Interpretive Analysis of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin shows the author’s completely negative view of marriage as nothing more than a constraint and a misery. Chopin goes on to say that a woman is better off dead than married when the character, Louise Mallard, dies of heart disease upon seeing her husband is not dead at all. Heart disease, being the disease of marriage. Louise Mallard not only accepted Brently Mallard’s death, but burst into sudden, almost unexplainable weeping. This was possibly due to the fact that she was so overjoyed with the fact that she was her own person again, she could not control her emotions.
Mallard and her husband to me seem like she loved him but was not in love with him. The story talks about certain situations that she must live thought like the death of her husband. The reader would think that by hearing the news that Mr. Mallard had been killed, Mrs. Mallard would be upset and hurt, instead she felt liberated and free to live her live as she please. It seems that once she found out that her husband was dead that now she could finally live for herself establish her own identity. Mrs. Mallard cried but it was not tears of sorrow, it was tears of joy.
This gets Ms.Mallards weak heart flows blood pumps again which was previously unheard of because of her heart condition. She also realized the freedom she has gained from the passing of her husband can make a difference, pertaining to her becoming a new woman. When Ms. Mallard sees her husband that she thought was died in the beginning of the story, she becomes overwhelmed and she dies of a heart attack. It is cynical that the doctor states Ms. Mallard dies from a “happy
“The Story of an Hour” The beginning of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” presents a woman who is about to be told that her husband has been killed in a railroad disaster. Louise Mallard suffers from a heart condition so her sister and friends must break the news to her as delicately as possible. Immediately after hearing the shocking news, she reacts just as one would imagine by weeping as she ran off to her room alone. However, the reaction quickly shifts as with her husband’s passing she is overcome with joy as she realizes that she no longer has to live for anyone but herself. The open window that Louise gazes from is a key symbol which represents the freedom and opportunity that is now possible now that her husband has died.
The feeling, however, shifts because she begins to be happy about her husband’s death. She thinks she will be able to enjoy the freedom that she had lost in the marriage. Her hope is then ruined by the subsequent news of Mr. Mallard’s survival. The story describes the change of Mrs. Mallard’s reaction and emotion within a single hour. In the short fiction, Chopin explores her belief that marriage and freedom cannot exist together by using two powerful ironies: situational irony and dramatic irony.
Response Journal: “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin Quote: “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept is significance.” (197) Response: “The Story of an Hour,” a short story by Kate Chopin, is the story of one hour in her life, which although short-lived, brought her both comfort and sorrow. The story reflects her true feelings, during a time when conservative and orthodox conduct were expected. Upon the disclosure to Mrs. Mallard, that her husband has been killed in an accident, she bursts into tears. One assumes she is grief-stricken, and only further into the story, do we begin to realize that her tears are of joy and exhuberation. She is finally free from the restrictive clutches of her seemingly conventional marriage.
This quote proves that after finding out her husband was still alive, the dreams of being free was just wish full thinking, and even though no one really knew her true feelings the life of her husband is what ultimate despair for Mrs. Mallard. In conclusion, the different range of emotion was too much for Mrs. Mallard to endure. The death of her husband sent her to many different places in her mind. Having to control ones emotions has been something that very few people have ever been able to accomplish. Therefore, the range of emotions Mrs. Mallard experienced such as grief, a feeling of comfort, and despair is what finally killed
One side is that her husband’s death, she supposes to be sad, however, the other side is without her husband’s control, she could start her new life. She is afraid of adopt new life without her husband. “She said it over and over under her breath: ‘Free, free, free!” she comfort and encourage herself to meet new life. In the end of the story, Chopin writes that Brently Mallard still alive and Mrs. Mallard died because of the joy. It is so ironic that Mrs. Mallard only enjoys the joyful in her life only one hour.
She’s so angry about this that she can’t cry about it, although at some points she’s just trying to hold it in. She is in complete disbelief that john is dead “I saw him yesterday… don’t be stupid”. This is a very intense moment in the book, she has lost someone very close to her, and she doesn’t know how to handle it. The intense moment is when she finds out that he has passed away. What she goes through opens her eyes to realise how much life is worth
She would no longer have to live for him nor anyone else, only herself. As the day approaches night, a dear friend of her husband’s walks through the door and behind him her dead husband. She collapses right there at the bottom of the stairwell. The doctors said she had died of “heart disease-a joy that kills” (par 23). Although it may seem as the thought of her husband dying brought her joy, it was actually the desire to live for herself, which brought her