Kate Chopin's Short Story Of An Hour

Once Mrs. Mallard calms down after being given the news of her husband's death, where she goes (or, perhaps, doesn't go) is evidence to the fact that there was very little love between her and her husband. "She went away to her room alone." In a time of grief such as this, it is expected that she would want to go to their bedroom because it is the room they would have privately shared. However, the story refers to the room as "her room" and when she enters it, the piece of furniture that she sought comfort in was an armchair. It would be assumed that their bed would be her place of comfort, yet there is no mention of the presence of a bed in the room. It is when she closes herself in her room that her feelings begin to take hold and are revealed. The description of the room and the scenery unravel simultaneously with her inward thoughts. As she enters the room, the immediate

These thoughts were a bit suspicious and frightful to acknowledge. As Mrs. Mallard sits next to her window she begins to contemplate what feelings are emerging from her, “There was something coming to her and she was wanting for, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name” (Chopin 653). This depicts the anticipation of change that is about to come into her life. Chopin describes it not as a physical object, but something she internally knows when it fact it blossoms into a new realization. With all these perplexed emotions she encounters from looking out the window to “patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” (Chopin 653), these thoughts become the factor of releasing herself from her forbearing attitude into the new impression of individualism and

The story settings of Chopin and Poe help to show how repression alters the mind. In Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour,” setting is used to show how Mrs. Mallard’s repressed state of mind begins to flower and grow after she learns of her husband’s death. It is not upon first reading, but second reading, that most start to interpret the settings around Mrs. Mallard while she sits in her bedroom. Chopin writes, “She could see [……] tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.” It is, as she sits at the window, that she becomes aware that she is free of her husband. Spring is the season of new growth and awakening of animal life. Chopin also writes about how patches of blue sky appear out of the “clouds that had met and piled one above the other.” These two descriptions help the reader see what is, perhaps, going on in her mind. The setting in which Chopin put Ms. Mallard in helps speak

When she goes in her room alone, she unveils her true emotions. The setting shows comfort and indicates that she feels safe. The "open window" symbolises her new beginning and she fills her mind with fantasies of freedom. "She would have no one follow her" indicates that she had only her room to retreat to and it is from this place that she is able to look out at the world. The metaphor "delicious breath of rain", the "peddler", "a distant song" and the sparrows are all symbolical of spring which represents new hope for a better life for Mrs Mallard.

Although she tried to deny the emotion approaching her, when Louise looks out the open window she experiences a feeling of liberation. Chopin describes the liberation of the window by saying, “she could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (236). While looking outside of the window, Mrs. Mallard relates to nature’s new spring life as she now experiences new emotions of freedom from her marriage. Since Mr. Mallard’s death ends the confinement Mrs. Mallard feels, the open window demonstrates her now free, open life full of new opportunities. As Wimmer states in his article, “this 'openness,' then, is really itself a symbol of the boundless possibilities Louise can experience with her newfound independence.” She realizes she can live her

The last example occurs during and after Mrs. Mallard watches the “tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin 1). This shows that the character’s image of the world is already changed since she was informed of her husband’s death. In the twelfth paragraph, Chopin uses her character’s new perspective of the world to exemplify the confinement women felt. The character understood she had “no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself” (Chopin 2). Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts revolve around her limitations during marriage. She soon realizes that she would have “no powerful will bending hers” (Chopin 2). Mrs. Mallard was likely controlled her entire marriage; and now she is released from her husband’s dominance. Before opening the door for her sister, she was thinking about “all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin 2). The character looked forward to her new life ahead of her because of the new freedom she has gained; she thought about the future that involved her freedom from marriage. Mrs. Mallard eventually says a prayer to herself

There was tow death Chopin’s Kate and her husband. Chopin’s Kate sister told her that her husband was died. Kate when she heard from her sister she was so happy and when she realized she loved him sometimes. Kate Chopin’s when she realized she got her freedom her “The Story

People have different reactions to divergent situations; it really depends what they are going through. In the narrative Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin it talks about a woman who has heart issues and receives the news of her husband getting killed in an incident. Mrs. Mallard doesn’t know how to react to the news; later on her husband shows up in her door and she gets killed. What could have caused her to die in an instant without an explanation? In the narrative Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin's expresses in her writing that, even if what was desired wasn’t there, then contentment will sometimes appear; the author uses dialogue, setting and imagery in order to convey the theme by describing what had caused her loss of life.

When reading a story one of the many things that readers look forward to is the ending. Questions like, do the couple stay together or not, will they have a happy or unhappy ending, or will they even last? Questions that make the reader wonder what the ending will be like is what keeps the reader till the end, now whether the ending is to their satisfaction is whole another story. Most people look forward to that happy and lovely ending which is what a commercial fiction story will most likely provide. However, not all stories end in a happily ever after, which is what a literary fiction story would most likely provide. Then there are those stories that don’t provide or provide both a happy and an unhappy ending which is what we would call an indeterminate ending. An example of this type of ending would be “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin.

Chopin uses common household features as a metaphor for Mrs. Mallard’s exclusion from the outside world. When she first learns of Brently’s death, Louise looks out an open window into an open square. Next, Chopin chooses to use treetops a quiver with new spring life as the first thing Louise sees prior to having her revelation, with a description of the delicious breath of rain in the air. Spring, of course is when things grow anew, and we know that water, as a a symbol cleanses ill pasts. This type of rich symbolism, returning to form, helped Chopin to make her story into simply “an hour”. As well, Chopin, makes use of parting clouds to provide Louise a blue sky, again, freedom like the

Chopin explores the stereotypical female role within her short story. She uses Mrs. Sommers' characteristics and actions in order to do this. Women are looked to as the keepers of the house that care for everyone before themselves. This is shown in the beginning of the story when Mrs. Sommers gets the fifteen dollars. The first thing that she thinks about buying are new clothes and things for her kids. She thinks, "The vision of her little brood looking fresh and dainty and new for once in their lives excited her and made her restless and wakeful with anticipation" (Chopin, 1). In, society this is what is expected of women, they put their kids before themselves. Her mindset changed when she saw and felt the pair of silk stockings. She was asked

Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart condition; thus, her sister Josephine gently and carefully breaks the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Richards, a close friend of Mr. Mallard, is the first to discover the news of Mr. Mallard’s railroad tragedy. When hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard collapses in grief into her sister’s arms and retreats upstairs into her room. While her sister begs Mrs. Mallard to open the door, Mrs. Mallard reflects on her feelings. She sinks into an armchair facing an open window noticing the “new spring life, the delicious breath of rain in the air, the peddler in the street crying his ware, the notes of a distant song which someone was singing and countless sparrows twittering in the eaves” (Chopin 556). This signifies a new blossoming life: a life that she would live for herself. Although her husband is loving, and she knows that she will weep again when she sees his dead body, she realizes how confined marriage is for her. Robert Evans, author of “Literary Contexts in Short Stories: Kate Chopin's “‘The Story of an Hour,’” claims that Mrs. Mallard looks forward to a bright future rather than a dreadful life. She becomes aware that she must live alone rather than being imprisoned by marriage. As these thoughts circulate in her mind, she keeps whispering, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 557).By conveying the story through Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, Chopin portrays how women actually feel compared to what they present in society. While Josephine and society expect Mrs. Mallard to be grieving, Mrs. Mallard is actually looking forward to the days ahead of her: “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin 557). When Mrs. Mallard discovers that the news of her husband’s death was inaccurate, Mrs. Mallard dies from a heart attack after seeing her husband alive. The

As her tears fade sitting in her comfortable armchair adjacent from the open window, she stares out into the new spring life. The four seasons spring, summer, fall, and winter are symbolic of the stages of our life. Chopin chooses spring as the season for this story to symbolize the new life that Mrs. Mallard thinks is awaiting her. Her husband’s death is no longer a burden to the life she will be living, but is key to the life she had been missing. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.” She first weeps at the thought of living life without her husband, but when she stares out into the world she sees all that she has to offer and that the entire time her husband was holding her back. Now she has the opportunity to live her life to her fullest and is excited with

There are myriad levels of symbolism which Chopin invokes in order to express the principle theme of this work. The very fact that the protagonist of the story, Mrs. Mallard, learns that her husband has died symbolizes the fact that she is now free from his will and influence upon her life. However, Chopin chooses to express this notion most efficaciously by expressing Mrs. Mallard's newfound liberty or what she believes is her newfound liberty through the symbolism of spring, as the

The use of imagery is displayed heavily throughout the story to reflect the feelings of Mrs. Mallard following the news of her husband’s abrupt death. The setting outside her window is very descriptive and allows the audience to connect this imagery to the future that Mrs. Mallard is now seeing opening for her. As she is looking out of the window in her bedroom, she sees “trees that were all aquiver with new spring life” as well as sparrows “twittering in the eaves” (Chopin). This represents the joy and realization of a new life for Mrs. Mallard. She can now start over as a free woman instead of living as a man’s property trapped inside the house; this is where the woman’s place was during this period while only