(Clugston, 2010) Upon receiving news about the death of her husband, Mrs. Millard struggles with unpredictable emotions and shows moderate reaction towards her husband death. She isolates herself from friends and family as well as, shows signs of psychological abuse. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment in her sister arm” “When the storm was over she went away to her room alone’. (Clugston, 2010) Kate then takes the reader on a journey and provides specific symbolic tools enabling the reader to take a deeper look in the thought of Mrs. Millard’s repressed issues, “Except, when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams”. (Clugston, 2010) In the paraphrase, one can begin to observe the symbolic connection between manifestation and reality.
Is marriage a prison? According to Kate Chopin, the answer is – yes; marriage is a prison in which freedom does not exist. In 1894, Kate Chopin wrote and published “Story of an Hour.” The story takes place in the late nineteenth century in an American home, where Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist, heard about the news of her husband’s death from her sister. In the beginning, Mrs. Mallards felt sad about her husband’s death. The feeling, however, shifts because she begins to be happy about her husband’s death.
Richards tried to shield Mrs. Mallard from seeing her husband except it was too late. Once Mrs. Mallard laid eyes on whom she believed to be her late husband she collapsed and died. (Chopin 1894) When the doctor had seen Mrs. Mallard he said “she died of heart disease-of joy that kills." (139) it was assumed that she was so happy her husband was alive and she died from the shock. When in fact were the opposite it was her husband being alive and the thought of giving up her new found freedom and becoming repressed again?
Although she dreads this inevitable scene, it quickly vanished from her mind as she is filled with positive thoughts of a new beginning. She is described as: opening her arms and welcoming the many years that would belong to her absolutely. This character development gives great clarity to the dysfunctional and unhealthy marriage between Louise and Brently Mallard. Audiences are lead to believe that the existing heart condition endured by Mrs. Mallard is symbolic of a dreaded lifestyle that she is anxious to escape. The setting of this story remains consistent taking place mainly in Mrs. mallard’s upstairs bedroom.
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
Chopin describes Louise as not perceiving her husband's death as society expected her to, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance" (Chopin, 1894). Chopin showed Louise's short-lived grief of her husband's death as, "[s]he wept with sudden wild abandonment, and when the storm of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room alone"( Chopin, 1894, para.3). Louise openly showed grief, but retreated to her room to be alone to hide her true feelings. Kate Chopin used imagery and the senses of sight, sound, and smell to describe how Louise started to come alive; she could see "[t]he tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life and the clouds with patches of blue sky." She heard "[t]he sounds of a peddler calling out his wares from the streets below, a distant song of someone singing faintly, and sparrows twittering in the eaves."
The Story of an Hour Essay The character of focus in the “ The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard, is described as a young, innocent women with a newly found inner-happiness and sense of freedom as a result of the death of her husband and the end of her demanding marriage. Kate Chopin uses symbolism and irony to develop the character of Louise Mallard throughout the short story. Included within the short story is symbolism, mostly dark due to the death of her husband. The symbolism shows the feelings of the character, her mood, and it foreshadows future events. For example, heart trouble is symbolic for love pain.
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.
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.
Ironically Reality of “The Story of an Hour” In Kate Chopin’s story “The Story of an Hour”, describe after Mrs. Marllard hear her sister told her that her husband’s death, her psychological changes in an hour. Instead of becomes extreme sadness, she experiences the joyful of the life. This character is struggling with herself, whether or not accept the new life. The detail where “her bosom rose and fell tumultuously” (par.9), is more than just a feeling, this establish the outcome, which is the death of Mrs. Mallard. This story use ironic writing technique to describe Mrs. Mallard’s mental change.