She mourned of her husband’s passing but as she went up the flight of stairs into her room, Mrs. Mallard came to realize of her newfound freedom. She soon relished her liberation from her marriage to her husband Brently. Such freedom was short-lived, and as she her eyes caught sight of her husband’s entrance into the house, her heart gave way and she died. The two women do indeed share some similarities, but also at the same time show various differences that make their respective situations unique. Among the similarities between Calixta and Mrs. Mallard are the conditions of their marriages around the time of the stories: Calixta to Bobinot and Mrs. Mallard with Brently Mallard.
The dramatic and situational irony found over and over throughout the text in both narrative content and style are what in effect finally show the reader this story is not to be taken at the narrator’s word: a husband and wife lease a mansion for the summer so she can ‘rest’ to cure her ‘nervous condition’; family and servants tend to her, her baby and her duties- while she quietly obsesses about wall paper. It is the ironic language Gilman uses to illustrate the dire consequences of misunderstood mental illness and the misused ‘rest cure’ that was popular at the time. The effect intensifies the story as we can appreciate the narrator’s experience from her disillusioned perspective. Initially we take the words as they come, and listen to the description of the colonial mansion, and her doting husband John. It doesn’t take long before things just ‘don’t seem to fit’, and it is within
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.
A good example of irony in this story is the fact that Mrs. Mallard died after she heard the news of her husband being dead. Although this is not funny like most ironic things it still is irony. Foreshadowing is a literary device to show or indicate beforehand. It is used in stories and movies with the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the piece of literature. In the short story by Kate Chopin shows foreshadowing in the first sentence making it really easy to identify.
The woman in the poem speaks of her life as though it were a chore and the man, her lover, is but a bother. In “Living in Sin” the speaker expresses their tone in the opening line “She had thought the studio would keep itself; no dust upon the furniture of love.” The speaker thought that moving in would be a fairytale like story for her lover and herself if they moved in together. She never guessed that she would actually have to take care of their home. It also makes the reader think that perhaps the speaker came from a wealthy or well off family where the speaker didn’t have to do the usual household chores. “Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal, the panes relieved of grime.” The speaker is not even up to cleaning windows on her own.
What could I say? I’m crying because I don’t know any of the dances?” Isabel also ends up sleeping with one of her bestfriend’s husband. Since she hasn’t had sex for awhile it was easy for her to fall into seduction. “And then he was in me and I was crying out, in pleasure… It was over and wrong… what would Liz say to me?” Besides the wrong she had done, Isabel is a good person at heart and tries to redeem herself by helping out the woman she hates most, Margaret Casey. “I had to cut myself off from the danger… Margaret had no manners.But I would help Margaret
In addition, we know she is fragile when we are told, “great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death”(Chopin 573). In my opinion, Louise’s marriage was bringing her down and making her character feel old. Again, I feel sympathy for Louise due to the struggles she had with herself and her marriage. Chopin portrays Louise as a prisoner of her husband. This was not strange at the time Chopin was writing the story.
The Story of an Hour As the title puts it, “The Story of an Hour” is a story that happens in one hour. This story mostly revolves around one woman, Louise Mallard. The story begins on a very sad note especially in the eyes of a reader. Mrs. Mallard is said to have a “heart trouble” (Chopin 1), so her sister Josephine felt that great care had to be taken when delivering the sad news of her husband Brently Mallard’s death. Upon the delivery of the news, she starts sobbing and grieving then goes to her room to be by herself.
Instead she is off being amused by careless things. Perhaps it wasn’t love that made him kill her but the embarrassment that she made him go through. The Murderer ties in with My Last Duchess in the same way because although this poem is very short, it is right to the point. Stevie Smith talks about how his love is taking her last breath and how she wasn’t like most girls which is why they had an accident. There is so many interpretations for this poem.
After she decides to end her life, she leaves a beautifully written letter to her husband expressing the way she felt about him. “I owe all the happiness of my life to you….I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been.” (Cunningham 7) For her to make sure that her husband is well aware that it is not his fault she committed suicide demonstrates how much love they truly have for one another. Virginia felt trapped and felt her only choice was to kill herself. However, it was not society or her husband she felt she needed to get away from but herself. Writing was her passion, writing was her life, and if she could no longer write she didn’t have a reason or desire to continue living.