The Story of an Hour is about a woman with a fragile heart, who is carefully informed of her husband Brently Mallard's death due to a railroad accident. As one reads the story, it is simple to believe that Mrs. Mallard weeps at the news of her husband’s death, for now she is a young widow who may have been deeply in love. However, there is much more depth and there are layers to the story that spark the question of how well one can truly know what another feels if one only knows a short part of the story. Mrs. Mallard maintains a façade of loving her husband, which is also perpetuated by the world view that a married couple loves each other. She is oppressed by her husband, whose “face…had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead”.
Wes Blake 9/11/2012 “Story of an Hour” In Kate Choplin’s, “Story of an Hour,” a woman, Mrs. Mallard, is told her husband has died in a railroad accident. The story then proceeds to tell the chain of events after hearing the news, ranging between if Mrs. Mallard loved her husband or not. Because of this one is to question whether or not she was happy with her marriage. I believe she was happy with her marriage because she was so upset over the news, she was able to recollect good memories of their relationship, and she was able to rid herself of the unpleasant memories of their marriage. First, Mrs. Mallard is totally destroyed by the news of her husband’s death.
She was filled with quick sorrow and then it slowly crept away. Sorrow forgotten for the moment Mallard was introduced and sought out with such imagery that made her seem to be mentally unstable. Learning that she did have heart trouble early on the news was broken to her with ease. Upon finding about her husband’s tragic death in a railroad accident, both his friends and her friends were there for moral support. Walking away Mrs. Mallard cries her way to a room in her home.
In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” she narrates Louise Mallard’s last dramatic hour of spiritual awakening in life. When Mrs. Mallard, who suffered from a weak heart, just heard the false news of her husband’s accidental death, she suddenly collapsed in her sister Josephine’s arms and wept so sadly. However, her spiritual awakening began after she locked herself in her own room upstairs. She motionlessly sank into a comfortable roomy armchair that faced an open window, and outside the open window was new spring life with “delicious breath of rain . .
Louise’s friend Richards heard about the accident and saw Brently Mallard’s name, Louise’s husband on a list of those who were killed. When Louise hears the news of her husband’s death she begins to cry and goes upstairs to be alone. While alone in her room with her own thought’s she sits and looks out her open window. At that moment Louise is filled with a peculiar emotion, she is sad about her husband death however at the same time feels a sense of freedom. She then begins to whisper to herself “free, free, free"!
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is about Louise Mallard, a heart diseased young woman, who recently learns the death of her husband in a train accident. Weeping like any typical housewife would do, she finally pulls her self together after a short while. Actualizing the facts she becomes overwhelmed with joy that she is now on her own, living an independent, and self-assured life. However her sudden dream comes to an end when Mr. Mallard barges into the front door. Louise's goals for her true self have dramatically fell short, as did her life.
Monika Jablonska Essay # 2, Eng. 201 The Story of an Hour In the "The Story of an Hour,'' by Kate Chopin we watch a women’s life suddenly changing over a very short period of time and it becomes something completely different. The life she had is gone, and self-consciousness steps in. Louise Mallard, devoted wife is informed that her husband was killed in a train accident. Her response is unusual because everyone expects her to be in grief after learning about her husband’s death but at the end we see that this is not the case in this story, and the theme of identity and selfhood, as well as role of women in marriage is shown.
Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour is a short story that covers and entails the excruciating pain that one hour of misunderstanding can do to a conflicted woman’s life. In the beginning of this short story, the main character, Louise Mallard has recently received the tragic news that her husband has been slaughter in a rail road accident that took his life. Mrs. Mallard, now widowed, immediately rushes to her bedroom to grief in the loss of her husband. Mrs. Mallard shows to be contemplating. After a while of grief and agony Mrs. Mallard, slowly, comes to a conclusion that makes her realize that she is no longer defined by her marriage.
Mrs. Mallard is said to have a trouble with her heart at the very start of the story. Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, felt it imperative that great care be taken when delivering the news of her husband’s death. Before Chopin tells us Mrs. Mallard’s reaction, she explains how the newly widowed woman feels by describing the world around her in detail, according to her view of it after the news. Seemingly overwhelmed by her husband’s sudden death she excuses herself and rushes to her bedroom, letting no one follow, where we see a different side of Mrs. Mallard. She at first seems broken by the news, but as she’s mourning, the reality of a life without her husband slowly starts to set in and her view appears to change, as she starts thinking in a socially disgraceful way.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin argues that Mrs. Mallard, who suffers from a heart problem, feels relief and freedom when told her that husband died in a train accident, but dies from a “joy that kills” upon seeing that her husband was very much alive. The emotional changes Mrs. Mallard experiences after learning of her husband’s death, and later seeing him alive, cause her sudden death. Mrs. Mallard falls apart emotionally when she finds out her husband was killed in a train accident. When Mrs. Mallard sits down and thinks about the death of her husband, she realizes she would be freer without him. The shock of seeing her husband alive after going through several emotional changes causes her to have a heart attack.
But later in the story we learn he had been far away from the accident, and did not even know there had been one. (338) Another ironic moment arouses in “The Story of an Hour” as great care is taken when Josephine, sister of Mrs. Mallard, gently breaks the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. When Mallard calms down, she goes to her room to be by herself to grieve the loss of her husband. It appeared to her sister and Mr. Richards that she was saddened by the news and wanted to be left alone. This would be a typical reaction after having lost a loved one.
“The Joy That Kills” Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin in my opinion is a great short story. It is mainly about a young woman, Mrs. Mallard, who is told of the death of her husband by a train wreck by her sister, Josephine, and Richard, her husband’s friend at the beginning of the story. She has heart problems and has been told the news of her husband’s death as gently as possible. At first, she seems okay with the news; she simply goes upstairs alone and sits in her room. She contemplates the news by looking out the window, and realizes how happy she can be now that her husband is dead.
On April 19, 1894, Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour,” a truly remarkable tale about a subdued wife’s vision of intending to live only for herself. Louise Mallard, who suffers from heart trouble, is gently told the news of her husband’s death in a railway-accident. She “wept at
Bently was supposed to have died in a train accident. Josephine, Louise Mallard’s sister, came to comfort her at the news of her husband’s death. The fourth character was Richards, a friend of Bently Mallard’s, was at the train station when the news came in about Bently’s death. Ms. Chopin opened the story by telling of Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble and the care that was needed to give her bad news. Immediately, a sense of fear began when reading that “great care was taken to break” the news (Chopin, 1894).
In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, a woman is tantalized by the loss of her husband, as announced by those dearest to her in her time of need. When she finally comes to terms with the fact, she comes to realize that there is some goodness in the bad news, and she begins to find freedom in her new life by herself. Just when she becomes enthusiastic with the idea of living a new life alone, her husband walks in the door, and was apparently nowhere near the accident that supposedly killed him, to which Mrs. Mallard, the woman protagonist in question, can’t handle and has a heart attack. A feminist critical analysis of this story reveals a depiction of a strongly patriarchal society through the author’s use of diction, an idea of oppression as expressed by the tone, as well as the concept of the position of the woman being elevated above that of the man.
Kate Chopin uses contrasts in ‘The Story of an Hour’ to reinforce her major points and give a better understanding of the theme to readers. “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who had a variation on her emotions when she thought she lost her husband. The story first starts off with the news of her husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist, first “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment”, but after she went into a room, she sat on “ a comfortable, roomy armchair” and saw “new spring life” and “patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” through the window. Even though the death of Mr. Mallard should have been a tragedy, she only had a little shock, not sadness.
A Woman Killed By The Dream of Freedom Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” is a beautifully put together tale in which she uses multiple elements to exemplify a woman's hidden desire for freedom. Mrs. Mallard a frail woman with a heart condition is gently told that her husband has passed away in a railroad accident. She grieves for a moment weeping with “sudden, wild abandonment (Chopin)” and then experiences immense joy because she is “Free! Body and soul free! (Chopin.
The Hidden Truth The main character is Mrs. Mallard, who has a heart condition. One day, Mr. Mallard's friend, Richards, learns that Mr. Mallard has died in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine tries to break the news to Mrs. Mallard softly because of her heart condition. Upon hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard begins weeping, a reaction that Chopin notes as different from most women, who would refuse to believe it. Mrs. Mallard soon locks herself in a room with a window, hurls herself into a large chair, and, sobbing, gazes out at the world bustling around her.
The story begins with Louis Mallard’s sister Josephine who informs her that her husband Brently was killed in a train wreck. Louis has a heart condition so Josephine must break the news to her very gently. Richards her husband’s
A Brief Moment of Freedom Kyla Poling ENG 125 Professor Heather AltfeldFisher August 13, 2011 A Brief Moment of Freedom In The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, we are introduced to Mrs. Mallard. We experience with her, death, joy and then death again as she discovers freedom. Mrs. Mallard is informed of her husband’s death in a railroad disaster. She struggles with the feelings she experiences of joy after a short period of grief. Mrs. Mallard then witnesses her husband walking through the front door of their home.