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Mallard accepted the news about her husband's death very graciously. She wept to her sister right away and locked herself up in her room after her grievance. Alone in her room, she saw life in a different perspective. She was now able to appreciate the beauty of life outside her window. A single sob made her realize something. It dawned upon her that she was finally free from her husband's subordination. Right there and then, she became overwhelmed with joy. Although she sometimes loved her husband, the idea that she would have nothing to live for but herself excited her tremendously. Upon savoring her newfound freedom, she even prayed that her life would be long even though just yesterday she dreaded that life would actually be long. She went out of the room with victory on her face. When she and her sister went downstairs, her alleged dead husband opened the door. Brently was shocked to hear Josephine's cry and Richards' futile attempt to block him from the view of Mrs. Mallard. It was too late for Mrs. Mallard saw her husband. The story ended with the idea that Mrs. Mallard was killed by a heart failure, "a joy that kills." On the contrary, Mrs. Mallard probably died of shock or extreme sadness upon learning that her husband was still alive. What she thought was her newfound...
She was just simply Mrs. Mallard while her husband's name, Brently Mallard, was mentioned right from the start. This depicted how women played an inferior role in Mrs. Mallard's society. She was subordinated to her husband. Her marriage was not a fulfilling one. She was a repressed woman who followed the dictates of not only her husband but her society as well. She had no freedom of her own. She was not free to choose. Her body and soul seemed alien to herself. That was why she experienced joy when she learned that her husband died in a train accident. All that joy was taken away from her when she saw her husband alive at the end of the story. Her only escape from her husband's tyrannical hold was her own death.
References
Kate Chopin's the Story of an Hour: A Big Story in a Small Space." ***.com. 2005. ***.com. 2 May, 2007 http://www.***.com/view.asp?id=6798.
Moramarco, Fred and Griswold, Jerry. "The Story of an Hour." English 220: An Introduction to Literature in an Age of Technology. 1996. San Diego State University. 2 May, 2007 http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/course/morgris/hour.html.
Kate Chopin "The Story Hour" 1) what impact story? 2) What? 3) What questions? 4)…. ID Summarize short stories by Kate Chopin "The Story of an Hour" In this story, the protagonist Mrs. Mallard is mistakenly informed that her husband died in a railway accident. Her first impulse, after being stunned by the shock of the event, is to celebrate that she is free. Like so many women of her class during
Story Of an Hour The story details the events of one hour during which a woman learns of her husband's death and is thinking of all that she would do now that she is free and at the end finds that he is alive and the death of her hope causes her own death. In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin has introduced a character, Mrs. Millard, who relishes the freedom after
Story Of an Hour: Theme and Narrative Elements In a way, Kate Chopin's short story, "Story of an Hour," deals with a variety of different issues that are still relevant to this day. It alludes to the repression of women, the fine line between life and death, as well as that between kindness and cruelty. Additionally, the author uses a variety of literary conventions to convey these different elements, which include
Story Of an Hour Kate Chopin was an American writer whose deeply feminist views often influenced her writing. In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin (1894) explores Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the news of her husband's death and the emotional rollercoaster that she experiences during the brief hour after she hears her husband has died and before she learns her husband is actually still alive. Chopin's (1894) "The Story of an
it's enough that her life will change dramatically for the better -- why does it need to be a supernatural or sexual experience as Deneau (2003) argues? And her depression has lifted, too, by the prospect of a complete life change: "Spring days and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only
Before this point, it feels that Louise is actually mourning the death of her husband: "She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat..." (p. 259) The author has indeed tried to give away Louise's Id even before this point of revelation but full blown discovery is made when Louise finally allows herself to rejoice