Professor’s Name
Student’s Name
Course
Date
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Introduction
Kate Chopin’s the story of an Hour remains an exceptional piece of work that need to qualify for The Best American Short Story of All Time. An 1894 short story, The Story of an Hour,” has a surprising end which underlying the feminist theme. A story which characters interacts very little was first published by Vague Magazine publishers and later reprinted by Sue V. Moore in 1895 in St.Louis Life Newspaper. It incorporates various characters such as Louise Mallard (Mrs. Mallard), Brently Mallard (Mr Mallard), Josephine and Richards in addition to several themes such as Irony of Joy, Love and Marriage and A Journey to Self-Discovery among others. Besides that, initiated literary techniques and stylistics devices connect throughout the plot of the story which denotes aspects of mood and attitude in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. The goal of this essay is to analyse what makes the story of an hour most outstanding among the rest of the short stories produced worldwide.
The Meaning of the Title of the Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
The title of the story refers to the time elapsed between the different stages of the plot. Louise Mallard, the protagonist, gets to know the death of her husband, Brently Mallard, whom she later discovered he is alive! It, therefore, reflects a form of a tale that Mrs Mallard tells herself specifically on her potential life. That is the life she can hold once her husband is dead. Indeed, the title makes it outstanding as the title denotes aspects of women yearn for self-assertion. In other words, it is an ideology centered to the modern feminist movement which Kate Chopin helped in shaping. Generally, the title defines social conditions dictated to young women and girls in marriage who are forced to redeem their voices out of devastations.
The Tone, Mood and Attitude in the Story of an Hour
Unlike any other short stories, the tone in the Story of an Hour is bittersweet yet uplifting. Kate Chopin’s story describes one woman’s reaction to telling her husband’s supposed death. It remains outstanding in its ability to connect mood, attitude and tone in the use of figures of speech such as irony; Louise reaction to the death of her husband and the last line in the story. The mood in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is fundamentally pessimistic.
Kate Chopin’s favourite writer, Guy de Maupassant, a great French short story writer, might have influenced her form of writing. She even translated the story into other languages such as French. As Louise Mallard experiences internal conflict, one can sympathize with her from how she is fighting with her own emotions. That is what she should feel, how she is supposed to react, and how she feels. In times she is told about of her husband’s death, she is grief-stricken and depressed.
Additionally, the attitude in the story of an hour is monstrous joy. At the expense of hearing the tragic news of her husband’s death, Louise Mallard weeps with prompt sudden as well as wild abandonment. She is even seen retreating alone in her marital bedroom upstairs.
Characters and Characterization in the story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
As stated earlier, the four main characters make the story unique. They include Louise Mallard, Brently Mallard, Josephine and Richards. To begin with, Louise Mallard, commonly referred to as Mrs Mallard, her married name, depicts the connection she has with her husband, Brently Mallard. We even learn that she has a heart condition. Primarily, Mrs Mallard’s Heart Condition has resulted from the past, at least stresses connected to her inferiority from a male-dominated society. In other words, Mrs Mallard is devised with the male-dominated culture that prevents her from making her own decision. Indeed, the story denotes the various challenges women experiences while facing a world full of patriarchy. In paragraph eight, for instance, Kate Chopin states, “The young woman’s face bespoke repression,” and later in section fourteen, “a powerful will was bending, Mrs Mallard.” Mrs Mallard did not love her husband due to his actions of male-supremacy, preventing her from accessing secondary needs a woman would want particularly.
Brently Mallard (Mr Mallard)
Married to Mrs Mallard, he is believed to have died from a train accident. In as much as a reader will see a little of Brently Mallard, he may be controlling towards Mrs Mallard, his wife. He symbolizes the culture of the patriarchal society where the male voices are considered as opposed to those of women. He bends wills and facilitates unbearable living conditions for Louise Mallard, who ends up having a heart condition as a result of stress and depression.
Josephine and Richards
Josephine is Mrs Mallard’s sister who tells her of the sudden death, Mr Mallard. She assists her sister more so during the unexpected news of her husband’s death. Even in times of wild abandonment, she still sticks on and in the long run, she implores Mrs Mallard to get off their matrimonial room and retreats from the situation.
Richards, on the other hand, is considered as the most trusted friend to Brently Mallard. He works in a newsroom where the accident news of Mr Mallard falls. He takes the initiative to communicate the news to Mrs Mallard and leave the two sisters to talk.
Themes in the Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
A Journey of Self-Discovery
Mrs Louise Mallard realizes later that her husband, despite his intentions being clear from his kindness, she has shifted from her true identity. Due to that, Brently Mallard’s death welcomes her to freedom that facilitates her real identification. According to Kate Chopin, real self emergence is the most significant element in human’s life. She provides a comparison of life itself and when a person surpasses another human being’s true being.
Kate believes that such action is spiritual murder. An act only defined as a crime. However, the victim in this period is a woman, Mrs Mallard, and she symbolizes how women are treated in the Victorian period perpetrated by both women and men. The blind persistence, according to Chopin, brings in true light self in a modern sensibility. In today’s world, it is straightforward to see humans come or develop a sense with their authentic beings.
Love and Marriage
The story of an hour questions the validity of love and marriage. From the short story, marriage is based on patriarchal arrangements and that one person, Mr Mallard, has any authority, against her full, Mrs Mallard. To her, the union should not deny a woman’s selfhood. From the story, love was an emotion that used to justify the abuse and that Mrs Mallard lives to the world expectations that it is right for your husband to do whatever they want with you. In such incidences, love is nothing but a cage and a way of confining women. Such aspects questions what love is and if it is of unequal footing.
Irony of Joy
Other than self identify and love, and marriage themes, the irony of joy is vivid in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour. Joy is depicted as an ironic emotion that is situational. The expected outcome is not what is happening in Mr Mallard and Mrs Mallard’s marriage. When her husband dies, she is expected to feel sad and be in grief. However, for her is opposite as she is tensed in a moment and later feels ecstatic joy. Additionally, when Louise Mallard embraces her freedom and happiness, she becomes victorious. She thinks as a proud woman who will live her life even though the opposite happens. Her extreme pleasure leaves her even more vulnerable, especially when she sees her “dead” husband in front of him.
Figures of Speech in the Story of an Hour
Paradox: Revealed in half-concealing (paragraph 2), Metaphor: Physical exhaustion that haunted her body (section 4): Alliteration: a song which someone was singing (paragraph 5), Oxymoron: monstrous joy (paragraph 12) and Simile: She carries herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory (paragraph 20) among others.
In conclusion, the Story of an Hour is a unique inability to incorporate various thematic concerns that affect the life of a woman. Kate Chopin writing has generally paved the way for women as she has addressed the social and political challenges, affective women. Via the Story of an Hour, Kate challenges aspects of male supremacy and woman’s false statement that her position is in the kitchen. According to Kate, women should be empowered, have self-assertion and expression. Indeed, it is an outstanding story of the Awakening Period.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The story of an hour. Joe Books Ltd (2018): 23-49.