Summary
The main characters in “The Story of an Hour” are the Mallard’s (Brently Mallard and Louise Mallard), Richards (Brently Mallard’s friend), and Josephine (Mrs. Mallard’s sister). Richards hears about a tragic railroad accident death while in the newspaper office and saw the name of his friend, Brently Mallard, among the list of those who died as a result of the accident. Brently’s wife, Louise has a fragile hear problem and Richards figures out that the best way to break the tragic news of the sudden death of her husband was by using Josephine, her sister, to carefully inform her about the happenings of the accident. On hearing the news about her husband’s death, Louise breaks down and weeps before going to sit alone in her room. Still crying, she looks out of the window and gazes into the distance and sees trees, smells approaching rain, and hears sounds of sparrows. She tries to suppress her building grieving emotions in her heart but can’t. She begins to say the word Free repeatedly and felt her heart beating rapidly and felt a sense of warmth for the very first time (Chopin, 2013).
The climax is reached when Louise is seen considering herself free after the death of her husband. Louise knows that she will mourn her husband's death and even cry when she sees Brently’s corpse but still spreads her arms joyfully with anticipation imagining the years ahead which belong only to her now without anyone to oppress her. Louise's thinking is that all men and women oppress one another and she is thus ecstatic with her new sense of independence, and she can be heard murmuring, "Free! Body and soul free!" Josephine is concerned about Louise and goes to the door leading to her room begging her to come out, afraid that her sister will cry herself out and make herself ill again. Louise tells her sister to go away while still fantasizing about her happier days ahead while hoping that she lives a long life. An unexpected thing happens as the door unexpectedly opens, and Mr. Brently comes in. Everyone is shocked except Mr. Mallard who is unaware of any happenings of a railroad accident as he had been nowhere near the train disaster ( Beer, 2016) . Josephine screams and Richards moves in front of Mr. Mallard with an intent to block him from seeing his crying wife. Louise is in shock and collapses and by the time the doctors arrive she had already died. Doctors pronounced her dead of a heart attack purportedly brought by joy and happiness.
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Proposal
Chopin tackles complex issues by employing specific structural and stylistic techniques to enhance the drama in the short story. The title chosen for the story fits the subject matter perfectly in trying to explain what happens in one hour of Louise Mallard’s life. This paper will analyze the characters in the story, giving an in-depth description of the message they play influencing and enlighten readers on the about critical issues happening in our society. The main character that the paper will look into is Louise Mallards as his actions, conduct and behavior in the paper bring out the main ideas of discussion. There are a lot of thematic messages in the story such as the theme of the forbidden joy of independence, the theme of freedom and confinement, theme of mortality, time, the theme of language and communication, and theme of the inherent oppressiveness of marriage. The author also makes use of stylistic devices such as repetition and foreshadow. The paper will also analyze use of motifs such as weeping. The use of symbolism has also been widely discussed in the story and is briefly illustrated when the author explains the “heart trouble” experienced by Louise Mallard and by use of the open window.
Critical approaches in the literature that will be in use to help analyze and critic the short story include the Formalist criticism, and reader-response criticism. Formalist criticism approach argues that literature is a unique form of knowledge that needs to be analyzed on its terms by understanding and analyzing the elements of literature within the work itself. Elements of the work that will be important for our analysis include the use of style which is inherent in the text. Reader-Response criticism is based on a reader's interpretation of what happens in the book, and the meaning of the information in the text is dependent primarily on a reader's interpretation of a literary text. This type of criticism overlaps with gender criticism and explores how men and women can read the same book and have a different set of assumptions.
References
Chopin, K. (2013). The story of an hour . Blackstone Audio
Beer, J. (2016). Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction . Springer.
Essay
Character analysis
Louise Mallard is a woman whose husband is assumed to be killed in a train accident. Though saddened by the events surrounding her husband's death, it is seen that she is secretly happy because of her new found freedom. She appears to be an independent who understands how the society expects women to behave in cases such as the death of a husband. She is emotional and grieves the death of her husband and seen as a demonstrative woman. She also knows how to hide her inner feelings and does not betray her private thoughts of her own life and future opportunities that await her after the death of her oppressive husband (Chongyue & Lihua, 2013).
Thematic message
The theme of inherent oppressiveness in marriage is vividly illustrated, and Louise admits that although her husband was loving and kind, his death will bring some form of freedom and a release from inherent oppression in marriage. She says in the story that men and women in marriage have a way of oppressing one another but with kindness, which further suggests that she was oppressing Brently and her husband oppressed her in equal measure. Oppression in marriage is seen as a barrier in a marriage that robs and prevents people from gaining their independence.
The theme of the forbidden joy of independence is explained by Chopin and illustrated by Louise's actions. Louise acts saddened by her husband's death but privately imagines and realizes how independent he will be as a woman. Though the thought about independence is private, she tries to suppress them when the thoughts were first awakened, thus suggesting how forbidden the freedom of independence was viewed among women in the society. It seems like the society had a way of suppressing women and made it difficult for them to air their views openly. Louise new found independence makes her utter the word "Free" thus symbolizing how overwhelmed and happier she was for gaining independence under extreme circumstances (Chongyue & Lihua, 2013).
Use of Stylistic devices such as Symbols
The use of the “heart trouble” that Louise experiences is symbolic and explains both the physical and emotional suffering she is encountering both in her oppressed marriage and also as a result of unhappiness that results from lack of freedom. The doctors' diagnosis that Louise died from "heart attack" further symbolizes that the death came by because she could live with the fact that her husband Brently Mallard is alive and he will take away her newly found freedom and happiness from an oppressed marriage. The “open window” is also used as symbolic and Louise’s gaze through the open window is used to represent a new form of freedom, numerous opportunities, and a new bright future that she will experience after her husband’s death (Mays, 2015). When she turns from the window and heads to the staircase where she sees her presumed dead husband, she loses her freedom, collapsed and pronounced dead.
References
Chongyue, L., & Lihua, W. (2013). A Caricature of an Ungrateful and Unfaithful Wife—A New Interpretation of The Story of an Hour. English Language and Literature Studies , 3 (2), 90.
Mays, K. J. (2015). The Norton introduction to literature . WW Norton & Company.
