The Joy That Kills "The Story of an Hour" written in 1894 by Kate Chopin lives up to its name. It is a short story which raised lots of controversy after it was first published. This was because it revolved around a female protagonist who is relieved upon learning that her husband was dead. This raised heated debates in the 1890's. Kate Chopin uses tells her story while employing several motifs.
The Story of an Hour Chelsea Boehland Intro to literature Larry Holden (ABG1318K) 5/13/2013 The short story of “A Story of an hour” by Kate Chopin (1894) was about a woman with a heart condition hearing about an accident that took her husbands life. The tone of the story started out sad, you felt for Mrs. Mallard, the horrible sadness you feel when you lost a loved one. But the tone changes as Mrs. Mallard is sitting in her room, staring out the window, thinking to herself. It’s the sudden thrill of freedom in death that she sees. This is where the tone goes from sad to excitement, that she is free to live her life, without I assume her husband.
She begins to plan her future, in which, she will live without the burden of another person. Literary Element Tone The tone changes in a few different places throughout the story. Mrs. Mallard is fragile and weak in the beginning when she is told about the death of her husband. Then later, she becomes overcome with grief and goes upstairs to view the world through a window. She sits there and starts to plan her life being free with no one as a burden to her or her life.
In her story, “Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin depicts a woman’s temporary freedom and miserable death in an attempt to expose and criticize the reality in her times. The protagonist is described as if she is a possession of her husband in the beginning of the story which reveals that women could not live their own lives. For instance, the protagonist is referred to as “Mrs. Mallard” until after she undergoes a transformation and comes out of her room. Following husband’s surname after getting married is not questioned and perhaps something that is considered natural and a matter of course.
Another example Kate Chopin uses of dramatic irony is throughout the whole short story. The reader knows that Mrs. Mallards is glad about her husband’s death but her sister, Josephine, and her best friend, Richards, don’t. They think Mrs. Mallard is making herself sick when she locked herself in her
She wants to move out of this house and gets back her own life or thought. Although she has a mental depression at the end of the story, she finally recognized a power over a man, “so that I had to creep over him every time” (Gilman, 9). In contrast, Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” retrieves her own freedom after knowing the death of her husband. She first fears about her future as she has to live alone. But, she soon becomes aware of independence and she “felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air”.
What do you think about the idea of female emancipation in “THE STORY OF AN HOUR” explained through Mrs Mallard by Kate Chopin? When Mrs Mallard got to know that her husband is dead, the desire of emancipation get started in her. Mrs Mallard has a deep inner life that is not connected to the outside world of her husband or friends and the fact that she cloisters herself in her room to discover her feelings is important. The world outside of her own bedroom is only minimally described, but the world inside of her mind is lively and well described by the narrator. The numbness and non-reaction of Mrs Mallard, when she heard the news of her husband’s death shows the conflict with her husband.
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.
She lives the life of a prisoner without a way out. This passage related to the whole story basically sums it up, as in it being a very ironic, but very serious tone to it about women becoming equal in society. It’s an ironic statement due to the fact the author talks about the upcoming years and how she would be alone and have to fend for herself. Even though she is saddened by the loss of her husband, she embraces the new challenge with a sudden rush of euphoria due to
“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.