The Story of an Hour was written by Kate Chopin as a short story published in Vogue Magazine for the very first time in 1894. It was initially called The Dream of an Hour and later changed. There is the use of contrasting images of death and life, and irony by the author, Kate Chopin to effectively bring out the thwarted awakening of one of the characters in the text, Louise Mallard who appears to have found a complete freedom from her marriage after the death of her husband. The plot of the story revolves around the death of her husband who apparently was still alive, and she inwardly celebrated his death. Unfortunately, she later learned that her husband is still alive, and not dead as initially speculated. It is this new found truth that leads to her death in the text. The interruption of her awakening new found freedom through her husband’s presence that leads to her death. This paper, therefore, seeks to analyze the story as a thwarted awakening.
It is quite important to analyze the plot of the text to clearly bring out the various ways in which the play is a thwarted awakening. For instance, the plot creates a situation of Mrs. Mallard as a character with a weak heart and this dictates how everybody breaks her husband’s death to her. The news is gently broken to her to avoid exposing her to heart failure. She receives the news with sadness and cries her eyes out. This is traditionally not expected but rather she was expected to appear to be refusing to believe if it actually happened. Nonetheless, she later goes ahead and declares her freedom from her husband and marriage. She is glad that this death has finally brought her freedom, and cleans everything in her room as a new beginning after the death. It becomes quite interesting when Mr. Mallard, who everybody thought was dead comes back home and everybody gets shocked at his sight. It is this shock that kills Mrs. Mallard (Otsman & O’Donoghue, 2015). While everybody else might believe that she died out of joy for seeing her husband, the readers clearly understand that this was no joy to her.
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The story as a thwarted awakening has effectively used irony as one of the dominant styles to bring this out. For instance, Mr. Mallard is dead and everybody mourns about him but this is the actual case. His wife is not mourning him as everybody else think she is. She is inwardly happy that this death has brought her happiness. It is quite ironical to celebrate one’s death, especially by a spouse. In addition, there is a situational analysis when Mr. Mallard comes back alive and it is his return that causes his wife’s death. It goes to the extent of Mrs. Mallard crying after hearing the husband’s death, not because she is mourning but because she is happy with her new found freedom (Tseng, 2016). It is from such kind of irony in the text that the reader clearly understands the story as a thwarted awakening.
More importantly, the text awakes the conscience of human that in as much as everybody would hope for the best in marriage based on their good intentions, some marriages have always brought in loss of freedom and repression that some people would wish for anything that brings to an end such marriage. She suddenly discovers her own self, become fearful after the information and later joyfully accepts it. This is a pure reflection of what women used to go through at the time the text was written. This was a time that the world was dominated by males, and all that was important had to be in the interests of men in the society (Ostman & O’Donoghue, 2015). Basically, Kate clearly brings this out when the fear that everybody would like Louise not to like is what brings her freedom and joy, while the message that comes with joy and people expect her to celebrate with her, brings her death. This was a harsh period for women, and explains the feminist side of the author to awaken the conscience of women at the time it was written.
More importantly, the writer’s background before the writing of the text is quite significant to the story as a thwarted awakening. The author comes out as a self-assertive woman who will stop at nothing until she is heard. This is clearly evident when the story was rejected fro publish in The Century by Richard Watson on the grounds of morality. According to Richard, this was an immoral story that needed not to be published (Tseng, 2016). Besides, it had previously been rejected by Vogue on the same grounds. Therefore, the success of Kate having her story published brings out the context of thwarted awakening.
In conclusion, the text was written in the late 19th century when women had little opportunities and were expected to be almost servants to their husbands rather than partners. The author brings out Mr. Mallard as a good husband and good man but it is the society that has supported deficiencies and ended up supporting unfairness and injustice that should not be tolerated. It is the role of everyone in the society to ensure a fair and just society, where everyone is respected irrespective of their gender.
References
Tseng, C. C. (2016). Joy That Kills”: Female Jouissance in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour. Short Story Journal.
Ostman, H., & O’Donoghue, K. (2015). Introduction: Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches. In Kate Chopin in Context (pp. 1-11). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
