Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

First off, the last name ‘Mallard’ is a symbolic feature considering that a mallard is a type of duck that is free to fly wherever it chooses, along with “countless sparrows” that “were twittering in the eaves” (476). Additionally, one will also notice that the seasons are changing and it is now spring time. Chopin states that Mrs. Mallard “could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (476). The season of spring symbolically represents a new beginning, something that Mrs. Mallard believes she has now obtained since at the time, she believes that her marriage is now over. In the end, with symbolism, Chopin manages to reveal to the reader that Mrs. Mallard feels like she is becoming unbound from a “powerful will” and “private will”(477) in which she connects to her marriage which means that in a underlying tone, Mrs. Mallard is feels restrained in her marriage.

Mallard as “young, with a fair, calm face…” (428) who is suffering from heart trouble. From the start, the readers are led to believe that Mrs. Mallard was going through emotional turmoil in her life, as it is scarce for a young woman to be facing heart issues.  The story is written in 1894, a time period where women had no right to vote and were expected to remain housewives. It is clear that Chopin is referring to Mrs. Mallard’s health issues as a result of her being overly limited by her husband. Chopin illustrates, “There would be no powerful will binding hers… men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (429). Mrs. Mallard realizes that the life she lived, with her husband controlling her and society dictating how she is supposed to act, was not the type of life she ever wanted. She understands her worth as a human being, and her rights to freedom and equality. This is shown when she echoes, “Free! Body and soul free!” (429). At the end of the story, the fear of losing her freedom and sense of self-worth is what causes Mrs. Mallard to die due to her already weakened heart, after seeing her husband

Mallard after her sister tells her the news of her husband is not the common reaction expected when someone suddenly dies. Her reaction quotes, “She did 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” (Chopin 653). This quote indicates the fact that she does not react the way that a spouse would when he or she’s spouse has passed and having the utter feeling of denial. Though uncertain of her own feelings, Chopin begins to describe Mrs. Mallard’s decaying thoughts of her former lifestyle into something more

Mrs. Mallard’s sister expected her to show grief about the death; however, Mrs. Mallard felt that her life seemed better without her husband and she could enjoy it. While Mrs. Mallard finally feels relief, she finds out that her husband did not actually die, this news caused Mrs. Mallard to die. People thought her death occurred due to over excitement, however she actually died because she no longer had freedom. Through these events, Chopin uses naturalistic conflicts to connect readers to Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard's physical limitations present a naturalistic conflict.

Mrs. Mallard is, outwardly, a typical woman in the 19th century with a husband, family, and home. It is first apparent that Mrs. Mallard is not satisfied with her role as a wife when she receives the news of her husband’s death and begins to feel a sensation of joy that overcomes her. The wife’s unhappiness with her married life is enhanced when the narrator states, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” (Chopin 16) The reader infers that Mrs. Mallard was figuratively suffocating under the duties and stereotypes a 19th century woman was subjected to, such as caring for a house and family instead of pursuing a career outside of the home. Mrs. Mallard views her husband’s death as an escape from her role and a chance to have control over her life and choices, showed when she whispers “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 16) In the final portion of the story Mrs. Mallard’s husband returns home, having never been in an accident, and she dies of what doctors determine is an overwhelming joy for seeing her husband alive. The reader infers that Mrs. Mallard has lost her chance of a new start and freedom from her role and dies of grief over her loss of freedom. The author contrasts Mrs. Mallard’s lack of control and freedom in her life to

Mrs. Mallard is now free and she feels a “monstrous joy” inside her. She welcomes this new freedom, arises, opens the door of her room, and “carries herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (Chopin 63) As Mrs. Mallard and her sister Josephine walked down the stairs, someone was opening the door. It was Mrs. Mallard's supposedly dead husband, Mr. Brently Mallard. Right at that moment, Mrs. Mallard has had a heart attack, and instantly died.

because she knows she has no one to live for, there will be no one forcing her to do anything that she doesn’t want. She develops the sense of independence and confidence before she dies of a heart failure. Kate Chopin tells how the character Mrs. Mallard`s feeling changes in the course of the story and how her general view of life changes in the aftermath of her husband`s death. Mrs. Mallard is a weak and dependent woman at the beginning of the story. But as the story progresses, she realizes how her husband’s death doesn’t mean the end of her life but rather the beginning of a new independent life in the years to come.

Mallard underwent a change when she came to the realization that she would no longer be under the control of her husband and was free. She began to think about all the time she would have to herself and “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 279). Her previous state of sadness and mourning over the loss of her husband diminished. However, her joyous outlook on her new life was short lived due to her death from her heart disease after she saw her husband, whom she thought was dead, walk through the door. This is an extremely drastic change for Mrs. Mallard because she went from being alive to being deceased.

(Chopin 202). She didn’t have a word on the marriage, which makes her think she wasn’t able to be her own self. Although she did love her husband, she got to thinking about all the possibilities of independence that were gained when he was out of her life. Life was better off alone, she didn’t need a man to live her life to the fullest. Chopin conveys Mrs. Mallard’s emotions when he says that she “yet loved him—sometimes.

Mallard’s emotions towards the “death” of her husband because of outside inspiration that took apart in her epiphany. When she first discovered her new emotions and did not know that they were tied to how she had felt in her marriage, she had questioned what she was actually feeling “What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (Chopin 476).The emotion that she had of the liberation her husbands “death” gave her was reaching out to her from the window and the forethought of a life where she lives as her own

Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” shows the theme of freedom (through the loss and gain of a husband) thought her work. The Story of an Hour, focuses on Mrs. Mallard gaining her freedom and losing it all within the hour. This transpires do to a misunderstanding after a train crash, where upon learning that her husband has died, Mrs. Mallard discovers that she may know live the life that she wishes to. Up until the point that Mr. Mallard walks through the door completely fine. Chopin use irony, symbolism and conflict to show how gaining freedom in any form and having it takin away can change one’s self.

Mallard had died from a heart disease “. . . of joy that kills . . .” (Chopin 23) The end of the story signifies a certain end of Mrs. Mallard’s struggle between life and death. Jamil argues that “At the sight of her husband she is at once profoundly aware of her newfound freedom and the fact that it will not last.

The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin is the tragic story of a woman whose newfound position as a widow gives her strength. She develops a sense of freedom as she embraces her husband's death as an opportunity to establish her own identity. The tragedy is when her newfound identity gets stripped away as the appearance of her husband reveals that he is still alive. The disappointment from this tragedy kills her with a heart attack symbolizing the many conflicts that she faced throughout the story. The conflicts the character faces within herself and society show that the social norms for women were suppressing to their strength and individuality as human beings.

I chose to do my analysis on the short story, “The Story Of An Hour”. The themes I see in this story is the quest for identity/coming of age, romantic/love, birth, and death. It is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard. She was an elderly lady and had a heart complications. Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards had to break the news to her that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard was sorrowful and sobbed in her sisters’ arms. After her grieving process, she wanted to be alone, so she went to her room and locked herself in. As she sat in the window, she seem to be calmer and accepted her husband’s death. She was not distressed of what had happened. She began to say the words “free” and her heart

In “The Story of an Hour” (1894), Kate Chopin presents a woman in the last hour of her life and the emotional and psychological changes that occur upon hearing of her husbands’ death. Chopin sends the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, on a roller coaster of emotional up’s and down’s, and self-actualizing psychological hairpin turns, which is all set in motion by the news of her husband’s death. This extreme “joy ride” comes to an abrupt and ultimately final halt for Mrs. Mallard when she sees her husband walk through the door unscathed. Chopin ends her short story ambiguously with the death of Mrs. Mallard, imploring her reader to determine the true cause of her death.