ipl-logo

Mrs. Mallard's Death

787 Words4 Pages

A death in the family is a difficult challenge in most people’s lives which can affect them significantly. In the short story, “The Story of an Hour”, just this happens but the reaction is not in the way most would expect. Mrs. Mallard, the main character, is told her husband has died in a train wreck. The news of Mr. Mallard’s death awakens a long suppressed and dormant sense of freedom in Mrs.Mallard. This freedom is short lived, as her husband’s return crushes her awakened spirit and ends her life. We know this is the case because of the words Kate Chopin uses to illustrate the scene outside Mrs. Mallard’s window as well as the progression of her thoughts and feelings after hearing the “tragic” news. Kate Chopin frequently uses symbolism …show more content…

Mallard’s new freedom isn’t developed in a short moment. We are given insight to how Mrs. Mallard began to realize the change within her. Once Mrs. Mallard was in her bedroom, “she sank [into the armchair], pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” . This reaction to her Husband’s death shows that her thought is reaching into her soul to pull out her long suppressed happiness. Many would say that Mrs. Mallard could just be in a deep state of grief but there is proof of her growing understanding. Mrs. Mallard had a look in her eyes that “was not a glance of reflection but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought” . This lets us know that her thoughts are moving and growing. With a change so drastic, it must be instinctual to fight it. Mrs. Mallard began to become alarmed with her new transformation “and was striving to beat it back with her will”. Mrs. Mallard didn’t have much choice in whether she wanted to change or not, but by the end she gains a whole new sense of self-awareness and mindset. Once Mrs.Mallard has this realization, she asks herself the question “What could love…count for in face of this possession of self-assertion, which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” . There is a sense of accomplishment when enduring a transformation as drastic as Mrs. Mallards. When Mrs. Mallard emerged from her room “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Story Of An Hour And The Yellow Wallpaper

    894 Words  | 4 Pages

    (526) Mrs.Mallard begins to see through as an independent woman rather than one confined by marriage. She can live for herself now and not so much for her husband. After she found out that he passed she was way too excited for freedom. In “The Yellow wallpaper” the narrator was almost normal.

    Read More

  • Old Man With Enormous Wings

    1041 Words  | 5 Pages

    In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard’s friends and family take great care when trying to give her the news that her husband had been killed in a railroad disaster. Little do they know, Mrs. Mallard isn’t completely saddened by this, but in a way relieved. Both groups were plagued by something, but interpreted them in different ways. Others in “The Old Man with Enormous Wings” find him fascinating, and tried to play with him, but throughout the story the family just uses him for their own personal gain, and even thinks about killing, or abandoning him. Mrs. Mallard, instead of being broken by the death of her husband, is happy, because she would now long for the years that would “belong to her absolutely.”

    Read More

  • Women's Roles In A Yellow-Wallpaper By Kate Chopin

    842 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard learns that her husband died in a railroad disaster. Instead of the reaction that most people would think she would have, she is overjoyed that her husband is dead. She feels free from her marriage, which leads readers to believe that she is unhappy with her marriage. Once she is in her room alone she looks out the window and sees signs of life. This is another sign that she is happy and relieved she is free from her marriage.

    Read More

  • 'Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone'

    680 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every person alive today is bound to come across death at some point. Death is an inevitable part of life. It’s hard to make peace with the fact that someone you love is gone. Mourning can be a slow and painful process; however, this process differs from person to person. "

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Situational Irony Essay

    583 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her “heart trouble” is alleviated with her husband’s death, as she is finally able and ready to live with the freedom that she has been longing for. Lastly, several occurrences in the story suggests dramatic irony. When Mrs. Mallard is locked up in the room, Josephine implores admission and begins to worry about her as she will make herself ill. While Josephine begs her, the audience is conscious of Mrs. Mallard’s true feelings of happiness. Mrs. Mallard has seemingly become depressed and been mourning, and Josephine does not want to leave her alone.

    Read More

  • Kate Choplin's The Story Of An Hour

    635 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Mrs. Mallard was in a situation of grief, she quickly realizes that losing her husband was a change of freedom “She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, and free!” (Para 11 Line 5) Louise Mallard feel that she has control of her

    Read More

  • Mallard's Oppression

    599 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chopin does an excellent job at portraying this concept, as it is not until after readers are midway through the story that they begin to realize the honest feelings being experienced by Mrs. Mallard. It is originally thought that Mallard had been destroyed by the news of her husband's passing as she "wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms." (Chopin 396) However, as readers progress through the story, new thoughts begin to enter Mrs. Mallard's mind, and readers begin to understand her honest feelings towards her lover's demise. "The vacant stare and look of terror"(Chopin 397) had escaped her eyes, and was replaced by a look of hope and reassurance.

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis Essay

    868 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even though Chopin relates Mrs. Mallard 's story and does not write it in first person point-of-view, Chopin expresses the story via a narrator 's voice. The narrator is not clearly an observer, however. For Example, the narrator knows that Mrs. Mallard, for the most part, did not love her husband (Paragraph 15). It is apparent that the narrator is aware of more than can be physically observed. Chopin, however, by no means, tells the audience what Mrs. Mallard is feeling inside.

    Read More

  • My Bondage And My Freedom Frederick Douglass Literary Analysis

    616 Words  | 3 Pages

    When her husband walked through the front door she was so overcome with sadness that her heart couldn’t take it so she died. This shows just how bad that she was treated because she died when she found out her husband was alive. Through the use of plot twist Kate Chopin showed how women were treated unfairly throughout her

    Read More

  • Examples Of Mrs Mallard's Conflict

    468 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard’s conflict reflect the situation of many women in that era because women in that time that was married lived under the husband identity, didn’t have much freedom, and were trap in marriage. Women in that era stayed in marriage even if they were unhappy. Even though Mrs. Mallard loved her husband it seems as she no longer cared to be in her marriage any longer. “But she saw beyond the bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.”

    Read More

  • The Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

    828 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mallard reaches a sense of exuberant liberation. She is overwhelmed with feelings of a newfound freedom. Chopin illustrates this burst of hope once again through nature imagery when she writes, “But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air”(Chopin 237). Though Mrs. Mallard tries, she cannot fight the growing sense of freedom that overtakes her. Chopin writes this change as a powerful realization that Mrs. Mallard cannot help but accept.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Irony In The Story Of An Hour

    1206 Words  | 5 Pages

    Chopin’s use of irony enhances every part of the story and takes it to a new level not commonly reached by authors. It turns out that the real conflict in Mrs. Mallard’s situation wasn’t really that she had lost a loved one. It was really that her freedom and joy was taken from her once her husband. who in the time frame really just controlled her and was seen as her superior in every way, came back home and was realized to be alive. The use of Irony in this short story really brings it to a new level by, giving insight into what kind of person Mrs. Mallard is, indirectly showing when this story happened, and by bringing this story all the way to its breaking point where Mrs. Mallard unexpectedly

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Louise Mallard In The Story Of An Hour

    909 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the beginning of the story, she heard the news of her husband’s death in train accident from her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend, Richard. She was shocked by the news and showed sad feelings in the story. However, when I was reading through the story, I could infer that Mallard had a terrible marriage life with her husband because the story later said that Mallard was happy because she had freedom. In the beginning of the story, she was shocked and sad but later on, she was happy because of in dependence. These evidences prove that she is a dynamic character.

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

    914 Words  | 4 Pages

    What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (Chopin) This quotation shows that while, yes she had loved him, she often didn’t and she finally could be alone and without a man to take care of her. She finally feels free and it’s all because Mr. Mallard is finally away from her.

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Critical Analysis

    1346 Words  | 6 Pages

    (Chopin, the Story of an Hour)” It would be prudent to believe by the way Mrs. Mallard was crying that indeed she was devastated about her husband’s tragic death.

    Read More

More about Mrs. Mallard's Death

Open Document