Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is the story of a woman who does not experience typical grief over the death of her husband. This is a modern short story for many reasons, such as the ones we discussed in class. The emphasis on subtle characterization, implying of facts and psychological truths, emphasis on revelation, and dramatic irony are four elements that remain prominent throughout the story. The whole short story shows subtle characterization as opposed to a fast-paced plot. Mrs. Mallard is deemed a sensitive person when the story opens with, “..., great care was taken to break to her [Mrs. Mallard] as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.”

Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour,” emotionally illustrates the hour in which a young woman with a heart condition finds out her husband has been killed in a mining accident. In the beginning, she grieves over the loss of her husband, but she soon becomes relieved and joyous when she realizes that she is now free. However, her husband returns after having been far from the mines for the day and her heart problems return and she dies. Kate Chopin was an early feminist author and was well acquainted with death after losing many siblings as a child, her husband (who left her a large amount of debt), and her mother with whom she was very close. As a means of therapy, Chopin took up writing and her ideas about feminism and death are very clear. In “The Story of An Hour,” Chopin uses multiple symbols and an allusion to a Greek god to illustrate and support the idea that male oppression harms the souls and lives of women.

Mrs. Mallard displays a sense of shock at first and disbelief as it is described by, “She did not 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, in her sister’s arms.” Following with, “When the storm of

“The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin about how she portrays marriage in the late 19th century. Josephine the main character sister is the one who breaks the news to Louise Mallard about her husband death. Like most women who find out about their husbands death usually go through stages of grief over a matter of time but in this story Louise went through all of them in a matter of an hour. Finally, feeling a sense of freedom, walks in her husband, Brently Mallard. In “The Story of an Hour” Chopin uses point of view, imagery, and irony to show how marriage can make a woman feel so trapped that the only escape or hope is death.

On the other hand, the open window that Mrs. Mallard looked out of was the representation of her freedom to starting a new life. She is was excited to see her freedom out the window she could smell,” the delicious breath of rain”(720). Which symbolic to the calming sensation knowing soon the sunshine will come. She officially had control of what she wanted in life so she felt as if, “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own”(721). The spring is a representation of how beautiful change is and how warm weather brings happiness. Also, is a representation of new life that also comes out during the spring time. The window is providing Mrs. Mallard with a dream of her own her road to official independence.”There would be no one to live for her during those

In “The Story of an Hour,” one of the messages about marriage that is trying to be sent is that the system of marriage itself, not the husband, does women wrong. The narrator shows that Louis crying at the news of her husband’s death, “with sudden, wild abandonment” (169). The word “wild” implies a sense of nature and that her initial reaction was instinctual and natural. Such a reaction is normal towards a husband who has been very loving of Louis as far as the narrator reveals. Although remorseful in front of others in public, Louis feels very happy in private. Louis feels liberated that she is no longer held in bondage to her husband, but still feels depressed as she is

For different circumstances, some may feel the need to conceal what they truly feel inside. Some may do this to fit into the norms of society or as to not become an outcast. An internal conflict with identity is the protagonist in, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, Louise and “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. In “The Story of an Hour” which took place in the late 1800s, Louise known for having heart trouble believes her husband has tragically died in a railroad accident and is secretly relieved with her newly found freedom. However, once she finds out that her husband is alive, Louise passes away from the shock of having her freedom stripped as fast as it was given to her.

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.

“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.

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

Tabitha D. Brooks English 102 Professor Kalwa Comparison/Contrast Short Stories February 24, 2016 The Oppression of Main Characters: Examined By Chopin and Faulkner Short stories have diverse beginnings with insightful endings. The authors of short stories tend to create suspense and give readers trigger endings in just few pages of their writing. They also use ironic statements to project their characters feeling and emotion.

In Mark Twain words, “Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination”, Being sane is defined as someone who is rational and behaves normal. In the selection “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Miss. Emily is seen as someone who lacks sanity and is portrayed as an insane woman, but content with her introverted life. On the other hand, we have Mrs. Mallard from “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, who is a married woman but she lacks true happiness in her life. These two selections show that rationality and happiness is an impossible thing to achieve in a world where women are oppressed and beneath men. Secrets are held deep inside them, and in the end no one knows the truth behind them. Furthermore, both of these women shared a common origin of their problem; however, their outlook on life, their actions, and their surroundings are

In the short story “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin the plot is straight forward and in chronological order. The story begins with the exposition where the readers are introduced to all of the characters within the first two paragraphs of the story. The story is set in motion from the jump in the second paragraph the readers are presented with the conflict of the story. For example, when the narrator tells us that “great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (201). The first sentence doesn’t only tell us what the main conflict of the story is going to be, but it is also is a plot device.

Mrs. Mallard, the main character, desires the freedom to explore the world on her own. At the beginning of the story we learn that Mrs. Mallard, who is fragile at the time, has heart conduction. Because of this heart problem great care is taken to tell the news gently that her husband died in a train accident. Mrs. Mallard first reaction was to weep with abandonment. This shows that she was truly sad that her husband was gone and the life she has known up to now is changing in a blink of an eye. As said by Mustafa Asian, Mrs. Mallard feels a sense of “sorrow” because her husband was the only one she had and as a couple they were “interdependent” on each other. (Mustafa) There was true sadness at this point of the story therefore readers can see that Mrs. Mallard’s marriage wasn’t horrible. As she goes to her room to grief she sits in a chair and stares out a window. This window is very symbolic because things are now opening to her, her life is about to open up, and her mind is about to open to new ideas. She finally realizes she should form a more “novel” life within herself. (Mustafa) Now that her husband is gone there are new opportunities ahead of her. While she is looking outside the window she hears birds, she sees the blue sky, and a lot more positive imagery. Winter has left and spring has arrived. The death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband is represented by winter and spring is her sense of freedom she feels. This shows

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.