Louise's Isolation

In “The Story of an Hour,” the author, Kate Chopin, places several literary writing elements into her short story. However, one of the most prominent would be the character analysis of Louise Mallard, the story’s protagonist. Kate Chopin uses situations and events throughout the story to mold the emotions and thoughts of Mrs. Louise Mallard. Despite the eighteenth century’s idea that women should willingly give up their lives for their husbands, Louise’s mindset after hearing of her husband’s passing shows otherwise. Moreover, Mavis Chia-Chieh Tseng wrote an analysis of Mrs. Louise and concluded, “after hearing the news of her husband’s untimely passing, the protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is grief-stricken at first, but soon other thoughts creep into her mind” (29). This statement validates the belief that Louise Mallard responds differently than people, such as her sister Josephine, would expect her to react in the unfortunate situation that has been placed upon her. Kate Chopin portrays Louise Mallard’s character as a strong and independent, yet deeply troubled woman struggling to live in an unhappy and restricting marriage during the late eighteenth century, when women had little to no personal freedom.

Throughout her life she had looked out that open window and longed for freedom, and now she could finally feel it. In the story Chopin explains, “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. Yet she is trapped inside, like women they see the beauty of freedom but the house is who they have no choice but to be” (1). Again Chopin relates the house to women during this time, comparing the house to the identity of the woman. Women have no choice but to be the house because divorce is not an option.

Louise Mallard is the protagonist of Kate Chopin's, 1984, short story, “Story of an Hour”. An intelligent, independent lady, Louise comprehends the right path for women to carry on, yet her thoughts and emotions definitely do not immediately mirror the path. At the point when her sister informs her that Brently, her husband, has passed on, she reacts with guilt and grief. Louise’s vicious response quickly demonstrates that she is a passionate, decisive lady. She realizes that she should weep for Brently and dread for her own certain future. However, rather she feels delight at her newly discovered autonomy. Louise is not unsympathetic and realizes that she will feel sadness for her husband. Louise isolates herself, performing her own type of self-cooping.

In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour,” Louise privately imagines the forbidden pleasure of independence. When Louise’s sister Josephine informs her of her husband Brently’s death, she reacts with violent grief. Once alone however, Louise realizes that she is now an independent woman and it excites her. As time passes, Louise begins to pray that this new independent lifestyle lasts forever. However, when Brently unexpectedly returns from a trip, this newfound freedom disappears and leads to Louise’s untimely death. A major theme in this short story is the idea of the forbidden joy of independence which Louise briefly experiences. Throughout several excerpts of this short story, the joy of independence possess Louise and gives

One of Kate Chopin’s most famous works of art is “The Story of an Hour.” Chopin was born into a high society family, and her personal experiences help her shape the story of the main character, Louise Mallard. Friends and family of Louise Mallard were very cautious when telling her the news about her husband, Brently Mallard’s, death because of Mrs. Mallard’s heart troubles. Louise suffers from heart troubles, as well as a troubled heart that stems from the unhappiness in her marriage. Which is why when Louise originally hears the news about her husband’s passing, she weeps and mourns for him, however she begins to realize that death is her way to freedom.

In “The Story of an Hour” the main character Louise Mallard suffers from a bad heart, but otherwise, she is young and cute. Louise learned from family members that her husband had just been killed in a railroad disaster. As she grieves alone in her upstairs bedroom, she suddenly is hit with new emotions. She realizes that she did love her husband and he loved her, but what she wants more than anything is to be free. Free to go and do as she pleases without anyone watching over her. Later

The purpose of Chopin’s story is to inform readers about the reality of marriage. The author writes in a woman’s perspective because often in marriages women are inferior to their husbands. She uses a woman’s point of view to allow readers to visualize what being married and possibly being a housewife would be like. Louise, the main character, loved her husband and was happily married to him. One day, she learned he had died, and realized that she was not actually happy being married.

The beginning of the story sets the theme for the whole story. We are told about the heart condition that inflicts Louise. This is significant throughout the story. The heart condition is a symbolic way of describing her thoughts of oppression she felt about her marriage. She was trapped and isolated by the marriage. She felt the need to hide these feelings. Women of her era were supposed to be home and under their husbands command. The story has her going through this journey privately. That is significant in the fact that now in her husband’s passing, she will be alone. She will need to work through things by herself. She will be able to go through the whole process on her own, without being judged and persuaded to feel differently.

“The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin, depicts an emotionally imprisoned widow that finds freedom in her husband’s death through the use of imagery that describes the present, her future, and grief. Louise learns of her husband’s death from her sister. As she isolates herself from her family, she sees “the delicious breath of rain was in the air”. “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.”

“The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin is a story about Louise Mallard, who finds out that her husband is potentially dead. When Louise is given the news she weeps. When she stops crying she goes to her room alone and sits staring out the window. She realizes the freedom that comes with her husband's death and plans out her long life in freedom. After her moment of realization in her room, someone is at the door, it is her husband. In her response of her husband being alive, Louise she dies at that moment. Chopin uses setting and third person omniscient point of view to show women's inherent oppression in marriage.

Kate Chopin is the author of many short-stories and novels. Her short story, “The Story of an Hour,” is about a woman named Mrs. Louise Mallard with a fragile heart that suddenly and unexpectedly loses her husband in a train accident. Throughout the story, Mrs. Mallard learns to embrace the accident because for her it meant she finally obtained freedom from her demanding life that she has been wanting to break away from. Freedom and independence is one of the themes of “The Story of an Hour” and appears in the story when Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband is in a train accident, when she secludes herself from everyone in her room, and when she learns that her husband is actually alive.

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin represents one incredible hour in the life of Mrs. Louise Mallard. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mallard suffers from a serious heart problem that could have her killed with any sudden shock. As severe this heart problem was, its caused her sister, Josephine and her husband, Brently to protect and watch over her every move. Not letting her be free and the person she really is. The marriage between Louise and Brently was not an unhappy marriage.

Chopin showed how she lived in the true sense of the world wanting to be free, with the passion, ambition and joy, for one hour only to be leading up to death. In my opinion, the theme of "The story of an hour" is that women that lived a hundred years ago didn’t feel free because, in these times men ran the show no questions asked. As women in this time period they felt lower because of the necessary stuff needed done around the house and they never really had a say in what was to be changed or what was to happen in the future.. Another possible theme is the irony of fate, since Louise’s dreams eventually took a wrong turn and turned out to become her

In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” reader’s see a potentially long story put into a few pages filled with rising action, climax and even death. In the beginning of the story, character Louise Mallard, who has a heart condition, is told of the death of her husband by her sister and one of her husband’s friends. Afterwards Mrs. Mallard is filled with emptiness and then joy of freedom. This joy of freedom is actually what consequently leads to her death in the end when she discovers her husband is really not dead. In “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard’s death is a result of her joy in freedom from her marriage rather than the joy of seeing her husband alive.

The symbols and imagery used by Kate Chopin's in “The Story of an Hour” give the reader a sense of Mrs. Mallard’s new life appearing before her through her view of an “open window” (para. 4). Louise Mallard experiences what most individuals long for throughout their lives; freedom and happiness. By spending an hour in a “comfortable, roomy armchair” (para.4) in front of an open window, she undergoes a transformation that makes her understand the importance of her freedom. The author's use of Spring time imagery also creates a sense of renewal that captures the author's idea that Mrs. Mallard was set free after the news of her husband's death.