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The Story of An Hour

The document contains two passages that analyze Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour". In the first passage, it summarizes how the main character Mrs. Mallard feels a sense of freedom and opportunity after learning of her husband's death, as she was oppressed in her role as a woman in marriage at that time period. The second passage discusses how Mrs. Mallard feels relief at being freed from her marriage and rejects the intentions and will of her husband, seeing love as a form of imprisonment. It suggests she felt unhappy and oppressed in her marriage, though the full nature of her relationship is unknown. She now desires autonomy and to live for herself rather than to be influenced by another's

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Ali Giraldo Llano
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377 views2 pages

The Story of An Hour

The document contains two passages that analyze Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour". In the first passage, it summarizes how the main character Mrs. Mallard feels a sense of freedom and opportunity after learning of her husband's death, as she was oppressed in her role as a woman in marriage at that time period. The second passage discusses how Mrs. Mallard feels relief at being freed from her marriage and rejects the intentions and will of her husband, seeing love as a form of imprisonment. It suggests she felt unhappy and oppressed in her marriage, though the full nature of her relationship is unknown. She now desires autonomy and to live for herself rather than to be influenced by another's

Uploaded by

Ali Giraldo Llano
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Passage Analysis

Alicia Giraldo Llano


English Literature

In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Ms. Mallard face the news of the death

of her husband, after this, she confronts herself with a vision that provides her with new

insight of her life and her dreams, and drives her to understand her freedom.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all

aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street

below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was

singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. (216)

In this case, her view of the outside seems as an opportunity that can be

interpreted as yearning for a life, or experiences that she didn’t have, because naturally

in the time that the story was written, women were taken as possessions, which means

that their male companions decided their life and duty. On the other hand, there are

some important objects of the passage that I would like to analyze. The window

represents those things, that either mentally or physically are unreachable from her

position of an oppressed woman, and that she appreciates as representations of the

freedom that she is feeling. This aspects that she describes at this point in the story,

also show relieve, egotism and cruelty by the ending of her marriage and the death of

her husband, because those situations freed her from a life that she seemed to be living

obligated. Finally, the song that she hears and the air that she feels can be taken as the

happiness she is starting to acknowledge and the freedom she needs.

Passage #2

In the text, “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin suggests that Ms. Mallard feels relieve after

the death of her husband, and without remorse she condemns her life and marriage,
Passage Analysis
Alicia Giraldo Llano
English Literature

and sees her husband’s death as an advantage. However Ms. Mallard’s marriage

connivance is unknown but her attitude towards love and affection can be questioned

thanks Chopin’s description of Louise’s way of thinking after she welcomed her

freedom.

There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for

herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with

which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-

creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less than a crime as

she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination. (216)

Ms. Mallard’s need for freedom and autonomy is clear in this passage. She no longer

fells the need for love or company, and rejects the intentions of her husband in loving

her. Although we don’t have enough information to know the real status of their

relationship, we can infer that she feels oppressed, and the death of her husband

releases her from the unhappiness that she was living. When she refers to a “Powerful

will bending hers in that blind persistence” Chopin suggests that not only Louise feels

imprisoned and autonomously compromise with her marriage but every person will at

some point in their lives be influenced by other’s will and influenced someone else,

either for love or convenience; just like Louise’s rejects this kind of interaction and in the

last sentence, sees love as a crime, because for love, one changes its will. Finally, she

refers to changing our needs and willing when it comes to our companions,

understanding how this revelation gives her an opportunity to breathe free of a marriage

that she felt was a rope of suffocating punishment.

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