The Story of An Hour- Literary Analysis
Kate Chopin's, "The Story of an Hour," is a very tightly written short piece of fiction. The story's extremely short length, however, in no way reflects its depth. "The Story of an Hour" has much to say about the plight of women, and it speaks volumes not only about the way women were, and at times are, viewed by society, but also the way women were taught to view themselves. Mrs. Louise Mallard is an exquisite example of the conflicting emotions that must have held many Victorian women immediately following the death of their husbands. While every death undoubtedly brought deep feelings of loss and pain, in those days, the only moderately acceptable means for a woman to manage her own affairs and make her own decisions was the death of her husband. Even if women were treated with a moderate level of kindness, as Mrs. Mallard appears to have been, they were still considered emotional weaklings who were unable to handle their own affairs. Women married young, and their husbands became masters of not only their wives but also all of her possessions and decisions. Certainly many women longed to be free f
Mallard is informed of her husband's death she expresses her deep pain but she soon experiences the exhilaration of freedom rather than the desolation of loneliness. The male-dominated society paints women as being weak and completely unable to deal with bad news. Mallard at once decides that she does not wish to have yet another man control her. The story says that "her husband's friend, Richards, was there too, near. Many women would not have had the strength to deal with these new ideas and emotions, but would have simply allowed another male to take control of their existence. Mallard learns that her husband, Brently, still lives, she knows that all hope of freedom is gone. Mallard and her sister, Josephine, are too weak to be able to deal with the news, so the man, Richards, has to be near them to be the stabling factor. rom the confines of marriage and the burdens placed upon them by the culture of that day. Chopin implies that this strength is repressed when she describes Mrs. Mallard is informed that her husband has died in a train wreck "she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. Mallard has the courage to deal with these new ideas. Mallard's own inferiority had been ground so deeply within her that she had to learn to recognize her own self-worth and freedom.
Common topics in this essay:
Louise Mallard,
Chopin's Story,
Ultimately Mallard,
page 635,
husband's death,
page 636,
richards near,
own decisions,
strength deal,
own affairs,
free free,
society women,
deal ideas,
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Acceptance Essays
