Although Mrs. Mallard loved her husband the overwhelming thought of a life without him brought about emotions that she had buried inside which was a sense of freedom. The theme of this story comes together as Mrs. Mallard descends to her room to be alone. Mrs. Mallard was a sickly women afflicted with heart trouble. Her ailment was known to her family and friends. When the word come down that her husband had been in a train accident and feared dead her family and friends knew to break the news to her as easily as they possibly could.
Mr. Mallard unfortunately has the advantage of the marriage and thinks he has the right to impose everything on his wife. However, that all seems to change when she hears about her husband. In the beginning of the story when she first discovers the news “she wept at once with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sisters arms” (Chopin 15). Also the first sentence of the story says “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 15). When just glancing over this you may think that in saying she has heart trouble, it is actually telling you she has heart disease or something close to it.
So every time Blanche gets sad or feels depressed she remembers her husband and hears the music. Blanche remembers her dead husband because she blames herself for his death. She blames herself because right before Allen committed suicide she told him that “he disgusts her.” She tells him that because she catches Allen with another man. At first she acts like it didn’t bother her and offers to go dancing but when they were dancing to the Polka music she tells him that he disgusts her and a moment after we hear a gun shot. Allen committed suicide because Blanche mentioned those words to him.
The narrator’s words give a great portrayal of the relationship between the false news and how Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts formed. The narrator explained how she didn’t take the news in the manner that others did, she was unable to grasp its terrifying impact. Then later explains how Mrs. Mallard tried to fight it but then embraced the excitement she was having about her husband’s death and what was to come for her (Chopin, 2011, para. 3 and para. 10-11).
Her short stories and novels were never really popular and thought to be banned because back then her topics about women, marriage, sexual desire, and suicide. After Kate Chopin’s death Daniel Rankin the first biography of her and after then did people start to recognize her talent and how far ahead she was with her writing. Her whole life Chopin searched for female spiritual emancipation, which she found and expressed in her writings. Independence is something everyone wants, no one likes to have to follow rules and feel like there owned. Louise was grieving and at the time she felt a joy from the feeling of independence, but she was afraid to show it for a while because she knows it’s not right to feel like that.
ENGL220 Assignment 1 MINJI KIM Setting in the late nineteenth century, Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour illustrates a woman’s emotional changes after she heard of her husband’s death. Although it is written long before and it is just a short portrayal of an emotional repression of a woman of that time, The Story of an Hour still is a thought-provoking story even for the contemporary readers. Louise, who has heart problem, is carefully told that her husband, Brently, is killed in a railroad accident. She goes upstairs to her room sobbing. Looking outside the open window, she feels the spring air, and suddenly feels the unexpected joy.
“The Story of an Hour” describes the series of emotions Louise Mallard is feeling after hearing of the death of her husband, who she believes has died in a railroad disaster. “The Story of an Hour” follows Mrs. Louise Mallard and an hour of her life, during which her husband has died in a railroad accident. Upon receiving the news, she seems to be thrown into a downward spiral of emotions mourning for his death. As she falls deeper into grief, little hints are revealed that her mourning is progressing into the joy of her freedom. Great care was taken to tell Louise Mallard, who has a heart problem, of her husband’s death, Brently Mallard, during a railroad disaster.
She seems to be relieved when she hears of her husband’s death. This feeling made her stop and think, but all she could say was “free, free, free!” (Chopin, 1894, para. 11). She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance (Chopin, 1894, para.3). Wanting to be alone, she goes to her room.
Reading Reflection: The Story of an Hour Reggie Parks ENG 125 Instructor Barbara Green July 21, 2014 Reading Reflection: The Story of an Hour The Story of an Hour written by Kate Chopin is the story of a woman’s response to the news of the death of her husband. The reader is warned at the start of this story that it was a very sensitive situation given the heart troubles of the main character. Upon hearing that her husband is dead, Mrs. Mallard reacts in a way that is not typical of most women whom experience an event such as this. She weeps; however, she also realizes that this tragedy sets her free. Above all else, she sees the freedom that is gained through this loss.
The imagery Kate Chopin depicted immediately took me back to the fateful day two years ago when I was notified of my own husband’s sudden death. At that point, I was drawn in by the similar situations and devoured the remainder of the story quickly. At first I was shocked by the feelings of release and freedom that Mrs. Mallard experienced after losing her husband. However, after reading the depiction of the repression she experienced and considering the time the story is set in her feelings became more understandable. The reader-response approach in my literary criticism of The Story of an Hour was the first approach that appealed to me due to the initial personal and emotional connection to the story however, after further evaluation I decided to use the formalist approach.