Mrs Mallard is a sincere character and her reactions to her husband's death are those of a woman who has devoted her life to someone else and has finally been given a chance to be herself. While she appears to celebrate her husband's death, she is really celebrating her own life, a focus she has not been able to have until his death. .
Mrs Mallard's initial reaction on hearing of her husband's death is one of release rather than grief, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms." Her immediate weeping is a natural reaction of Mrs Mallard. It is not how she decides to act, it is her direct emotional response to the news. In this weeping Mrs Mallard is acting on her own basic feelings and this shows that her reaction is genuine.
It is when she retires to her room that her actions become less emotional and more rational. She is no longer acting on instinct, she is now acting with reason. It is in her room that she considers and rationalizes her feelings in an attempt to understand her own emotions. She sits down "pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul." She is then described sitting "with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams." This is a description of a woman coming to terms with something. The reference to her as a child reinforces that she is immature in some ways, with the process one of her growing up and coming to understand herself.
It is in the next passage that Mrs Mallard finally becomes aware of her own feelings. She has acted on her emotional response and now she is developing the clarity to understand her own reaction, "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully.
Kate Chopin Kate Chopin, nee Catherine O"Flaherty, was born "[ ]according to her baptismal certificate, on February 8th1850 [ ]" (Toth 3), in St Louis Missouri. ... In 1870, Kate met and married Oscar Chopin, a Creole New Orleans native. ... Kolbenheyer was Kate Chopin's pivotal axis. ... Kate Chopin died on August 22, 1904. The 1960's marked a rebirth or "awakening" for Kate Chopin. ...
Kate Chopin faced tremendous amount hurdles that for many would be impossible to jump. ... Many of Kate Chopin's works deal with women in the 19th century whom , much like Chopin did not hold the rudimentary attitudes that was to be beholden to women. . ... (Hicks) With the absence of her father , Kate Chopin and her mother were forced to tackle the stationary roles of men. ... Kate Chopin , did this masterfully through her literary works two being The Awakening and "The Story of An Hour" Even though Kate Chopin faced many attacks she kept on writing on what she thought very strongly a...
"Too strong a drink for moral babies, and should be labeled 'poison'." was the how the Republic described Kate Chopin's most famous novel The Awakening (Seyersted 174). ... Kate O'Flaherty Chopin was raised in St. ... No longer Eliza O'Flaherty's daughter or Oscar Chopin's wife, Kate Chopin was forced to find a new role for herself. ... (Chopin 113). ... Louis shunned Chopin for writing it. ...
In "The Story of an Hour" and "The Storm", Kate Chopin creates an atmosphere so intense that it can almost be considered a character in itself. ... This is where Chopin goes to work creating an atmosphere. ... Without Chopin's creation of atmosphere and mood, the rest of the story would not make much sense. ... Chopin's use of personification brings the storm to life. ... In both, "The Story of an Hour" and "The Storm", Kate Chopin has gone to great lengths to make each part of her story essential. ...
Essay Assignment #3 Kate Chopin's "The Storm" By John Youssef Professor Johnson Humanities 420 Tuesday, December 8, 2003 Kate Chopin's "The Storm" Readings of Chopin's work's often note the tension between female characters and the society that surrounds them. Margaret Bauer suggests that Chopin is concerned with exploring the "dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women" (146). Often, critics focus on the importance of conflict in these works and the way in whi...
Feminist authors, such as Kate Chopin, tried to personify their characters as strong able individuals to "endorse feminine self-assertion-(Fluck 154) and make a statement for women while criticizing institutions that hindered women's rights. ... In "The Story of an Hour- Chopin places Mrs. ... Chopin shows this by comparing Mrs. ... Mallard's death, Chopin shows that Mrs. ... Kate Chopin showed through her words that women can be "Free! ...
In Kate Chopin's short story "The Storm" it is used as an omen, as well as perhaps despair, but it adds a different element to this story as well; it seems to be a force, perhaps destiny, perhaps a life in itself. ... Kate Chopin describes the forthcoming storm as "sinister"(139). ... Kate Chopin now describes it as "crashing torrents [of rain], and the roar of the elements" (141). ... Kate Chopin's most revealing line is perhaps the last, " So the storm passed and everyone was happy." (142). ...
Kate Chopin adorns her short story, "The Story of an Hour," through irony. By establishing an ironic undertone, Chopin consecrates an exemplary work that becomes dependant on the literary device and, as a result of its being implicated, is renown worldwide. ... Chopin's short story enabled the reader to interpret Louis Mallard, the main character, and society's view of her scenario as she ventured on an emotional rollercoaster. ... Karen Bernardo imparted how the theme of Chopin's short story "deals with an ironic twist." ... As one can see, irony has been interwoven into t...
Born Kate O'Flahrerty in St. ... After a few years as a society belle, she married Oscar Chopin in 1870, the son of a wealthy cotton farmer in Louisiana. ... He died in 1882, leaving Kate behind to run the store and plantation as well as raise the children. ... After the reaction to her novel, Chopin wrote only a few more stories. ... Kate Chopin was born in the years leading up to the American Civil War and experienced life in the South during the conflict and the period of Reconstruction that followed. ...
Kate Chopin wrote two short stories that provide examples of the way women act when they are freed of their homemaking responsibilities. For example, in the "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, Louise first cries when she hears of her husband's death. ... In this story, Chopin's main character is a woman today's society would call a homemaker. ... Chopin exposes these truths in her stories. ... Chopin shows that a woman will go to great lengths just to have the option to make her own decision. ...
