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Story Of An Hour

Decent Essays

Critical Analysis Essay on “The Story of an Hour”

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” expresses an undesirable view of marriage in the 1800’s. Chopin’s story presents the reader with a woman named Louise, who is delighted at the news of her husband’s death. This emotion is conveyed through the dialect in the story used to describe Louise’s emotions as she falters between shock and extreme joy at her brand-new freedom. Chopin does a wonderful job of communicating what she distinguishes in simple writing style, but when Louise’s emotions are described, the words are powerful and exciting. For example “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” (pg. 498) With that sentence the narrator is able to convey the unimaginable …show more content…

Louis cannot feel free unless her husband is no longer in her world. It seems this condition only affects Louis’s heart and shows that her misery from this disease comes from something internal not external. For instance, in one of the quotes from the story, it is evident that her husband loved Louise when she describes his face as “the face that had never looked save with love upon her.” (pg. 499) Her own feelings of love in exchange are only slightly described and it is evident that she does not share her husband’s feelings. When Chopin describes Louise’s emotions concerning something she is excited about, her dialect becomes alive and full of energy. This contradicts the parts in which Louise seems emotionally unattached. For example, in one of Chopin’s quotes, which begins with a very simple statement “And yet she loved him—sometimes. Often she had not” (pg. 499) demonstrates emotional indifference, but as the paragraph continues and her true emotions come to the forefront, the dialect comes alive along with Louise. When her emotions become too much to bare, so do the sentences and dialect. “There would be no one to live for in those coming years; she would live for herself” (pg. 499). There are no exciting words, just an

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