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Mallard felt, and her change in identity by her role as a women in the 1800 's. Kate Chopin does a wonderful job at really showing the audience what is going on in Mrs. Mallards mind. Her optimism is very quickly changed by a brief session at the window, then quickly ripped away by a glance at the door. Chopin stating that Mrs. Mallard had heart problems proposed more than just a delicate telling of the death of her husband. It became much more than that. Even much more than what Josephine, Brently, and the doctors thought. Although this story seems very interesting and new to us it was far to familiar to women in the 19th century. Chopin used the gloomy wording and gave out the saddening feeling to help you understand the true context of the story. Now what just seemed like a short story, has so much meaning behind…
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Mallard receiving the troubling news of her husbands' sudden death from a railroad accident. The use of symbolism is made through connections with nature. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring of life" (Chopin). Mrs. Mallard begins to experience a sensation of a new being. What is expected of her reaction is that of deep sorrow and regret, but in direct contrast, she is reborn. "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully she felt it creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air" (Chopin). What was finally coming to her was her deserved freedom. She was no longer Mrs. Mallard, but her own individual. She would finally be able to "live for herself spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own" (Chopin). Unfortunately, the news of her husband's accident was in itself an accident. In the end of the story, her husband walks through the front door, and in the process Mrs. Mallard "had died of heart disease- of joy that kills"…
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In “Story of an Hour,” Chopin explains that a train accident has occurred and the husband was on the train and has died. Consequently, Chopin states “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” (2). This makes it clear that after she finds out that her husband is dead she is extremely excited to finally be free from her husband. Also, “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her” (1). During this part of the story, Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room so that she can achieve the physical and mental state she desires. It is believed that she wants to be alone so that she can “grieve” by herself but instead of grieving she celebrates finally having freedom and having the ability to do anything that she wants without the fear of her husband getting on to her. Also, Mrs. Mallard does not want to get lost in the crowd of the people downstairs that are actually grieving because then she may feel the need to feel sorry and began to grieve even though she has made it clear that she is not upset. She is glad to finally be free from the male dominance of her…
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At this time, Mrs. Mallard is overcome with joy from this idea of being free. She had not yet actually experienced the freedom but it was so close that she could taste it. I believe this is why Chopin chose an open window as a symbol. An open window is like an opportunity. You can see the blissful future that lies ahead but you have to leave your confines and go beyond the window in order to reach it. This is what Chopin meant when she wrote “No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window”. Mrs. Mallard realized that her husband actually made her miserable because he ultimately had control over her: “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature”. Mallard even clarifies that while she had sometimes loved her husband, it was not usually the case. However, since he was now dead, Mrs. Mallard would be free to live her life as she pleased. In the end, Mrs. Mallard never does make it beyond that open…
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Mallard does acknowledge that she will cry at her husband’s funeral when she sees his “face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead” (Chopin 129). In the same paragraph she also acknowledge the future “that would belong to her absolutely” which she welcomed with arms wide open (129). This paragraph can give insight into two different perspectives, one perspective is that Mrs. Mallard is “arguing her case for the right to feel liberated” (qtd. in Evans, “Story” 99). She is arguing that she will remember her husband’s kindness before she indulges in her new found independence and bright future found from her husband’s death. On the other hand, this paragraph can also suggest yet another internal conflict “between competing perspectives within her own mind” (98). One part of her conflicting mind can be understood through words such as “tender hands” (Chopin 129) and “face that had never looked save with love upon her” which suggest she was contempt with her married life (qtd. in Evans, “Story” 98). The other part of her mind was gently introduced with “transition” (98) words such as “fixed and gray and dead” (Chopin 129). This part of her mind is the new single Louise Mallard, her real name, that is excited for the “years to come that would belong to her absolutely”…
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Imagine living in a world with no independence. Imagine that in this world, none of your beliefs mattered and everything that you had to say was being oppressed. Then one day this oppression was gone, and you were given freedom to do and say whatever you wanted. You find out at the end of the day that the feeling of being free was only temporary. How would you feel? In the short story, “Story of an Hour,” written by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard is this person living in this oppressed world that is known as marriage. The theme of "The Story of an Hour" is the joy of independence, and the joy of being free, despite the circumstances.…
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Kate Chopin was a novelist and American short story writer. In 1894, Chopin wrote a particularly intriguing short story, The Story of an Hour, about a woman who was trying to escape society’s judgemental image of women. In Chopin’s story, Louise Mallard, the protagonist, feels distressed and restricted because of the expectations society holds for women as subordinate to men. When the protagonist’s husband supposedly dies, Louise finally feels free to make life choices independently and not have to conform to how society wants her to be. Although Chopin’s description of freedom is the freedom for Louise to be independent and think individually, her idea of freedom from society's expectations and stereotypes connects to Douglass and his story. Freedom from society’s view on the privileges that people have and how they live their lives is one theme that unifies Chopin and Douglass’ thought-provoking stories and also is constant “living theme” in my…
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The author immediately starts off by mentioning Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble, which could symbolize her unhappy marriage. Chopin also tells of how Mrs. Mallard doesn’t take the bad news of her husband’s death as most women would, but, instead, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,” (page 1)…
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In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard is characterized as a fragile woman who suffered from heart problems. Kate Chopin writes, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death”(Chopin 1-2). When the news of her husband’s death was received, a family friend (Richard) and Mrs. Mallard’s sister (Josephine) were very gentle in the way they broke the news to her because of her heart condition. After the news was broken to her, it seemed she would act to her husband’s death in an ordinary way “she wept once with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arm” (Chopin 9). This tells the readers that she is truly is sad about her husbands death. Mrs. Mallard has been so used to the women duties role in the marriage, the news of her husband’s death gave her an awestruck moment of shock. The life she has known up to now will drastically change and this scared her. After grieving with her sister, Mrs. Mallard went to her…
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Mallard was stuck in a marriage she wasn’t happy with. Although she loved Mr. Mallard, he was preventing her from being independent. This is seen after his “death” when Chopin writes, “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!”” (1). Mrs. Mallard, although still grieving, is ecstatic about her newly found freedom. She realizes her husband can no longer oppress her. Just as Mrs. Mallard is accepting her new found freedom, Mr. Mallard walks through the front door in perfect health. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- of joy that kills” (2). Ironically, the joy of her new found freedom is what caused her demise. The shock of her husband returning after the jubilation of his death was too much for her heart to handle. Although the shackles of her oppression were broken, her freedom was ripped away when he returned. This ultimately shows the futility of her freedom.…
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In the Deep South women were always known of as housewives. They were not given individual identities but rather a collective personality that all women possessed. Kate Chopin uses this theme of the individuality of women in all of her short stories and other writings. In The Story of An Hour, Chopin expresses this very well, using the character Louise Mallard. As in Chopin’s typical stories, Louise Mallard is a woman looking for her inner self and thinks she found it but goes through a hard time and attempts to overcome it while having a positive outlook on life. However, through her marriage she has been a patient, self-sacrificing, restless woman who believed she was given a chance to change her life around for the better, which ultimately led to her demise.…
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In the beginning of "The Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard is just a typical wife. It is not until she hears of her husband's death that she then simply becomes Louise, now an individual, no longer overshadowed by her husband. Following her husband's death, Louise feels she will no longer suffer a "powerful will bending her" (14), thus indicating she had lacked a voice in the marriage. Chopin clearly indicates this lack of freedom and individuality in Louise's marriage stating, "[. . .] that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature." (14). This statement reflects how men and women oppress each other, denying one another freedom and a sense of identity. This is in line with the common view that women lost their individuality because their, "legal existence had been extinguished by the status of marriage." (Robson). Next, we learn that Louise actually begins to accept, even enjoy the notion of a life by herself, as Chopin writes the years "that would belong to her absolutely [. . .] she would live for herself." (14). Louise would now be free, her own identity, with a renewed sense of self-assertion. "Free! Body and soul free!" (15). This newfound freedom is in effect a new motivation for Louise. Before experiencing such freedom, Louise was petrified of the thought of life being…
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In “The Story of an Hour,” a woman by the name of Mrs. Mallard recently hears of the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a gentle, frail woman who has heart trouble (Chopin). When she hears the news, Mrs. Mallard immediately reacts with sorrow and retreats to her room to think about what has happened. While she is brooding in her room, she thinks about how the death of her husband gives her freedom to do whatever she likes. The author states, “She had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (Chopin). Even though Mrs. Mallard was a very weak and frail person at the beginning of the story, just the thought of freedom liberates her from her sorrow and fills her with immense joy. Mrs. Mallard feel strong, as though she had eliminated her weakness and any self-doubt she had beforehand. However, the twist in the story is that Mrs. Mallard’s husband is actually alive. When her husband returns, her freedom and independence go straight out the door. As soon as Mrs. Mallard realizes this, she falls to the floor, stricken with a heart attack. Mrs. Mallard’s heart attack is a symbol for…
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<b><i>The desire for freedom is a similar aspect of the female protagonists Louise Mallard, Mathilde Loisel, and Emily Grierson.</b></i><br><br>In Kate Chopin's, "The Story of an Hour," Guy DE Maupassant's, "The Necklace," and William Faulkner's, "A Rose for Emily," the female protagonist's have a desire for freedom. The stories are about three women living in patriarchal societies. Each character longs for freedom in a different way, but because of the men in their lives they are unable to make their own life decisions.<br><br><br>In "The Story of an Hour," Louise Mallard is a repressed married woman that has a heart condition. The reaction to her husbands presumed death is a sign that she is unhappy. After hearing the tragic news she goes up stairs to her room and looks out an open window and notices "new spring life", "the delicious breath of rain", and "countless sparrows twittering in the eaves." As she looks out the window among the storm clouds, she stares at patches of blue sky. "It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought." Louise is not grieving over her dead husband or having negative thoughts about her future. She realizes that she will have freedom through her husbands death and whispers over and over, "free, free free!" Her unhappiness is not with her husband, it is with her ranking in society because she is a married woman. Becoming a widow is the only chance she has to gain the power, money, respect, and most importantly freedom.<br><br><br>Mathilde Loisel's chances for freedom are decreased because she comes from a middle-class family of clerks. "She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded by any rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry of Public Instructions." Mathilde feels her marriage is beneath her and that she is worthy of a richer more powerful man. Because Mathilde is of a middle class family, she…
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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.…
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