Freedom In Kate Chopin's Story Of An Hour

For Mrs. Mallard it was better to live an hour of happiness and freedom than to live in the shadow of her husband. Mrs. Mallard joy and freedom had now been taken away from her in a matter of an hour. People will say Mrs. Mallard died happy because she got the freedom she always wanted right before she passed away. Many women in that era would have loved to experience the joy and freedom that came from not being in the shadow of their husbands, but being equal with them. It is not because women did not

“The Story of an Hour”, created by Kate Chopin, is a short story that shows the emotions of a new-found widow in a time where women’s rights aren’t as they are today. The story starts off by introducing Mrs. Mallard as only a woman with great heart trouble who needs to be taken care of as she is presented with the news of her, supposedly, dead husband. She later finds that the death of her husband transformed from heartache to freedom and becomes spontaneously overjoyed. According to the way it was written, two themes could be drawn from this short story.

Mallard’s death is a combination of her heart condition and becoming suddenly over-happy at the sight of her husband. This is ironic because the real reason for Mrs. Mallard’s death is the opposite. It is a combination of her weak heart and extreme sudden sadness and shock. Everyone thinks she was still overcome with sadness from his death when really she was finally happy that she could look forward to a long, independent life, living just for herself. Then when she discovered that her husband was really alive they thought she was so overcome with joy that she died when really she became extremely sad again because she was back where she had been before the incident.

After a while, Mrs. Mallard began to feel joyful because of her husband’s death. In this essay I will be analyzing this text through feminist lens. “The Story of an Hour” relates to gender roles, the lack of freedom and identity of women in the 1800s male-dominated society, and how the time period in which this story was written gives insight on why Mrs. Mallard feels the way she did when she finds out her husband has

Most people can live happily in isolation without the company of another’s presence and some can not. In three short stories by Kate Chopin, she explains how many people often make decisions out of pleasure, which eventually leads to dissatisfaction. With this in mind, the story Regret discusses how a woman rejected a proposal to live a life she later regretted. In addition to, Desiree’s Baby depicts how a young man decided to send his wife and child elsewhere because of their race. Including, The Story of An Hour which describes how a woman put herself through misery while trying to cope with her husband’s death.

Mallard, Richards, Josephine, and Mr. Mallard. The story continues by allowing the readers to see that Mrs. Mallard’s inconsistent emotions ascend from her actions and reactions to Brently Mallard’s “death.” As the story comes to a conclusion, the readers are finally able to comprehend that the immediate development of strain on Mrs. Mallard’s heart, causes her to lose her newly found freedom. She loses her newly found freedom due to her heart condition which leads to heart failure. This heart failure ultimately ends up resulting in Mrs. Mallard’s death.

And then the book seems to open itself, and there’s her life on the page. After letting go of her pain and anger, she discovers the beauty and happiness of the book. As she let this all go, her husband filled the book with her full happy life. In the story, the woman was angry.

The Contrast of The Story of an Hour While Mrs. Mallard is just starting a new life, so to say, for herself, her life she has known comes to an end. She is just able to become “free, free, free!” (57) when she loses her life. Kate Chopin uses contrast with the news Richard’s gave, the way Mrs. Mallard felt in the room and the doctor’s news to show how women perceived marriage in the 19th century in her story The Story of an Hour.

In the first story “The Story of an Hour”, when Mrs. Mallard heard news of her husband’s death she cried which showed that she was devastated by the tragedy. The issue of her husband dying no longer became an issue when she changed her perspective. She began to feel empowered by the thought of her husband’s death stating “There would be no one to live for

(10) “I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and i am too idle to destroy for nothing.” (Ch. 33, pg. 295) In both of these events, different types of love were displayed. Both women showed their love in different ways. One woman was strong, and the other was weak.

Between King Lear and Cordelia is the embodiment of authentic self-sacrificing love. Near the end of the tragedy, Lear learns a cruel lesson in humanity, and recognizes his error which is vital to his reconciliation with Cordelia. He finally realized Cordelia’s sincerity, and the depth of her love that was far more authentic compared to her sisters. Likewise, on the last episode, Fiona is seen bald and weary from cancer. Fiona admitted to her daughter when a woman becomes a mother, she cannot help, but see life in the little baby’s face.

In the beginning Mrs. Mallard finds out about her husband’s death, weeps over it, and isolates to her room to mourn. In her room she realizes she is finally a free woman and gets this overbearing feeling of joy. At the end of the story she realizes the story was false and her husband is alive. She ends up dying of “joy that kills”, and leaves her husband