In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, connected with me right away. I was drawn in
by the tone, and her use of images in the piece. I will be using a Reader Response approach to analyze ‘The Story of an Hour”.
Louise Mallard is a woman who has recently learned of her husband’s supposed death in a railroad accident in the late 1890”s. She has a weak heart, and her family and friends are around her to tell her of the news. After hearing of her husband’s death she goes to her room and locks the door. Instead of breaking down like I had expected she would do, she feels enlightened and joyful. I connected with Louise at this point. I have never had a husband die, but I had been in an abusive marriage. I loved my husband, but when I left, instead of feeling sorrow for a failed marriage, I felt joy and freedom.
In the story, the tone changes to one of concern and solemness, to one of secret elation, and excitement. Louise’s friends and family are concerned about telling he of her husband’s passing because of her weak heart. They don’t want to come right out with the news and shock her to death. When Louise hears the news, (Chopin, K. 1894) “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow.” When she goes up to her room, the tone changes dramatically.
The Essay on Weak Heart Story Louise Life
Did joy kill her? Yesterday I read one of Kate Chopin! s stories, ! ^0 The Story of An Hour. ! +/- This story told us about a woman named Louise Mallard who had heart problems. One day Louise heard her husband was killed in a train accident. She was sad at the beginning. After a short while, she begins to think about a new life. All the sadness and hopelessness turned to happiness and joy. She was ...
It takes her a minute to let her feelings sink in and for her to actually realize what she is feeling. At first she feels heavy (Chopin, K 1894)” There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” As she looks out the window, the world seems to rush in at her with renewed vibrancy. A variety of sights, sounds and smells are coming alive to her. (Chopin, K 1894) “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, and the color that filled the air”. .As she stands in the window and takes all of this in she realizes her joy at her husband’s death. She felt scared and ashamed of her joy, knowing that it was not appropriate for her to be feeling it. (Chopin, K. 1894) “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will” At this point the reader is as confused at her feelings as the character Louise is. As Louise gets out of her head, it is like a pot starting to boil over. At first she whispers the words” free, free, free!” She is in pure terror at this, and it went as suddenly as it had come.
There is no doubt given to the reader that Mrs. Mallard had loved her husband or at least cared for him on some level. (Chopin, K 1894) “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.” This suggests to the reader that Louise may not have wanted to be married to him, or that she was mostly unhappy in the marriage. As I analyzed this moment, I understood why she was feeling the way she was. She was overjoyed with the sudden realization that her life was her own now. She did not have to conform to her husband’s wishes, or answer to him, depend on him and take care of him. She could be independent. Chopin makes it feel as if her marriage felt like a cage to Louise, and she was a bird now set free from it. She prayed that her life would be long, so she could enjoy her own life the way she wanted to enjoy it. Not living it for someone else, just to please them. (Chopin, K. 1894) “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. 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 yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”
The Term Paper on Kate Chopin’s Short Stories
Kate Chopin is often catalogued as an insightful writer who saw ahead of her own time. Her work is filled with examples of the powerful forces which are at play in the human spirit and which go beyond the conventions of society. Chopin captures the ineffable essence of human relationships, outside the rules of social order. Thus, in many of her stories, Chopin tackles marriage as a social ...
Louise’s sister is at her door imploring her to come out. In her mind she is scared for her sister’s health and worried that she is overcome with grief. As Louise opens the door, the writer uses an interesting simile to describe Louise’s disposition. (Chopin, K. 1894) “She carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.”
At this point the story takes a turn. As she goes down the saris, there is at the same moment someone opening the door. Everyone thought that the shock of her husband’s death could kill her. Instead her husband comes through the door. In an instant the climax and tone changes. As a friend tries to hide her husband from her view but cant. Louise has a heart attack and dies. The writer leads the reader to assume that at first she dies of a heart attack. (Chopin, K. 1984) ” When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills. I concluded that she did not die of shock of her husband coming through the door and excitement to have him back, but rather that she died at the shock of all her dreams and joy vanish in an instant. I think that everyone in the room thought she had died of the shock of her husband’s return, never knowing the real reason.
Kate Chopin was in her own way was contributing to the rise of feminism and to the suffragist movement. She had also gone through the death of her husband. Which I think has a lot to do with the tones in her story. I concluded that she may have felt the same emotions as Louise had in her story. This in turn made the story come alive for me. It made me think, and connects with my own sense of freedom and family struggle that I think on some level every woman deals with. I connected with this story because there was a time in my life I felt as Louise had, free.
References
Chopin, K. (1884) The Story of an Hour Retrieved from Journey into literature Clugston, R. W. (2010) San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books
The Essay on Louise Husband Freedom Mallard
... notices someone at the front door. It is Brently Mallard, her husband. After seeing her husband, Louise immediately dies. She dies because she realizes that since ... Woman? s Aspiration For Freedom In? The Story Of An Hour, ? a short story written by Kate Chopin, the desire for ... after her husband? s death. She does not die from the? joy that kills, ? but because she is heartbroken and shocked at ...
