Kate Chopin's 'The Story Of An Hour'

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a story that happens in one hour and it presents how women were viewed in the nineteenth century. The story is about a woman named Louis Mallard, who just received news that her husband has died in a train wreck. Kate Chopin is a modernist and feminist writer of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Kate Chopin has a similar life to the character in this novel because she lived through the women’s suffrage movement and her husband died at a young age. Kate Chopin began her writing career when her husband passed away. Her writing career ended when she started expressing her feminist views of society. In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour”, the author uses Louise Mallard husband’s death to

“When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills” (Chopin 3). When in reality she had just lost the joy she had from her husband’s death which shattered her heart. “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.” (Chopin 3). This story shows a lot of Dramatic Irony. The irony of life killed her, but it might have been worth it for her in just that short hour. The other characters in the story saw Mrs. Mallard’s death as she how she couldn’t control the joy she had when she saw that her husband was still alive. 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 author shows how many women would value independence back then in 1894. Many women were limited to getting the same opportunities for education as men did. Mrs. Mallard wanted the same opportunities as her husband and other men had, which was to be able to work, get an education etc. Mrs. Mallard felt that she was trapped in her marriage meaning she wasn’t independent. Many women in the nineteenth and early twentieth century felt they lost their freedom and independence once they got married. This is one of the main reasons Ms. Mallard feels so independent that her husband has passed away. The open window in the story is significant because she sees the spring weather as a new life of independence. Mrs. Mallard saw a new beginning, a new beginning that would not consist of her being tied down in her marriage. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!””. Mrs. Mallard whispered "free, free, free!” to her because the emotions she feels at the moment are powerful, strong and independent. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” Mrs. Mallard is praying for a long life because this independence she’s feeling feels so good. She later on in the story passes away from a broken heart because her