Essay on Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

“The Story of an Hour,” written by Kate Chopin, is a short story featuring a woman with a feeble heart, and the story centers on Louise Mallard and her reactions to her husband’s “death.” Throughout “The Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard experiences various emotions that leave her wondering how she truly feels about the news of her husband’s death. Before leaving her room and after hours of genuine depression, Louise Mallard realizes that her husband’s death may have granted her something extremely valuable: independence. Chopin created the story in an era where men predominantly controlled the lives of women. In “The Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard is expelled from the chains of her husband’s control. Although they had a content, loving

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” allows one to explore many ironic instances throughout the story, the main one in which a woman unpredictably feels free after her husband’s assumed death. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s bizarre story to illustrate the struggles of reaching personal freedom and trying to be true to yourself to reach self-assertion while being a part of something else, like a marriage. In “The Story of an Hour” the main character, Mrs. Mallard, celebrates the death of her husband, yet Chopin uses several ironic situations and certain symbols to criticize the behavior of Mrs. Mallard during the time of her “loving” husband’s assumed death.

It is significant, in the quotation's first line, that Louise wishes to “live for herself.” This has been generally understood to imply that she had hitherto sacrificed herself for her husband; however, there is no evidence for this in the text. Nor is there any evidence that her husband had done her living “for her,” whatever that might mean. It is an ipse dixit comment, arbitrary, without support, one of several she makes.

In “The Story of an Hour”, although it doesn’t state that Louise is unhappy in her marriage, you can tell by her reaction to the news of her husband’s death, that she has longed for freedom. As soon as she receives the news, she

she was crying but she seemed to feel overwhelmed with her life. Her husband had come home

Louise went to her room where she tries to process the news. It is clear that she is sad, she knows that her husband was a good loving man. But then she recognized that she finally could be free, and she will be able to make her own life by her own decisions and desires.

In Kate Chopin’s 1894 short story The Story of an Hour, a woman processes the announcement of her husband’s death. The story revolves around Louise Mallard, a young, pretty woman who has just received word that her husband, Brently Mallard, died in a train accident. Upon receiving the news from her sister Josephine, Louise immediately bursts into tears, an emotional display that, once spent, prompts her to retreat to her bedroom. After a time, Louise repeats her emotional outburst—this time with excitement at the idea she will be able to live her own life. However, Louise’s joy is cut short when her husband, having been nowhere near the accident, arrives home. Her disappointment is so profound she dies.

Moreover, "The Story of an Hour", shows that Louise felt her husband's domination through the "powerful will bending her" (14), later she is in "this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being." (15). This last statement indicates this newborn contention in Louise, made only possible by Mr. Mallard's death. In Mr. Mallard's death, Louise finds herself being able to assert herself in unimaginable ways; Mrs. Mallard is no longer limited to the confines of her marriage. Ultimately, all of this new brazenness and freedom is dependent

“The Story of an hour” a complex piece of literature by Kate Chopin, has various interpretations to it. This story has, one definite interpretation, which is the following: life has to go on no matter what is happened in the past. In this story, Chopin implies Ms. Mallard’s husband has been very cruel to her in her lifetime. However, she never lets her husband get in the way, finally he dies, and, she thinks she is free although she really is not.

"The Story of an Hour" is the story of women live and her marriage. " Louise Mallard suffered from a heart condition, her sister Josephine gently and carefully gives her the news of her husband died. " The main character tells information that her husband is dead, and after a hard time she is overjoyed with a sense of freedom, and when she thought to open the door and leave her husband forever opens the door, and she has depression, she dies of a heart attack. " Mr.Richards, a close friend of her husband," Brently Mallard, and the first to learn of the disastrous railroad mishap that asserted Mallard life had gone with Josephine to help diminish what they know will be a savage blow. The story tells about life, and how women behaved around mid-1800's.

Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote two novels that got published and at least a hundred short stories. In Kate’s short story The Story of the Hour she uses some of her traumatic event that happened in her lifespan in the short story even though it the story is fictional. A lot of her fictions were set in Louisiana and her best-known works focused on the lives of sensitive intelligent women. One-third of Mrs. Chopin’s stories are children’s stories. A lot of Mrs. Chopin’s novels were forgotten after she died in 1904 but according to Kate Chopin Biography, several of her short stories appeared in an anthology within five years after her death, others were reprinted, and slowly people came back to read her stories.

We read “A story of an hour” written by Kate Chopin. It is about a young married woman, Louise Mallard, who has a heart condition and a shock can kill her immediately. Her sister, Josephine, was careful not to upset Louise that her husband, Brently Mallard, died in a train accident. Louise cried and went to her room. However, Louise

In “The Story of an Hour” we are taken through a journey. The journey is the thoughts and emotions going through Mrs. Mallards (Louise) mind. The journey only takes an hour, so everything moves at a fast pace. Louise seemed to process the news of her husband’s death without an initial element of disbelief and shock. She goes right into the reaction of grieving for her husband. She quickly begins to feel other emotions. At first she does not understand them. The journey is a way that Louise comes to her final thoughts of freedom. She looks into the future and looks forward to living a long life on her own terms.

After quickly recovering from the storm of grief which showered her, Louise comprehends her own independence; “‘Free, free, free!’” (202). Something of which she has not possessed before. Not to mention, Louise holds great passion for the future without her husband influencing her decisions, “...(the) long procession of years to come (...) would belong to her absolutely” (202). As the story continues, it becomes evident that Mrs. Mallard’s confidence and jubilance holds direction in her long life to come. Ironically, however, Louise only lives to see the next few minutes of her life. As the shock of seeing the living dead births a heart attack; “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- a joy that kills” (203). Ultimately, her gluttonous behaviour and extreme state of joy lead her to an untimely death when her eyes lay upon the presumed dead, Brently

"The Story of an Hour" is about a woman, Mrs. Louise Mallard, who is being oppressed by her husband, Brently. Although it appears that she loves Brently, she admits that some of the times she does not. This is not to say that he was a bad husband or she was not a good wife, but they were not as in love as everyone else thought they were.