Persuasive Analysis of “The Story of an Hour”
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” portrays the plight of a married woman in society. Her plight tells of a woman’s pledge to her husband and the sacrifice of her own identity. The story also tells of her plight of being known as someone’s wife and being vowed to a life of love and servitude. The only way Mrs. Mallard may be liberated from this plight is to be freed from the duty of being a wife. In this case her liberation is through the death of her husband. In her marriage to Mr. Mallard, she loses herself, and with his death, she becomes free. The death of her husband frees Mrs. Mallard to be the woman she wants to be, and also frees her to the readers, allowing them into her new life, even though it may be brief – possibly not even the length of an hour. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” the death of Mr. Mallard frees his wife to the audience as an independent woman indicated by the ironic details, imagery, and foreshadowing the author uses in this literary work. The first ironic detail is the earliest fact mentioned in this story – the fact that Mrs. Mallard had heart trouble. When a married woman is suffering from heart trouble, you do not picture that she is young. When reading the story,
The instant that Mrs. Mallard is told that her husband is killed in a railroad disaster signifies the release of Louise to the audience. Her personality, her circumstances, and even her first name are now known. Although this freedom lasts briefly, the audience has had the chance to get to know the real Mrs. Mallard. At first the readers were only exposed to the fact that Mrs. Mallard had heart trouble, and if her husband had not “died,” we may not have known about who she was and who she could be. Although she died of “a joy that kills,” Mrs. Mallard had the opportunity to experience freedom, happiness, and a joy she had not felt since she was married to Mr. Mallard. Her quick death freed her from becoming a wife again to Mr. Mallard when he walked in the door. She did not have to experience any more pain with her husband, not even if “she knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.” Her death released her from being subjected to that grief again. The death of Mr. Mallard allowed the audience to be connected with a woman who experienced an awakening and deliverance from the suppression that marriages lead to in 1894 when Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour.” Kate Chopin uses vivid imagery to convey the solitude and freedom Louise finds as she accepts the death of Mr. Mallard. We picture her weeping “with sudden, wild abandonment,” something we would not imagine a woman with heart trouble doing. This image gives the audience a sense of her breaking free from he
Some topics in this essay:
Kate Chopin,
Story Hour”,
Mallard Louise,
death mallard,
,
“the story hour”,
story hour”,
death husband,
“the story,
kate chopin,
heart trouble,
happiness joy,
Kate Chopin’s,
death husband louise,
mallard heart trouble,
mallard woman,
ironic details imagery,
life husband,
mallard heart,
audience independent woman,
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Approximate Word count = 1091
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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