Self-Identity And Freedom In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

This shows a balance between gender roles, as well as the embracing progressive changes within culture and society. In the story “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, a third-person omniscient narrator, relates how Mrs. Louise Mallard, the protagonist, experiences the euphoria of freedom rather than the grief of loneliness after hearing about her husband’s death. Later, when Mrs. Mallard discovers that her husband, Mr. Brently Mallard, still lives, she realizes that all her aspiration for freedom has gone. The shock and disappointment kills Mrs. Mallard. Kate Chopin reveals how language, institutions, and expected behavior restrain the natural desires and aspirations of women in patriarchal societies.

This essay endeavors to analyse the situation of two different women. “The Story of an Hour” and “A Rose for Emily.” The first story by Kale Chopin’s in the 19th Century penned by Mrs. Mallard who confirm her about her husband death which made her heart broken. But at the same time she thought she could be free and enjoy her life because in the old time Women was under the mercy of her husband and must obey him which affect their life. “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulker with the breaking news of her father death feeling depressed and unable to do anything. Women have no rights and were under the mercy of her family.

The story of an Hour Critical Analysis through a Psychological Perspective using both Freud and Lacan’s theory approach. In the beginning of the story, the Chopin informs the audience of Mrs. Mallard serious heart condition. Her friends and family were worried how to break the news to her of her husband’s death. After giving it much thought Mrs. Mallard was given the news as gently as possible of her husband’s death. We think that the form of the “Imaginary” mentioned in Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of Mrs. Mallards family and friends “imagining” that the devastated new of Mr. Mallard’s death would cause her a heart attack, however later on in the story it was mentioned that she was in fact relieved to know she was a free woman of her marriage.

The ending of the book sparked a lot of controversy over the way that Chopin decided to Edna Pontellier to make Edna commit suicide. The book ends with the suicide of Mrs. Pontellier, but we can connect the death of the main character to Chopin herself who became a widow after her husband died leaving her with five children. It was after the death of her husband that Chopin began to write about the life of a married woman. Mrs. Pontellier’s death was a way of freedom from the shackles of being a mom and having to hide her love with Robert because she was married to her husband. In the story Chopin prepares the death of Edna through the use of symbolism by making her go naked into the water to portray Edna’s revival stating, “How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky!

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” are similar because they focus on the same subject. However, they differ in how the speakers’ feel about their relationship with their parent(s). In Plath’s “Daddy”, the speaker is a daughter thinking about how her father treated her. She tells about how she felt trapped by him and how she tried to ‘kill’ him, line 6 of the poem, but he dies before she has a chance. The ending of Plath’s poem implies that she got married to a man like her father.

The nature of life and death is observed in “The Jade Peony” by Wayson Choy, using eloquent expressions of the way in which one can come to understand death, the acceptance of it, and the meaning that can be held once someone has passed away. As a young child, Sek-Lung has difficulty understanding his grandmother’s speaking of death. He describes the moment it became clear she would die narrating, “I fell against her and cried, and there in my crying I knew she would die,” (Choy, 4) As the reader listens from Sek-Lung’s perspective, they can relate to either Grandmama, who greets death like an old friend, or Sek-Lung, who is beginning to grasp this new concept. Grandmama personifies death, saying, “That is my body fighting with Death. He is in this room now,” (4).While she describes it as a battle, she also seems to hold a sense of peace with the concept.

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the personal growth of the dynamic protagonist Louise Mallard, after hearing news of her husband’s death. The third-person narrator telling the story uses deep insight into Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions as she sorts through her feelings after her sister informs her of her husband’s death. During a Character analysis of Louise Mallard, a reader will understand that the delicate Mrs. Mallard transforms her grief into excitement over her newly discovered freedom that leads to her death. As Mrs. Mallard sorts through her grief she realizes the importance of this freedom and the strength that she will be able to do it alone. The story begins in medias res which forces a reader to hang

Further, situational irony is present through the reaction that Louise Mallard has after learning about her husband’s death. Upon first learning of her husband’s death she is very devastated and distraught. As soon as she is alone in the bathroom however, it is clear to the readers she is not as upset. In fact she is slightly relieved in that “she saw beyond that 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” (235).

Hour of Freedom “The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin. It details a wife named Mrs. Louise Mallard, who struggles with a heart condition. After learning of her husband, Brentley Mallard’s death in a railroad accident, Mrs. Mallard deals with grief in many stages. Chopin incorporates many literary devices throughout “The Story of an Hour,” but imagery is the most evident. “A Short Guide to Imagery, Symbolism, and Figurative Language Imagery” describes imagery as “a writer or speaker’s use of words or figures of speech to create a vivid mental picture or physical sensation”(Clark).

Kate Chopin is the author of the most popular short story "The Story of an Hour". Chopin paints a bleak picture of marriage in this story. It is a short story focusing on a young married woman of the late nineteenth century as she reacts to the news that her husband has died in a train accident. The story was written in a time period when women did not really have right to express their feeling and desire. Women were supposed to stay home and take care of the family whereas the husbands went out to work.