon going down the stairs; Louise is shocked to see her reportedly dead husband coming into their home. Mrs. Mallard suddenly dies, which doctors attributed to her heart troubles. Although at first this story seems simple, but surprisingly “The Story of an Hour” is a deep and symbolic story, full of irony and feminist themes of freedom and self awareness.…
There are many different tones, themes, characters, and symbolism in the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin explains the story of a negative view of marriage by showing the reader with a woman who is overjoyed that her husband has died, also the characters in the story itself goes through multiply changes from fear to depression to finally freedom. The lone character, who goes through the most change be far throughout the entire story is the main character Mrs. Louise Mallard. This transformation doesn’t just help change the character of Louise Mallard, further the themes of the story and solidify the tones that the author are trying to set for the story.…
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.…
A dynamic character is a major character in a work of fiction that encounters conflict and is changed by it. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the emotional pattern and thought process of Louise Mallard after she is informed of her husband’s death are explored. Over the course of the hour in which the story takes place Louise has a realization about the constraints she feels in her life and in her marriage. By delineating Louise as a flat and dynamic character, Chopin is able to convey her theme that real freedom is found in death.…
As the title puts it, “The Story of an Hour” is a story that happens in one hour. This story mostly revolves around one woman, Louis Mallard, who is used to develop many themes in the story. Some of the themes brought up have a different interpretation from what is normally known in the usual circumstances. The themes of freedom and death have been projected quite in a way that gives a reader another understanding different from what is already known. Other themes that are evidently seen are time, freedom and confinement, marriage and emotional regression. The title of the story also shows how so many things can happen within a single hour. In normal circumstances, death brings sorrow, grief, seclusion, guilt, and regrets, amongst other feelings depending on the course of death. In this story, death brings some of these feelings such as sorrow and grief. I argue however, that in this short story Kate Chopin uses death to demonstrate how death can not only cause pain and sadness but also bring joy, independence and freedom.…
Imagine a life where you are forced to live a certain way, without the opportunity to make your own decisions, having to live up to certain expectations, and living a life of oppression; this is exactly how Louise Mallard lives. Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour shows us how freedom is just a forbidden fruit, which Louise dares not to eat as long as her husband is alive and well. As we read through the story we see the emergence of independence as the central theme, and how the open window, Louise’s heart problems, and the beginning of spring symbolize the struggle Louise is faced with as she purses her newfound independence.…
Kate Chopin’s short story titled “The Story of An Hour” focuses on the life-changing events that transpire within an hour in the life of a certain Louise Mallard, before ultimately leading to her demise. The story begins as the news of her husband’s death is broken to Mrs. Mallard, with utmost care, as apparently she suffers from a heart disease.…
The same sense of freedom that Chopin expressed in "The Storm" applies to "Story of an Hour". Main character Louise Mallard is an elderly woman who has lost her husband. She is in a state of thought when she realizes her newfound freedom. She discovers that her marriage was a bondage and hopes for a long life to enjoy this new freedom. Her marriage seemed to have cast shadows on her happiness. In this time of thought, she focuses on her own feelings and indifference to her husband Brently Mallard. Even more so Louise is affected with her heart condition.…
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a short story that speaks wonders in its one thousand words. The unique reaction of Chopin’s character, Louise Mallard, to her husband’s supposed death and her resulting death upon seeing him walk through the door allows for various interpretations to be made by readers. Through the events and thoughts of Louise embodied in the story, Chopin implies the oppression and lack of independence in Louise’s marriage and the joyful freedom she is overcome with when she is led to believe that this confinement has been lifted off her shoulders. Through Louise's character and her specific feelings toward her own marriage, Chopin gives light into the oppression of marriage and its effects on our independence and self-assertiveness.…
The desire of freedom definitely comes with an immense price. In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin describes her main character, Louise Mallard, as a freedom seeking housewife, trapped in an unwanted marriage with her husband Brently Mallard. She soon after gets granted the gift of freedom when she finds out her husband had been in a train accident, which ironically Kate Chopin’s father died of the same tragic death. With Kate Chopin’s unique writing style, she has been a major influence in literature for decades. According to Feminist Writers, “she opened her 19th-century female readers’ eyes to a familiar world [they] had never know.” Authors S. Selina Jamil and Daniel P. Deneau both analyzed the story and gave their opinions on how the emotions of Louise affected internally and externally. With two different viewpoints on the short story, both authors provide valid points when scrutinizing the direct variation when it came to Louise’s motives. When reading “The Story of an Hour,” one is drawn into the troubling tale of Louise Ballard and how she reacts to her trying times as a thought to be widow. The ending throws the reader for a loop and is completely unexpected, but that’s Kate Chopin’s writing style. The story is unpredictable, enjoyable, and controversial, and definitely leaves the reader satisfied.…
Kate Chopin's thousand-word short story, “The Story of an Hour,” has understandably become a favorite selection for collections of short stories as well as for anthologies of American literature. Few other stories say so much in so few words. There has been, moreover, virtual critical agreement on what the story says: its heroine dies, ironically and tragically, just as she has been freed from a constricting marriage and has realized self-assertion as the deepest element of her being. Confidence in this interpretation, however, may be misplaced, for using the standard proposed for the story by Toth and Seyersted—“every detail contributes to the emotional impact”1—there is evidence of a deeper level of irony in the story which does not regard Louise Mallard as a heroine but as an immature egotist and a victim of her own extreme self-assertion. This self-assertion is achieved not by reflection but, on the contrary, by “a suspension of intelligent thought” masked as “illumination.” As a result, a pattern of basic contradictions and abnormal attitudes emerges which gives structure to the story and forecasts its conclusion. The key to recognizing this deeper, ironic level is to carefully distinguish between the story's narrator, author, and unreliable protagonist.…
Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” details the emotional process of a certain Louise Mallard as she copes with news of her husband's recent death. The story experiences a change of tone partway through, as it soon becomes clear that Mrs. Mallard, while initiatially shaken, is in fact elated by the news of her late husband's untimely demise. One can actually notice Mrs. Mallard's entire mood and outlook shift dramatically during the course of the story, as her true motivations come to light.…
In The Story of an Hour, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is given terrible news as she learns her husband has died in a train accident, to which she reacts in an unexpected way; instead of being heartbroken she feels happy, free and as if she has been born again, which is contrary to what any woman should feel were they in her position. The author of the story, Kate Chopin, takes the reader from one end to another when she gives hints on the protagonist's feelings before and after her husband's death, making the clearly identifiable statement that marriage is a way of oppression for women. Though Chopin never states this directly, she implies it when describing Mrs. Mallard and her behaviour, as well as when depicting the setting.…
Kate Chopin’s non-fiction work “The Story of An Hour” gives a detailed account of what Mrs. Mallard feels after heartbreak. Mrs. Mallard is inflicted with heart trouble as her husband dies. She feels there are freedoms and opportunities for her to take advantage of along with the grievance of her husband’s death. These complex issues are accounted for in her brief characterization of her last hour of life. Ironically her husband did not pass away, but she still creates a tragic ending.…
Many events can happen within an hour whether they be good or bad. However, nothing compares to the hour in which Louise Mallard experienced in Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of An Hour.” Chopin begins her story explaining that Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart condition; this information, later on, becomes very significant. The news of Brently Mallard’s death comes as a shock to Louise, and she is immediately overcome with sorrow and pain as she mourns her husband’s death. The majority of Chopin’s nineteenth-century short story takes place in the upstairs bedroom that Brently and Louise Mallard shared as a married couple.…