Conflict Between Exterior and Interior Life With Characters in 3 Short Stories

Conflict Between Exterior and Interior Life

Kate Chopin's "The story of an Hour" offers a story behind a story. First it can be noted that this talks about Mr. And Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard received a news that her husband has just died. This prompted for a roller coaster of emotions to build inside her heart and mind.

First, she felt sadness. She was saddened by the fact that she is now alone and that her husband will no longer be with her. But the feeling of sadness did not stay for long in Mrs. Mallard's heart because she suddenly realized that she is now free. The death of her husband would mean that nobody will hurt her anymore. Because her husband is dead, nobody will discriminate her anymore. Nobody will make her feel that she is just a low or second class citizen. Nobody will prevent her from doing what she wants and having what she likes. Needless to say, the death of her husband is synonymous to the idea that she has gained her freedom, hence she felt extreme excitement and happiness.

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they ahve a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him -- sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering" (Chopin, 1969)

This was not the end of the changing of emotions in Mrs. Mallard's case, because several minutes after she felt the happiness, Mr. Mallard entered the door. Naturally, Mrs. Mallard was shocked. She did not know what to feel by this time. Will she be happy knowing that her husband - the person whom she has lived for several years - is alive? Or would she feel distraught knowing that she has not yet gained her freedom after all?

What happens next was a bit of a shock for the expectators. Mrs. Mallard collapsed with her face showing signs of happiness. Mrs. Mallard did not stand anymore for that collapsed turned into her eventual death. The people who witnessed what had just happened thought that Mrs. Mallard died of happiness because her husband is found alive. Yes, it was true, she died because of happiness, not because her husband is alive after all, but because of the realization that death will provide her freedom.

When she abandoned herself] a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "Free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body." (Chopin, 1969)

This is the one of the best example of a big difference to what is perceived as the interior from what is seen in the exterior. Mrs. Mallard's physical reaction is perceived differently to what she was really feeling inside.

The much-anthologized "The Story of an Hour" is surely Kate Chopin's best-known piece of short fiction. Innumerable students, ranging from the very naive to the very sophisticated, must have grappled with the story in discussions and essays. As all readers should agree, Louise Mallard receives a great shock, goes through a rapid sequence of reactions, is in a sense awakened and then seems to drink in "a very elixir of life," and finally receives another shock, a reversal, which proves lethal. Probably equally clear to all or to most readers are Chopin's economy, the significance of the open window and the spring setting, the power which she assigns to "self-assertion," and the bold dramatic irony with which the story concludes. At one crucial point, however, this relatively clear and realistic story becomes problematic, perhaps even enigmatic -- that is, the passage in which Chopin attempts to account for the direct cause of Mrs. Mallard's awakening:

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air." (Chopin, 1969)

Kate Chopin - as the author of this story - is successfully in presenting two concepts within just one story. The first of the concept was the idea of freedom and happiness. She implied in the story that love can be sometimes suffocating to the point that one will feel the strong desire to move out from such love. Mrs. Mallard is suffering from distress and pain because her husband seemed to love her so much that he would not allow her to go out and do what she really wants. Mrs. Mallard thought that she could be more productive and serve the society very well but Mr. Mallard would never allow her. This was the reason why Mrs. Mallard thought that her husband doesn't have any confidence with her. She was thinking that her husband was belittling her and do not think that she is capable of doing other things aside from being his wife. Her case can then be classified as one of the best examples of gender discrimination.

The second concept that Chopin is also able to highlight is the idea that what is seen in the outside may be entirely different to what is really in the inside. Mrs. Mallard looked happy upon knowing that her husband die not die after all. The people thought that she had a cardiac arrest and died because she felt extremely happy seeing her husband. But that is not exactly the reason of her happiness. She was happy because she knew that finally, the immeasurable and limitless freedom will be in her hands upon her own death.