The Story of an Hour
The Story of an Hour
Terry Bonifas
Rasmussen College
Author Note This essay is being submitted on April 27, 2014, for Rebecca Moore’s G230 Introduction to Literature course.
The Story of an Hour "The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, interprets the liberation of subjugation and a despondent marriage. The nineteenth century setting is that of a man’s world. The general plot of “Story of an Hour” symbolic of anticipation of possibilities for women abiding the tyrannical impact of a male- controlled society. For Louise Mallard she had a fitful response when she learned that her husband has been supposedly killed in a train mishap. She confines herself in her room and sits in front of the window in isolation. She begins to muse about life without her husband. Commencing with distress, Louise slowly converts to joy. “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin, n.d.). Louise knew that the normal response was to grieve the death of her husband, but deep within her new found liberation procures. Decisively she imagines living for herself and achieving things she had yearned to accomplish. Louise does not see this as adversity but as an opportunity, another endeavor at life. Compelling belief of freedom ends in dismay when Brently Mallard arrives at the door, alive and well. “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey.” (Chopin, n.d.) Profound freedom was merely reverie. Ironically her disarray of emotions ultimately led to her death. Louise dying of simple “heart disease” reveals that her emotional agony was internal. The theme in “The Story of an Hour” is the role of men and women in the 19th century. Life was male dominated, with women being prisoners of their husbands. In the story Louise Mallard is jubilant that she would no longer have to stoop to the desires of her husband. There is one primary conflict in “The Story of an Hour”. The conflict is internal and one of freedom versus the imprisonment of the
Terry Bonifas
Rasmussen College
Author Note This essay is being submitted on April 27, 2014, for Rebecca Moore’s G230 Introduction to Literature course.
The Story of an Hour "The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, interprets the liberation of subjugation and a despondent marriage. The nineteenth century setting is that of a man’s world. The general plot of “Story of an Hour” symbolic of anticipation of possibilities for women abiding the tyrannical impact of a male- controlled society. For Louise Mallard she had a fitful response when she learned that her husband has been supposedly killed in a train mishap. She confines herself in her room and sits in front of the window in isolation. She begins to muse about life without her husband. Commencing with distress, Louise slowly converts to joy. “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin, n.d.). Louise knew that the normal response was to grieve the death of her husband, but deep within her new found liberation procures. Decisively she imagines living for herself and achieving things she had yearned to accomplish. Louise does not see this as adversity but as an opportunity, another endeavor at life. Compelling belief of freedom ends in dismay when Brently Mallard arrives at the door, alive and well. “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey.” (Chopin, n.d.) Profound freedom was merely reverie. Ironically her disarray of emotions ultimately led to her death. Louise dying of simple “heart disease” reveals that her emotional agony was internal. The theme in “The Story of an Hour” is the role of men and women in the 19th century. Life was male dominated, with women being prisoners of their husbands. In the story Louise Mallard is jubilant that she would no longer have to stoop to the desires of her husband. There is one primary conflict in “The Story of an Hour”. The conflict is internal and one of freedom versus the imprisonment of the