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Discuss how the theme of the Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour.” In order to receive credit, you must refer to the totality of the poem, not just the first four lines. Please include direct quotes from the poem to support your points.
Please address comments to others by name so we can all follow along.
116 thoughts on “Week 8 Discussion”
The theme of how emily dickinsons poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallards emotional state in “The story of an Hour” is by the telling of how a wife reacts to her husband, and how much a women can maintain staying a women. In the poem “The wife” its explaining how the wife abandoned her life to give herself to her husband and is now living a new life only to impress her husband, but in “The story of an hour” The wife is sick and thinks about her husband for a brief moment and then realizes that she doesn’t need to live her life for him anymore and how she’s free at last on her death bed. The two wives have two different ways of how they view their husband one is giving her life to be the “woman” and wife she is and the other one is enjoying the moment she has on her death bed because she is now free from her husband.
Hello Sydney, I agree with you they do “relate in a emotional state”, because they both are having issues with their husband and their role as wife’s. also when you mention that she is “living a new life”, it maybe true as she now have many responsibilities or that is one of the things we can infer from the poem. I completely agree with you, when you said, “she doesn’t need to live her life for him anymore”, as she is free now, well while believing her husband is dead at least, similar to what you say about the other woman in the poem, “abandoned her life to give herself to her husband ”. I don’t know if you did that one on purpose but those little hints shows that both stories are more similar then what they appear.
Hi Sydney, I like with your view on both the story and the poem. However, although they share different perspectives, they also share a similar element and that is that no one really knows how either one of them feels. In Emily’s poem she writes that, “It lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed, but only to himself is known the fathoms they abide.” Which to my understanding means that just like the sea knows what treasures hide beneath it, likewise only she knows what sacrifices she had to make when she got married and in “The Story of an Hour” only Mrs. Mallard knows how she truly feels on the inside because everyone else assumes that she is living a happily married life but that is far from the truth as she would rather be a widow and live the rest of her life as spinster in order to be free from her husband than to live under his control for the rest of her life.
Hi Sydney! I like how you have stated your opinion. It made me think twice on mine. However, my opinion is that the wife is not compromising her needs to impress her husband because she realized that something was missing or fading away after she got married. I believe both the women experienced an epiphany where both of them perceives a sense of belonging filled with contentment.
Prasika, where do you see a sense of contentment and belonging in the story or the poem? Please explain. Doesn’t Mrs. Mallard die of horror when she realizes her husband is still alive?
Hello Sydney, I agree with your statement of “The two wives have two different ways on how they view their husband” but also there is a more focused sense of discontent in their marriage. The wives don’t directly say how they feel about the marriage but we sense their feeling of unhappiness and will to stay sane while being in an uncomfortable or unwanted position.
Hi Sydney, I agree with your analysis on both readings. But in my opinion I believe they both have the same idea or mindset after extent period of time in their marriage. They both seemed to want their freedom back and may have regretted dropping that freedom away for the life of serving for another man. That is why Ms Mallard died upon seeing her husband actually being alive and in the poem making comparisons to things such as the gold wearing away.
(1209)Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” relates to the emotional state of Mrs.Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” because in both texts the women yearn for their freedom. Mrs.Mallard’s initial reaction to her husband’s death is one of grief but as the story progresses we see that reaction morph into one of acceptance and new found joy. Describing her joy as “it was subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out” this visceral reaction is one of realization, she can now live the life she wants, no longer tied down to the role of the wife. No longer having to bury her desires or drop her “playthings” as Emily Dickinson wrote. In Emily Dickinson’s poem she expresses the hollowness of having to fulfill this role, using the sea as a metaphor to emphasize this point. Emily writes “It lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed” Mrs.Mallard probably felt this way, having to hide within herself but husband’s death gave her a newfound freedom or so she thought.
Serafina, thank you for this very clearly drawn connection between the poem and the emotional state of the protagonist in “The Story of an Hour.” The wife in the story has clearly dropped the “playthings” of her life and has devoted herself to role she longs to escape. The text actually does describe her as having a look of repression—someone who has been holding in her true feelings and desires. In the poem, if the wife does have lingering desires beyond her wifely role, they remain unspoken and buried.
Serafina, I appreciate your reference to Ms. Mallard’s freedom being hidden behind her husband. Not even the “playthings” which could be things she enjoys as a woman as herself were important. Its as if her whole being was surrounded or revolved her husband. She wasn’t allowed to be happy and that is what caused her death.
I agree with Serafina, about how both the poem by Emily Dickinson and the “Story of an Hour” are similar in how women’s had to leave the things that they like to full the role of their husband’s requirements, and how they have to hide their true feelings. The other thing that they are similar is the women that are married feel that they are not free, but in the story, after the husband died the wife started to feel the freedom that she was missing.
Hi Serafina, I agree with you. The women in these two articles are eager for freedom. In ” Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom is so great that her grief at the loss of her husband suddenly turns into joy. She had lived as if she were dead for many years, and when at last she opened her eyes from the grave and was ready to embrace her whole life as an independent, free woman, she died. This is a tragedy.
Serafina I agree that both women yearned for their freedom from their responsibilities to their husbands and marriages. Mrs. Mallard starts off by being upset about her husbands death but quickly starting thinking about how her life will finally belong to herself again, she finally can take her life into her own hands and doesn’t have to live for anyone else besides herself for her remaining years. The wife in Emily Dickinson’s poem also yearns for a time before she was married and had obligations only to her husband. she gives up all her playthings and youth for her husband and marriage
In the poem of “The Wife” we can assume she is a young woman who got married recently, we can infer this by the first stanza, when she said “To take the honorable work
Of woman and of wife.”, with this we can conclude that she felt honor by becoming a wife, by taking care of her husband, she is looking forward to her new life full of wonders or that what she beliefs. The poem advances to a point in which she doesn’t feel the same way as before, her love if fading out and she feels “trap” in a way, she mentions that, “the gold
In using wore away,”, she uses gold as a reference of her love and idea of a married woman, at the beginning its shiny and desirable as gold but as time passes by, we can see as it starts wearing away and its true silver color shows. This is when both, the poem, and the story comes to similarities, the “Story of an hour”, it starts by the end of a woman life as she already has spent years married and knows how love faints and the feeling of encapsulated in her house begin. In this story the “gold” already fades out and now she is living on the hope to be free again, similarly to the poem in which is a brand-new love that started fading and soon would end in that woman wishing for freedom once again. We could say those two women could be actually one, telling their story from the beginning to the end, from youth to elderly, as both seems to be in the path of similar endings. (By the way I believe I read the story of an hour before, or it was told to me by a teacher, but I am not 100% sure)
Jon, thank you for the good comments, especially your remarks about the metaphor of the gold, which fades in brightness with use and the passing of time. It is possible that this has happened to Mrs. Mallard, but it is also possible that she never wanted to be married. Her yearning for freedom is so intense, readers wonder if she has been forced into marriage. As you’ll see from the other activities this week, women in the 19th Century did not have much choice about this. I expect that others may have also read this story. I wonder if your feelings about i are different now that you are older and maybe more experienced.
The poem by Emily Dickinson and Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state through “The story of the an Hour” surely have many similarities. For starters they both were written during the same time period, which means that they share similar struggles. Being a woman during the 1800-early 1900’s was a very demanding role. You were expected to be married like these two women were, whether you like it or not. As seen in the poem of Emily Dickinson, if she ever misses her days of being single she must rather stay quiet and bury such feelings deep like the sea.“It lay unmention” and any discomfort must be only kept to yourself. In addition, as we can see in Mrs. Mallard’s story, she was heartbroken for her husband when she first heard of the news, but the sadness quickly left her once she realized she obtained her freedom in return(Line 14). In fact, finally being freed of bondage from her marriage made Mrs. Mallard was so overjoyed that once she figured out her husband wasn’t really dead it was too shocking for her to bear(Line 20). In conclusion both these women understood the burdens of what it was to be married. They remained trapped and without a say as long as they were bond to their husbands.
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Ivanoba, this is so well expressed. It is an interesting paradox to me that as long as Mrs. Mallard believes her husband is dead, she feels alive. When she finds out he is alive, it causes her to die. She cannot be truly alive in the context of her marriage.
Hi Ivanoba, I really like how you described Mrs. Mallard’s realization, that in the loss of her husband she obtained her freedom in return. It just made me think about how when she realizes he’s not dead, she’s also stricken with the loss of her freedom and the grief felt from her loss of her husband is nothing compared to that felt from the loss of her freedom, which ended up being enough to kill her.
Hey Ivanoba, I agree with your statement that being a wife during the 1800 and early 1900’s was a demanding role for women at the time. In Emily Dickinson’s poem she expresses that point within the first few lines of her poem, as if meeting the requirements of a wife is a job she had been assigned. Taking the burden and title of the wife requires her to rid herself of her desires and become an object to the man she is married to. Her life is no longer her own, it is now shared with her husband. I like how you describe both the wife within Emily Dickinson’s poem and Mrs.Mallard as trapped and bound to their husbands. These women probably felt as though they had no agency in their lives, unable to make their own decisions. But when that title is stripped and their husband is no longer in the picture they finally have the freedom they craved.
Hello Ivanoba,
I am just not realizing both were written around the same time. So it made sense how the poem and story were similar. They knew their duties as wife and mother and while they may have wanted to complain they kept it to themselves. Being a woman back then, you didn’t have much say, you did what was expected of you.
Ivanoba, I like you comment on the idea of Mrs.Mallard obtaining her freedom. She felt trapped as did the women who must give themselves up to their husbands in the poem by Emily Dickinson. She did not hate her husband or even condemn him for the life she lived, even saying he only ever looked at her with love, but was glad he was gone to have her own life back, as she should. The poem says a woman “drops the playthings of her life” to “rise to the requirement” and i think Mrs.Mallard is just overjoyed to have back the things that give her joy and to live her life the way she chooses unburdened by societal pressure.
Hello Ivanova, I totally agree with your response to both stories. The role of being a wife during this time was a forced demanding role that women had to endure and was forced into them to expect this as a normal norm. The men created the system in their wants and need to make woman dependable of them at that time thus giving the woman little ability to pursue different wants and needs cause men to shadow them into marriage and acceptance.
English 201 – 0534
Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” is a contrast of Mrs. Mallard emotional state in “The Story of an Hour”. In the first stanza Emily writes that “She rose to his requirement, dropped the playthings of her life to take the honorable work of woman and of wife”, this implies that she when she got married she changed her attitude and sacrificed all her dreams and goals as she was now willing to take on the responsibilities of a grown-up and fulfill her duties as a wife. In contrast to this, Mrs. Mallard was overwhelmed with joy when she found out that her husband, Brently Mallard was dead. She looked at the situation as her chance to finally live a free and independent life where “There would be no powerful will bending hers…” and despite the fact that she died at the end, she was still as ecstatic because at last she was going to be free from the leashes of her husband. The second stanza states, “If aught she missed in her new day of amplitude, or awe, or first prospective, or the gold in using wore away” and this can simply mean if there is any of her dreams or aspirations she wished to achieve before she got married they would all begin to fade away as this was her new life now. However, while she was accepting of this fact and her new life, Mrs. Mallard found it difficult to come to terms with her married life and spent her entire married life resenting the fact that she chose to marry and saw marital life as “which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature. Lastly, Emily uses imagery to create a depiction of the sea and its treasures, “It lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed, but only to himself is known the fathoms they abide.” This can mean that just like how the sea has beautiful treasures similarly she has dreams but no one knows or understands besides them which is similar to how Mrs. Mallard feels because everyone thinks she would be unable to accept what has happened to her husband but instead she is overjoyed when she realizes that she’s now free. So, in conclusion the poem and story reveal how two women have two very distinct perspectives on how they view their married life but also in the end it shows how no one really understands the feelings of woman.
I do agree with most of what you put Payshanti, however, I do think it should be notable the similarities between the two as focusing on contrast alone would ignore the fact that Mrs. Mallard has subjected herself to that “perfect lady” lifestyle that “The Wife” talks so eagerly about. In addition to the portion where you mention she died ecstatic, I definitely took it a different way. The end of “Story of the hour” (at least to me) seemed to be an example of situational irony in that the doctors explain it as “joy that kills” when she must have felt anything but at the moment of seeing him alive.
Jonathan, yes, the ending is the ultimate example of verbal irony. The exact opposite of what is said is what is true.
The poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson relates to the emotional state of Ms. Mallard because it signifies the happiness she felt in her freedom of no longer being the woman or wife that had to meet the requirements of her husband. Although she experienced grief and loss from her husband’s death she finally took in that she can be the woman she always wanted to be. She reflects on how being nothing but a devoted wife wore away at her and that relates to the poem when Emily says
“If aught she missed in her new day
Of amplitude, or awe,
Or first prospective, or the gold
In using wore away”
This shows that how a woman who is symbolized as gold is waring away because of her devotion to her husband. Every waking day and moment of her life was to only be giving to her husband and not herself. This poem line shows how women are not valued or not allowed to choose themselves because of the “requirement” to always bend their backs and sacrifice the freedoms they want for their husbands. Once Ms. Mallard got over her grief and depression she became so happy that she can enjoy her freedom and the irony of the story is once she found her husband wasn’t in fact dead, she died. I believe this shines light on the sacrifice of being a wife leads to death. There is no joy in being a devoted wife but more like a poison that slowly kills a woman more than it does for a husband.
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Regina, thanks for the good comments. Yes, I think both works speak to a loss of freedom. In the poem, the loss of freedom is both in the practical details of life; it is also the loss of freedom to speak of any unhappiness the woman might be feeling. She is doing “the honorable work” of being a wife. She is meant to feel honored by this new role. I’m glad you mention the irony in the story. The last line is a very powerful example of verbal irony. The doctor believes she has died of “the joy that kills.”
The theme of the Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The story of an hour” because of the similarity of the character traits or development yet with a different scenario. In the poem, the wife is seeking for her own individual power and freedom from the marriage. She seems like nothing interests her even if it’s the first day of her marriage. She has to let go of the things she most enjoys. We can contemplate this trait from the very first line of the second paragraph, “If aught she missed in her new day of amplitude, or awe.” Although now she is married to a man, she seems unwilling to make compromises for the relationship. I believe she is in despair and is finding discontentment the same time in her marriage because of how timid she seems with the responsibilities she has to take care of as a wife. And it is completely different from what she had planned or envisioned her future to be as the line says,“ Or first prospective, or the gold in using wore away.” However, she might also feel constrained somehow to follow the husband’s requirements because now she is aware that to be a good wife she must “take the honorable work of a woman and of a wife.” The last paragraph that mentions, “It lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed, but only to himself is known the fathoms they abide ” intensely and metaphorically describes the wife’s emotional stage. This paragraph speaks on behalf of how in need of freedom and independence she is in but she suppresses it all inside her. This is because she is in awe of not becoming an example of an adequate wife. Whereas, in “the story of an hour”, Mrs. Mallard finds herself in contentment and at an ease after her husband’s death. Yes, she was at grief after hearing the news from Richard, but she got over it as if it did not affect her at all. The line, “And yet she had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!” affirms how she feels towards Brently, her husband. From this sentence, we can conclude that Mrs. Mallard was not really fond of her husband or loved him genuinely because she seems happy and lively with his absence rather than his presence. She falls in love with the fact that now she is an independent woman with no responsibilities or an entitlement of a married woman she has to carry along. We can observe that in both poem and in the story, the two married women desire liberty, freedom, and independence. They both seem to have a similar personality trait of failing to commute to something that restricts them from feeling self-contained. In short, With Mrs. Mallard she certainly realizes that she had found what she was missing all her life after her husband’s death. On the other hand, the wife also realizes after marrying the man. The strange thing to me is that they both realize they were missing something in their life after being surrounded with unanticipated circumstances.
Section 1209 (50409)
Prasika, this post explains your feelings a bit better. I misinterpreted your remarks about the epiphany of the woman in the story in your earlier comment. It’s one of the sad details of the story, I think, that she recognizes that her husband is a good man and that he has never anything but kind to her and that she loves him—sometimes. There is text in the story that also acknowledges the suppression that might be felt by men in marriage too. In marriage, there will always be someone asserting his or her will on the other. Some critics fault Mrs. Mallard for being selfish and not recognizing the compromise inherent in a marriage contract.
“The Wife” portrays the struggle of 19th century women forced into domestic life and subservience to their husbands. Dickinson writes, “She rose to his requirement, dropped the playthings of her life to take the honorable work of woman and of wife”, describing marriage as a wife’s duty to her husband involving the abandonment of what she enjoys in life. Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” is liberated from the subservience “The Wife” describes when she is brought news of her husband’s untimely death. At first she is overwhelmed with grief, but then is struck with uncontrollable joy at her newfound freedom. All the problems of Mrs. Mallard’s marriage, the confines of domestic life, and the authority of her husband which she had been powerless to challenge and “lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed,” now fade away and leave her in a state of bliss. When she realizes that her husband is not dead, the thought of returning to the subservience of marriage is enough to cause her heart to give out.
Section 1209
Josh, thank you for the beautiful connection you make about Mrs. Mallard and how all her true feelings had laid “unmentioned as the sea develops pearl and weed . . .” This is exactly it! I don’t think the works suggest that marriage is inherently bad but that some people—both women and men—are unhappy in these unions in ways that they do not express to others. Mrs. Mallard, in fact, seems surprised at the force of her own elation.
Josh ,I would like to emphasize what you just stated which is When Mrs. Mallard hears the news about her husband death, she instantly feels strong grief. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.” The irony with Mrs. Mallard’s tears is that they are not from sorrow but from happiness. She has grasped that she is now free and that she can live her life independently. When she sits looking out at the trees and sees the new spring life, she is seeing her new life of freedom so she cries from joy because with his death she will now be able to really live.
Fatu, yes, with her husband’s death, Louise Mallard feels she can finally live.
Josh, Indeed ”The Wife” shows the struggles women in the 19th century faced . Many of these women are forced into marriage and are now under the complete control of their husbands. As you mentioned, when a woman becomes a wife, she automatically leaves behind the dreams and desire she once had and devote her all to her husband. When Mrs. Mallard realize her husband is very much alive all her hopes of becoming free and no longer being repressed in her marriage, shook her to the core.
Hi Josh, I think it’s ironic that “the thought of returning to the subservience of marriage is enough to cause her heart to give out.” Mrs. Mallard dies not because of the news of her husband’s death, but because of the frustration that he is alive. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of the joy that kills.” They assume that her weak heart could not bear the happiness she experienced when she found out that her husband was alive. Interestingly that they do not know or refuse to acknowledge the true cause of her death. After all, in fact, she dies of shock when she learns that the future she was thinking about was just a helpless dream.
In the poem “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the major theme of the story represents a disregard for the way that women are treated in some relationships, and to a certain level in society. Chopin also suggests that women are weakened by adjusting to social jobs. This is also echoed in the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson, where the theme revolves around submission of women and sacrifice in marriage. In the first stanza “She rose to his requirement, dropped/ The playthings of her life” the author explains that a woman is supposed to leave her life of enjoyment if she is to be respected by society by getting married and obeying her husband (Lines 1-2). However, in the lines “It lay unmentioned, as the sea/ Develops pearl and weed”, Dickenson explains that even if women goes through heaven and hell to satisfy their husbands, their sacrifices are not recognized (Lines 9-10). Same goes for the story “The Story of an Hour” when she immediately begin to grieve “wild abandonment” (Paragraph 3). When she went to her room, she acted like a dark cloud was lifted from her soul and that she could now live life to its fullest potential. But that joy was short live. To conclude, both poems involve themes of the repressive nature of marriage during the 19th century.
Fatu, thanks for the good comments. I like your description of Mrs. Mallard’s realization of her sudden freedom as “a dark cloud” being lifted. She doesn’t even seem to have allowed herself these thoughts before she was told of her husband’s death. The lines about what is “unmentioned” refers to her own longings, such as this intense wish for freedom. A woman in her position was expected to feel honored at being a wife. She would never mention her unhappiness in this esteemed role.
The theme of Emily Dickerson poem ”The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallards emotional state in the story ” Story of An Hour” in the the aspect that both women wants freedom. Mrs. Mallard in the ”Story of an Hour” had her feelings, desire or thoughts subdued and she only feels free when she hears about her husband demise. At first, she does not consciously allow herself to think about this freedom. He husband death has made her see something she has never seen before; her desire for self- determination. When she allows herself to recognize her freedom she says ” Free! Body and Soul free!”, this action shows her excitement of having years to come that would belong to her alone. In Emily Dickerson poem ” The Wife” she states ”She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife”. These lines shows the changes and sacrifices married women have to make. Its about meeting all her husband’s requirements and leaving all her dreams and aspirations she had as a young girl behind. In both writings, these women are repressed in their marriages.
Treshel, you are so right when you say that Mrs. Mallard has not allowed herself to consciously think about the possibility of freedom and autonomy. This longing is buried so deep inside herself that even she seems surprised when it rises to the surface.
Treshel,
Your response just made my heart skip a beat and I am not joking. You see I found myself extremely invested in these readings. Independence and individuality is part of my personanality now . I have allways wanted to be on my own and live the way I choose. Reading your comment made me realize just how much independance I have. A girl my age only 60 years would never be able to do the things I could, and most likely be married. She would never been able to go to college or even have the the choice to deciede to go to college. I think that as much as I educated in the suffrage of woman back then, sometimes I have an ingnorant approach and take forgranant what I have because i never allways had it.
Megan, I have to say that I appreciate your self-awareness and your gratitude for the freedoms you are able to have. Some young people—and older people— take these things for granted. I’m also struck by how you are taking in the works we are reading as influences on your thinking and perception. Wow.
Sec 1209
There are huge parallels between “The Wife” and “The Story of an Hour”, as they seem to be in different progressions of the life of a woman in the 19th century. The theme of “The Wife” is geared toward the notion of the “perfect lady”, a woman that drops all ambitions in order to serve as a good housewife and mom. This is most obviously seen through the line “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife”. The placement of the word honorable seems to point toward the theme of submission to the domestic life was what was respectable in that time. In addition, the last few lines also give the impression that she must drop her ambitions, while the man doesn’t as seen by the lines “as the sea Develops pearl and weed, But only to himself is known The fathoms they abide”. “The story of an hour”, on the other hand, sees the life of a women that is sick of the traditional perfect lady lifestyle and has had a long experience being weighed down by it. Mrs. Mallard is not someone who is resisting to conform to the cult of domesticity, but instead someone who has escaped for only a brief moment. Of course, this moment is very short-lived, as the source of her “repression” (describing her life with her husband) returns, and the happiness quickly follows by a lethal sorrow. In conclusion, while “The Wife” glorifies the lifestyle of the submissive, domestic women, “Story of an hour” sees the shackles this lifestyle provided to some women who did not want to live that way.
Jonathan, I like how you distinguish the two works here. I think the first stanza of the Dickinson poem expresses so clearly how women were expected to feel about taking on “the honorable work” of being a wife. It was considered a privilege and a sacred duty to take on this role. In the poem, I think the speaker is putting forth the situation without focusing on one particular character. She uses the word “if” as she begins to suppose what a wife does if she feels unfulfilled in marriage—and the second stanza gives the possible reasons for this sense of dissatisfaction. And I totally agree that Mrs. Mallard has not resisted the life of conformity. If she has had a desire for freedom, she has kept it long buried inside her as she fills her expected role. She actually seems startled at her own reaction and, at first, tries to push it away.
I think that the Emely Dickinson poem “The Wife”, is in a symbolic way the exact representation of Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. It is probable that at the beginning of Mrs. Mallard’s marriage, she accepts her life as a wife in the way that it was anticipated like is mentioned in the first four lines of the poem. However, after the tragic news about her husband’s death, she realized that the news makes her feel alive because she won’t have to keep living to please her husband anymore. In other words, as the last eight lines of the poem disclosed, at that time if a wife was not really happy of having the privilege of taking care of her husband like a woman was expected to be; her only choice was to bury those feelings and die without expressing them. And that was what exactly happen to Mrs. Mallard, she was the one who ended up dying and with her, all of her feelings and possible future plans. Section 0534
Kenia, I totally agree with you about the emotional state of Mrs. Mallard. She accepted her wifely duties and cater to her husbands every need but after the news of her husband demise she sees herself as finally having her freedom. The last stanza shows that Mrs. Mallard had to keep her feelings and emotions locked away and never express her feelings even if those feelings made her unhappy. The thought of returning to a marriage of restraint was enough to make her already sick heart fail her.
Hi Kenia, I also agree with you that the emotional state of Mrs. Mallard. Even though she accepted to be a wife when she got married, she was very confused when she heard about her husband’s death. But from her life that she had devoted her life to her husband since she got married, she could live for her, and she could get free. She thought she did not have to suppress her feelings, but she died after saw her husband who thought she had died. Although She thought she was free, she desperate she would return to life as before. I think she expresses the darkness of the minds of ordinary housewives at the time.
Hi Kenia, I absolutely agree with your perspective on the two readings and I love how seamlessly you connected both of them to each other. Also, you’re right Mrs. Mallard did accept her role as a wife but after receiving news that her husband had passed away she suddenly felt much more free and alive since she didn’t have to live to please him or follow his rules anymore. And you’re right, if a woman back then wasn’t happy being married or wasn’t happy performing the duties of a wife then her only choice was to bury them and take them to the grave with her like Mrs. Mallard did as you pointed out. These readings suddenly make me wonder how many women at that time had to suppress their feelings and sacrifice all their dreams just so they could have saved their family’s reputation and dignity.
In the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson, it starts by telling us she let go of her enjoyment in life to serve her husband and become a woman. To her doing this for him is honorable and worth dropping away to fun in life. “Dropped the playthings of her life, to take the honorable work, of woman and of wife.” She’s in awe and excited for this new life she has chosen to abide. But as time progresses you can see her attitude towards this new life changes. The second stanza of the poem gives me a sense of will this new life bring me joy or something else, then brings up the gold wearing away, just as her enthusiasm towards this life is. This is where you can make the comparison with “The Story of an Hour” by Mrs Mallard. Learning of the death of her husband she does weep, the initial shock or feeling towards this new occasion just as Emily when she chose to leave her life of freedom to serve another man. But Mrs Mallard realizes, she yearned for this freedom all along, or maybe she knew she wanted this freedom for so long. How I see this specific story, she maybe didn’t even want that marriage at all but over time love is bound to just take place, but deep inside she just wanted to be free. And as for Emily, it’s similar as well as she may have also been put in a position where she didn’t truly want to but something in between that wasn’t mentioned in the poem made her choose this life. They both wanted freedom and they gave the readers this indicator at the end of the story. And I think the line “It lay unmentioned, as the sea, develops pearl and weed” may show the issues that are slowly building up in the marriage or the feelings she feels that are kept underneath the surface but I may be incorrect.
Manuel, thanks for the good observations. And you absolutely right in your reading of the metaphor of the sea with its buried weed and pearl. This metaphor describes the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s repression. The text mentions that it shows in her face, but her desires have been kept buried for so long, she almost seems surprised when they begin to surface. She is also a little horrified as the feeling of elation begins to creep over her.
Women’s oppression is a social issue that has led to women’s rights movements and feminism activism since civilization. The theme exists in Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” and the experiences of Mrs. Mallard and her emotional state in “The Story of an Hour.” In the poem, the woman leaves her life, interests, needs, and identity to serve, satisfy, and please the man. Dickinson writes that “She rose to his requirement, dropped the playthings of her life” (Lines 1 & 2). There are a lot of expectations from them to the extent that they forget their hobbies, keeping themselves happy, and caring for their bodies. To me the life of the women Dickinson describes in the poem is of a slave. The feelings of the bondage of the woman are best expressed in Mrs. Mallard’s feelings when she felt free, “both body and soul” when she learned that her husband had died. It is ironic that her husband is dead, a situation where there should be remorse, sadness, and pain, but she is feeling free and high-spirited to start living life for herself.
Hi Khadijah, I think that you are right, oppression could be a good word to describe the desperate sense of loss of freedom in Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife”, and the experiences of Mrs. Mallard and her emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. As a result, ironically Mrs. Mallard’s weak heart resisted the news of her husband’s death but did not resist knowing that he was still alive, and her hope for freedom was already gone.
Khadijah, yes, you point out the central irony in this story very well. Most readers expect a wife to be grief-stricken at the news of their husband’s death. And Mrs. Mallard does go to her room to weep for a while. But to her own horror, she begins to realize how happy and liberated she actually is. As long as her husband is alive, she is dead, and once she believes that he is dead, she comes to life. The last line of the story is the ultimate in verbal irony.
ENG 201 Sec.0527
In Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, and Emily Dickinson’s “The Wife”, there are several similarities to womanhood, independence, and self identity. Chopin uses irony to convey womanhood in a patriarchal society. When Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist of the story, receives news of the death of her husband, she is stricken with severe grief. The people knowing of Mrs. Mallard’s ailing heart condition took delicate caution to deliver the news. This resulted in the retreat to her quarters, reflecting on the events that have transpired. It was through this reflection that she realized the newfound freedom she acquired and the opportunities she had as a widow, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself”, (Chopin). Throughout the story, the protagonist was only referred to as Mrs. Mallard. There was only one instance in which the main character was mentioned by first name, Louise, when Josephine was worried that her grieving could make her ill. This is important as this checkpoints the climax where the dreadful events led to her revived identity, only to succumb to an ironic ending where her husband was alive and at the front door. Once again Mrs. Mallard is not introduced as Louise but as a wife showing that her life was not her own but the property of her husband.
This context is indistinguishable to Dickinson’s “The Wife”. The poem delivers a sense of this understanding through vivid imagery and metaphor, “She rose to his requirement, dropped the playthings in her life to take the honorable work of woman and wife”, (Dickinson). Dickinson starts with pointing out the patriarchal ‘requirement’, for women to give up all of their passions in honor of assuming the role of being a wife, in this we see the sacrifice of women. In the second stanza, “If aught she missed in her new day of amplitude, or awe, or first prospective, or the gold in using wore away”, (Dickinson), the reader gets a spectacular view of the opportunity and promise women have. The use of powerful words like amplitude and awe, give notion of all the multitude of experiences, dreams, hopes, and possibilities of the future. One cannot avoid the consternation of Dickinson, as we see the lustrous gleam of gold worn away by the bondage of marriage and the pressures of womanhood. In the last stanza, “It lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed, but only to himself is known the fathoms they abide”, (Dickinson). This last stanza would possibly be the most intriguing. Dickinson seems to lay an esoteric warning concluding the most dramatic circumstance that points out the irony within the “Story of an Hour”. Referring to this vast sea of developing pearls and weeds, perhaps dreams and foundations, hidden away so only the man knows the desires she holds dear but covers it under the deep waters. In this final part we understand that women abandon everything they are for the sake of man and the views of society. This points to the issue of identity as one can see with Louise and how the realization of her independence, once again a faint reality, leads to her death.
Juan, thank you for this beautifully written post. I especially like your discussion of the Dickinson poem. I agree that the later stanzas are the most intriguing. They speak to the buried longings of many women of this time with powerful, poetic metaphor. You write that the poem and story are “indistinguishable” in this regard, and I think it’s true that the poem can shed light on Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state. She has repressed her true feelings for so long that she seems almost shocked when they begin to surface as she sits and gazes out the window—which is very symbolic, by the way, as if offers a vista of the outside world.
I think the theme of the Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” because in both works the women lost their freedom. In “The Story of an Hour,” the author uses the metaphor “storm of grief” to show Mrs. Mallard’s first emotions when the terrible news arrives. It was that short period of time that it took for Mrs. Mallard to realize that she was finally free. Mrs. Mallard felt guilty for the sudden relief and freedom after hearing the news, which shows that she had very little rights. Also, when she whispered, “Free, free, free!”, It showed that she had always strived for freedom. Mrs. Mallard has just realized that life can be long and different since she is now free, but a few minutes after she found out that her husband was still alive, she died. No one would want to be in a “cage” again after feeling the taste of freedom. The theme of the Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife”, in my opinion, shows how a woman sacrifices herself for marriage and thereby loses her freedom. “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” These lines show how women had to sacrifice their values and aspirations in order to fit into the role of wife.
Hi Altynai, I also agree that Mrs.Mallard was able to showcase her sense of comfort and joy by stating “free, free, free.” Mrs.Mallard showed her true emotion when she said this because she felt relief during a period of sadness instead of grief and despair. She may not have realized how emotionally and mentally drained she was by the relationship. “The Wife” also relates this feeling by showing how women have to give up their own lives for their husband.
Hey Altynai, I agree that Ms. Mallard has always strived for her freedom. I think by her dropping dead at the end of the story is the true sign of her wanting out of the marriage to have her own life back. To add on to what you’re saying, I think it’s funny that “The Wife” falls under the Love Poem category when in reality it shows women’s sacrifices to the husband. Maybe it’s showing what people will do for love.
The theme of Emily Dickinson poem ” The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an hour” because both stories talk about the disrespect and loss of freedom for women in relationships. In Mrs. Mallard’s “The story of an hour” women are treated without respect in relationships as well as in society. In the story “The Wife” women are seen as when they get married they are sacrificing their freedom. In the text it states “It lay unmentioned, as the sea/ Develops pearl and weed”, Dickenson explains that even if a women goes through heaven and hell to satisfy their husbands, their sacrifices are not recognized (Lines 9-10). In ” The story of an hour” the author states that when the women’s husband passed away she began to grieve “wild abandonment”(Paragraph, 3). She felt as she is free now that her husband is not with her anymore. It seemed like she did not allow herself these thoughts while her husband was alive. In conclusion, both stories have a similar theme in that women are treated as a less of a person once they are in a relationship.
Hi Alexsander, I like your take on the quote ” it lay unmentioned, as the sea/ Develop pearl and weed.” This quote shows how women go through great odds and hardship to please their husbands. They have to give up their dreams and ambitions to serve their husbands. Women do not have a role outside of fulfilling their husbands wishes. Women are belittled to being less than their male counterparts.
Shapla, the quote you mention refers to the depth of the character’s unspoken longings and desires.
Alexsander, I find your take on the quote “It lay unmentioned, as the sea/ Develops pearl and weed.” interesting because I had come up with something entirely different yet I feel that neither of us are wrong. In fact I think we are both right and I feel that this demonstrates how powerful Dickinson’s poem was. The first four lines are blunt and to the point, but as it goes on it becomes more obscure. This obscurity leaves so much room for interpretation yet still revolves around the same common theme of women and the patriarchy.
Miranda, we’d love to hear the alternate interpretation you had compared to Alexsander’s!
I believe both the woman in, “The Wife” and Mrs.Mallard, were women who did as society had expected during this era and both felt their very identity repressed because of it. In the poem, the wife “dropped the playthings in her life,” indicates that she probably had no time between being a child to develop herself because she had to take on the “honorable work of woman and wife” and because it states that she rose to the “requirement” means this honorable work was not to be questioned. “The Story of an Hour” also hints the same may have been the case with Mrs. Mallard when after her husband’s death she sits comfortably in the cushion of a chair, quite motionless, (perhaps the word motionless here is used to represent without movement for her own progression?) The story then goes on in the same sentence to say, “as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.” here the author may be indicating that the cry is Ms. Mallards because she, like the wife in the poem also had to drop the playthings in her life and like a child in a sleep she sobs about her dreams lost.
I believe both women felt like used objects. In the poem this is indicated with, “or the gold in using wore away.” Mrs. Mallard shows she feld used when she has the thought of, “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,” adding that whether done with kind or cruel intention made it nevertheless still a crime. In the poem the wife does not speak of her feelings and states “it lay unmentioned,” and notes, “but only to himself is know, where as in the story Ms. Mallards makes is illuminated to the fact that she will no longer have to stay quiet with the death of her husband and regards it as freedom that has finally come to her. Lastly, I noticed the poem states “as the sea Develops pearl and weed.” A pearl which is regarded as a beautiful and highly feminine gem is shown here to represent the woman that is buried in the ugly shell of an oyster (males, husband) and perhaps, trapped or covered in ugly/slimy wee, (society’s male dominated orientation). I believe that if both women could have spoken together about the “fathoms they abide” they would have found they had a lot in common.
Janine, I’m glad you mention this line from the story: “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.” The mention of men in this text suggests that marriage might also be oppressive to some men. An unmarried man in the 19th Century would not reap the same scorn an unmarried woman would, so he might be free to remain single. A woman would not have the same option—even a woman completely unsuited to being married.
ENG 201 Sec. 0527
Janine, I like some of the correlations you compiled in this post. To quote you stated, “I believe both women felt like used objects”, this was an interesting correlation when you classified the women as objects. I myself happened to have similar notions when reading the literary works. Society in that time viewed women with a sense of frailty, in comparison to the male counterpart. No one seemed to take into account the abilities of women and only viewed their value when being married and reproducing children. This is noticed with Louise as she was always most of the time referred to as Mrs. Mallard or wife putting emphasis on her husband’s ownership of her and the last stanza of Emily Dickinson’s, “The Wife”. Marriage carried many values that were not as fair to women at the time. I would even dare to stray off topic a bit to bring up a piece with “A Rose for Emily”, with the events leading to Emily poisoning Baron. Note how Baron may not receive any negative outlook for being an “eternal bachelor”, whereas a woman did not receive the same positive outlook in being a “spinster”. Even within the title in itself women are devalued. The term spinster relates to unmarried women being that of a lower status, such as lower income jobs like combing and spinning wool. There was one small snippet in which you stated, “In the poem the wife does not speak of her feelings and states “it lay unmentioned”, I would argue that Emily Dickinson did voice her opinions through poetic metaphor. As I read through the poem the point immediately comes across within the first stanza as you read the feelings are understood through the second stanza and lastly, this beautiful mysterious ending. It’s as if the woman slowly disappears throughout the poem, until you are left with nothing but what the man discloses. This describes the relationship of women and marriage in the society of that time.
The theme of the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson could be said to follow the emotional feeling of Mrs. Mallard in “Story of the Hour” by Kate Chopin. In the poem, the author writes about how a wife leaves her life to become a house wife and how the things she will miss in her old life will become less important in time, “Or the gold in using wore away”. It goes on to say how the things she does and has given up will be unnoticed by everyone save her husband who see all the work she does. This relates heavily to the emotional state of Mrs.Mallard getting news that her husband has died and she realizes she is free from the life of caring for her husband, “Free! Body and soul free!, she whispers”. Mrs.Mallard comes to the realization the she no longer has to abide by conventional standards of the time, like the first stanza in Emily’s poem, and is free to live her life for herself. In contrast, i think the poem also relates to the husband as well. The last stanza in “The Wife” alludes that the husband is aware of the thing his wife has given up and might appreciate that she has does so, as the wife in “Story of the hour” seems to as Mr.Mallard says ” the face that had never looked save with love upon her”. Both husbands in the poem and the short story loved their wives for the sacrifice they have made and see that they have made it, while both wives in these pieces have to give up their lives to tend to their husbands and Mrs.Mallard is glad to have her life given back to her.
I think the Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” represents a woman’s marriage and subsequent marriage. She seems to suppress her feelings to get married and become a good wife. I think the sentence “To take the honorable work” means that she will be a wife and support her husband. So she seems to have decided to kill her feelings to live a life that prioritizes her husband over herself. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin also represents Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state, but she represents a different life for the same married woman. What did you lose in exchange for your freedom when you got married? What did she lose in replacement for her own life? I think the absurdity in her life that she sees through Mrs. Mallard will surely free her from “repression,” albeit slightly. She did not accept the facts when she heard of her husband’s death. But over time, her emotions have changed. Even though seeing the corpse of her husband would make her tears again, at that moment she thought that she no longer needed to live for someone brought her joy. It is not that she did not love him, but I think she often could not love him.
Rii I like how you mentioned the different kind of relationships from both pieces of text in one a marriage is ending and the other one is beginning it is sad that it takes for Mrs.Mallards husband to pass in order for her to finally feel freedom but it also helps to understand why the poem “The Wife” was so sad to read because we realize that shes not only getting married but shes also giving up whatever kind of freedom she has in order to be the wife and woman that her husband wants.
The theme of Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs.Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” by describing the hidden despair of a woman’s role as a wife. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs.Mallard describes her true feelings about her husband’s death by proclaiming “free, free, free!” after hearing the sad news. This shows that Mrs.Mallard secretly felt encaged and bound to her relationship with her husband. She felt like she never had free will while married to her spouse. The lack of a woman’s freedom can also be seen in “The Wife.” Dickenson writes “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life,” this shows how women restart their lives after their marriage for their husbands. They don’t get to have dreams of their own. Dickenson also states “If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe,” referring to a woman’s ambition and desires. Dickenson explains that women miss out on their personal aspirations by obligating themselves to their husband.
ENG 201 [0527] In the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson and the story “Story of an Hour” are both similar to how women have to leave all the precious things that they want to do in their life in order to do all the requirements of their husband. In “Story of an Hour” Mrs.Mallard’s reaction when she knew about her husband’s death was hard to believe that he died but reading the story more deeper shows’s that she is starting to feel freedom in her life without anyone especially her husband controlling her. In the poem “The Wife” Emily Dickinson talks about how a woman has the role of doing all the things that her husband tells her. In the poem, it was mentioned “It lay unmentioned, as the sea Develops pearl and weed, But only to himself is known The fathoms they abide.” she doesn’t speak about her feelings, her feeling is used in a metaphor as hidden or lost in the ocean.
Maryam I agree with what you have said about how a woman has to leave all the precious things they want or have in life in order to please their husbands because in the poem we have a woman who is getting married and who is leaving her whole life behind for her husband and then in “Story of an Hour” we have a woman who’s husband just passed away and she is finally at peace because she is getting her freedom back.
The theme of the poem “The Wife” is about a woman who is willing to do anything for her husband including letting go of her old life while only taking her responsibility as his wife serious. In the story “The story of an hour” Mrs.Mallards emotional state was grief and at the same time she also had a sense of relief. Mrs.Mallard felt a sign of relief after he husbands passing because she felt that she was now free. She no longer had to live for him but for herself. The theme of “The Wife” relates to Mrs.Mallards emotional state because they are both loosing something, the woman in the poem is loosing herself or her sense of identity because she now has to be the wife her husband wants her to be and in “The story of an hour” Mrs.Mallard has lost her husband and also lost the responsibility she had of having to be his wife. One woman is loosing her freedom while the other is gaining it.
In the story “Story of an Hour” Mrs.Mallard repeating these lines to herself “Free! Body and soul free!” she was finally free she had her freedom once again and in the poem “The Wife” it the author states “But only to himself is known
The fathoms they abide.” I feel this is the authors way of saying that only the husband himself knows of what his wife must do to please him and that’s why I feel like shes loosing her freedom because she is now living for him.
(Please add this into my first response they are supposed to be together)
Chayadevi, I like your observation that in the poem the woman is losing her freedom, while in the story Mrs. Mallard is gaining hers. Interesting!
Hey Chayadevi, I like how you also found repetition in the lines from the story “Story of an Hour” I think the author purposely repeated them to emphasize how happy she felt once she got her freedom back. It’s terrifying how someone can just take your freedom away. I think freedom is so valuable because its way for an individual to express their true self.
I noticed the theme throughout the two beautiful pieces of work, “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin and “The wife” by Emily Dickson, is the concept of individuality being invaluable. The readings center on the role of a wife and how that signifies womanhood; it showed that this was the only way of achieving it. The role of the woman was to be a wife and mother; with this, there was submissiveness and isolation that came along. In the poem “The Wife” the first stanza explained how the woman gave up her individuality to serve every whim of her husband. In the last stanza, it says the following, “It lay unmentioned, as the sea, Develops pearl and weed, But only to himself known, The fathoms they abide.” The miserable conditions in which she lived were never to be known to the outside world for she must never complain or make her husband look any less than he is. However, in the reading “The Story of an Hour” the plot solidifies the yearnings for a woman in this time; when the woman literally drops dead, people assumed that it was due to the happiness that her husband was not dead, but in actuality, it was the deepening sadness that in him being alive, she is still held captive in her own life. This brings back to the value of individuality; it seems as though death with one of either party seemed like the solution at that time to gain individuality or be released from submission.
Hey Megan, that was very interesting and honestly along the same lines I was thinking, I even used the same quote from the poem because other than the first lines it really goes to show what the word “wife” meant back then. The death of Ms Millard was most definitely caused by the thought of having to return to the place in which she had no individuality and wasn’t anyone other than Mr. Millard’s wife. I believe what you were saying was really an interesting take, I honestly didn’t think of the representations of individuality.
Hi Megan! It absolutely agree that a theme of both pieces of work is the concept of individuality being invaluable. The wife in the poem truly misses that opportunity to be herself but she doesn’t speak on it at all. Mrs. Mallard in the story, was the same way but the difference is she almost had the opportunity to have that again. The ending of the story shows how brief it was to have individuality and needs to be valued more. They took it for granted not realizing how soon it would be gone.
The theme of “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” in somewhat subtle ways. I am pretty sure its clearly established in “The Story of an Hour”, or at least implied that Mallard feels oppressed and held down by her relationship with her husband. At the thought of his death gave her, what seemed to be, an immeasurable amount of joy and happiness. As it was like for most woman at that time, they devoted their entire lives to being wives and nothing more and nothing to show for it. In “The Wife” the first line says “She rose to his requirement”, thats all they were to do, rise to what the husband needed done, at his side and subservient to him. The poem also ends with “It lay unmentioned, as the sea. Develops pearl and weed, But only to himself is known The fathoms they abide.” This was the life of any ordinary woman in these times, to act in accordance to their husbands nothing more nothing less, not requiring a life outside of the household. Mrs, Mallard’s mental state is prime example of what that does to some. After believing her husband was gone she was relieved because she thought she was finally free of her duty as a wife. When in the end she found out he was alive, she had a heart attack knowing that she would have to return to where she thought she was freed from.
Emily Dickenson’s poem “The Wife” is greatly related to The “Story of an Hour”. Thin two stories are set in the 1800s and follow up on the struggles woman had to go through with their discontent in marriages, love life, and overall happiness because of their gender role that was set by mainly established male society. In the poem “The wife” it shows the caged like marriage was to a woman on this time period, “She rose to his requirement, dropped
The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” In the text Story of an hour we can sense the same feeling from Mrs. Mallards “She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” both readings show how unhappy the woman were in their marriage and how controlling and powerless it feels when their life is sealed by the wants of the desires of the men they married. In the reading Story of an hour states “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” This shows that she was always in a state of sharp concentration and fear as her body become stiff and controlled but when the news is given to her that her husband is dead she starts to feel a sense of great relief, joy and freedom in her whole body causing a deep sense of relaxation because she was finally going to be free from the caged she was in. Both text indicate that they would be more comfortable and have more control over their over all happiness if the they were to choose who and how to love, this text greatly show their discontent but they stay in the marriage because in this era the male had over all more power when it came to power finances and titles thus making the female totally controlled, caged and dependant of the male power.
Hey Junior,
Your analysis included the history of the cult of domesticity society in 1800 which this literature is based on which gives more perspective and understanding to the texts. You made an accurate point that women were “discontent in marriages, love life, and overall happiness because of their gender role that was set by mainly established male society.” Your observation of Mrs. Mallard constant state of sharp concentration and fear in her marriage was interesting, and I think it’s very plausible because stress, unhappiness or even a depression like state arouses this typical response of tension that people tend to get in their body. The contrast to how happy Mrs. Mallard felt when she found out her husband was dead was very dramatic indeed, and I even could imagine how she lit up after realizing she was finally free. Certainly, I believe people feel better when they can control their own lives and choose who and how to love.
Emily Dickinson’s “The Wife” and Kate Chopin’s ” Story of an Hour” both show the freedom a woman feels when she is not bound by her husband’s demands. “Wife” describes a woman who sacrifices her freedom for the sake of her marriage, and “She rose to his requirement, dropped the playthings of her life. to take the honorable work of woman and of wife” refers to the woman giving up her dreams, ambitions and talents. She was no longer defined by these childish ideas, but was bound by marriage. “It lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed “Refers to the traditional female role required by the husband, all of which indicate that the husband’s demands restrict the original freedom of the woman. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” describes Mrs. Mallard’s relief at the death of her husband and her sudden surprise to find that she had been living with such a tyrannical and mediocre man for so long. A voice that had been buried deep in her heart for a long time suddenly became the strongest impulse of all, that is, to no longer be a vassal of men, and to fight for freedom in order to gain her own independent personality. A woman’s sense of self, long repressed and buried alive, suddenly awakens.
Hey Hongbin, I definitely agree with you. It could be that that didn’t expect their freedom to be taken away from them because of marriage. They probably expected to be able to do the same thing which is why they could have both been eager to get married and drop their normal life. But also at the same time the fact that she mentioned leaving being a life to join another you get the sense she knew what she was getting herself into.
The theme of the poem “The Wife” relates to Ms. Mallards emotional state in “The Story of the Hour” because it discusses the life of a woman, how a woman is the soul care taker of her husband while her independence of life washes away from her. The second stanza of the poem states, “If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away,”. This stanza shows that while being woman and wife to her husband her own enjoyment of life washes away, the wife is missing a piece of herself while being the prime caretaker of her husband. We can see this relates to Ms. Mallards emotional state because in finding out that her husband has died, she has a realization that she can now have her own life back. We can see this in the phrase, ” But 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. There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself”. She has this realization, she has her life back, no one to care for but herself, she is free and independent which makes her over filled with joy. In the end Ms. Mallard drops dead in seeing that her husband hasn’t actually passed which I think can show how much she disliked being a wife and catering to the man.
Hey Emmalee, I love your use of imagery when describing Mrs. Mallard’s independence as being washed away. It ties the theme of the poem and the story together so well. I agree with your analysis of the text and especially the end where you said her dropping dead when she sees him shows how much she disliked being a wife. I loved that you pointed out that as the reasoning because after coming to terms with her freedom the thought of being trapped catering to someone day in and day out was enough to send her to her death.
The theme of “The Wife” relates to Ms. Mallards emotional state in “The Story of the Hour” because it speaks about the life of a woman and how a woman is supposed to be the care taker for the husband and I’m doing so she loses her own life “figuratively speaking” and now spends her days in doing what makes her husband happy. One wife is at first sad because the death of her husband but then realizes that she can now live for herself and not just as a wife while the other wife is content with living her life not for herself but for her husband
Hey Norma, I totally agree with you its a very interesting reaction from her it being a very tough situation but she ended up seeing the positives in it and seeing that now she can live her own life and do the things that she couldn’t do when she was with her husband.
Norma, it’s great to hear from you, but please be sure your posts meet the length requirement so you can receive full credit.
How the theme of the Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” is that they both relate to the early times where women were nothing more than housewives to serve their husbands. One direct quote from the poem to supports this point is “She rose to his requirement, dropped. The playthings of her life. To take the honorable work. Of woman and of wife.” There is also a quote from “The Story of an Hour” that also supports this point, ” She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” These quotes show that they both focus on the idea of women wanting freedom from the men who control them.
Marvin i like how you said “One direct quote from the poem to supports this point is “She rose to his requirement, dropped. The playthings of her life. To take the honorable work. Of woman and of wife.” As this is the second time i read that it gave me a clear understanding of what they meant by “honorable work”. Your second quote is also a really good quote which clearly shows that she realized that she can do better then servicing her husband.
In the poem “The wife” we get to see the women coming to age and giving up her goals and dreams and taking on the responsibilities that come with being a wife. which is pretty much the opposite of what is happening to mrs mallard because when she got the news that her husband was dead she immediately felt sad but after thinking about it she realized and started to think about the possibilities of her life. Even going to the point where she was repeating free in her head.
It lay unmentioned, as the sea
Develops pearl and weed,
In these two lines from the poem it is talking about the positives and the negatives of that are reaped from the sea which is similar to the feelings that mrs. Mallard was feeling and at that point when she got the news that her husband was dead she had felt the immediate pain of losing a loved one which would be the weed in this scenario but then the feeling of freedom from all the responsibilities of being a wife that would be the pearl in her life.
Neil, thanks for the good post. Be aware, however, that the metaphor about the sea refers to the depth at which the protagonist’s unspoken feelings have been kept. It would be unseemly for a married woman to express her dissatisfaction at her “honorable role,” and any negative feelings were buried fathoms deep, as the poem suggests.
The wife in the Emily Dickinson poem shows she is in a troubled state. She is always doing things for her husband no questions asked and is basically a housewife. She held a very high standard in order to service his husband and frankly that was all she was used for. Later on as the story goes she gets this freedom which is apart of the story that I enjoyed. As she now has this weight lifted she realizes the limitations that she had before and sees she the fault in her marriage. as I read this story, I realized that this problem somewhat still happens now which is why I loved how the story ended. When the husband died is when I felt that, that symbolized her freedom and happiness. Mrs. Mallard couldn’t think about the idea of being able to do what you want and work on the things you want to do and that symbolized the relationship Emily had.
I understand and agreed with you. This story symbolizes freedom and happiness once she received the news of his death and she realizes how much time she has wasted on doing everything his way and doing things for him, now she is going to live for herself. That’s why she died of a stroke/heart attack because she was too surprise that he was alive and she wasn’t going back to that life. She would be free even if she is dead.
Aylin, to whom is this directed?
The poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin relate to the emotional state in the second story by both having a similar theme of happiness and relief.
“The Story of an Hour” tells the story of Mrs Mallard how she reacts to supposed death of her husband and realizes she’s free. She becomes engulfed with happiness and freedom but then quickly gets sad of her remembering her husband. The poem “The Wife” starts of as happiness wife preparing to do the duty of a wife but mid story her love perception dies out and quickly becomes “trapped”. Both stories share at how one point they were happy as wifes but then feel trapped and want to be free.
Hello Brian, I also agree and i would like to point out that they realize how unhappy they are after they are married. Both women are expected to play a role as a wife. This means they are limited on what they can do and are instructed to do things they might not want to do. They both seek their freedom in their roles in marriage. Especially Mrs. Mallard as when she finds out her husband is still alive she dies because she knew she would never be free.
Brian, please just be careful about length requirements so you can receive full credit.
Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” is unstable and quickly changing as she grapples with the stages of grief before swiftly being struck with a life changing epiphany. Mrs. Mallard initially is deeply saddened to hear of her husband’s death however, she is quickly “possessed” by this feeling. This feeling brings about her a feeling of “illumination” as she declares indefinitely that, without a husband to hold her back, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” This feeling is intoxicating as she is suddenly excited to live a life no longer bound by the patriarchy. But just as she came to this realization, she comes to find out that her husband is actually alive as he walks through that front door. In that moment, Mrs. Mallard soul, body and spirit is crushed as she is no longer “Free.” She drops dead then and there, doctors saying it was heart disease “of the joy that kills.” These feelings harbored by Mrs. Mallard relate to the theme of the poem titled “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson because both works discuss the same issue, Marriage and the Patriarchy. The first four lines of the poem say “She rose to his requirement, dropped the playthings of her life to take the honorable work of woman and of wife.” The woman in this poem feels as though marriage is all about rising to her husband’s requirements as a result of the patriarchy and the things that were expected of women once married. Once she was married she was required to drop the playthings of her life, which to me means that she is setting aside her aspirations and dreams she had as a naive and innocent young girl and swapping that for the womanly duties of a wife under the patriarchy. I feel like Mrs. Mallard can relate to this because when she has her epiphany, she thinks to herself that she is finally free and can live a life for her, which is not something a woman would’ve been able to do once married, as they were expected to appease their husbands. In the last four lines of the poem, it says “It lay unmentioned, as the sea develops pearl and weed, but only to himself is known the fathoms they abide.” Which I believe correlates to the thoughts and feelings left unsaid by Mrs. Mallard. It is clear by her epiphany that her husband’s role in her life greatly restricted her pursuit of happiness as a woman but she probably suppressed this in order to be the “perfect wife”. In this context the sea would be in reference to her mind, where she buried, deep and dark, these feelings of anguish. She only ever showed happiness at the surface, as she never allowed anyone, especially not her husband, in past the shallows. This is probably because she feared he would be displeased to know his wife was unhappy with what he viewed as the perfect life. Overall, the theme of this poem relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour.” because it discusses the unspoken thoughts, complex feelings and universal hardships that many women, just like Mrs. Mallard, faced when married under the patriarchy.
In the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson and “The Story Of An Hour” by Kate Chopin talk about a woman’s freedom. In “The Story Of An Hour” Mrs. Mallard finds out her husband has died, after some time passes she realizes she is finally free. She starts looking out her window with the new freedom gazing at the sky. She is then met with her still alive husband and dies from “A heart disease- a joy that kills”. Mrs. Mallard is given freedom only to be chained up again which relates to the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson as in the poem the woman is also confined and not given freedom. “To take the role of a woman and wife”, this line mentions that a woman has a specific role that they must fulfil, confining them to a housewife. In the second stanza Chopin says “Or the gold in using wore away”, this signifies her love and freedom wearing away as time passes after she has gotten married. In both stories the protagonists are confined by the patriarchal roles.
The theme of Emily Dickenson’s poem relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state because just like the first stanza says, it seems Mrs. Mallard had to give up a lot of the things she enjoyed in life to be a wife. As soon as the blow of her husband’s sudden death wears off, she immediately thinks of her freedom and that she will finally be able to just live for herself now. The second and last stanzas of the poem remind me of how cautious she was when thinking of her newfound freedom initially. It seemed like something that a woman in her position would never dare speak out loud and so I think she cast it from the forefront of her mind long ago. But now that the reality of her husband’s death is settling in, it’s like muscle memory, her brain automatically reverts to the moments when she was free and it’s like she realizes that everything she truly enjoyed in life could once again be hers and ONLY hers.
Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” it relates with it because Mrs.Mallard was always depend on her husband. When they told her he was dead, she felt like she was release from him, she now needs to rose his requirements and is over with doing the “honorable work of wife”. She rose to her requirements and feel free to do anything she wants. The poem is technically explaining how a women has to become once you married.
The poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson has a theme that it is centered around a woman who gave up her life to only live by her husband and support him.This means that she does not have a life of her own and she seems to be satisfied to only live to please her husband.This seems like the complete opposite of the theme in the other poem “The Story Of An Hour” by the author Mrs.Mallard is centered around a woman who has felt trapped in her marriage and is forced to live her life through her husband and only feels free on her death bed.She feels free because she knows that in the afterlife it will be peaceful and she will get to live another life or even if there is not a after life she seems satisfied getting the rest she rightfully deserves.She feels she deserves to be free because the husband was very controlling and vindictive and much of a emotional battery person who just beat her mentally and made her give up on life.
The poem “The Wife”, written by Emily Dickinson, and the story “The Story of An Hour”, written by Kate Chopin, both portray the society standards of how a woman is supposed to be the role of a wife and to care for the husbands but are unhappy playing the “wife role”. In the poem, it is explained that the wife had to give up her social life and other things that possibly made her happy in order to fulfill the role of a wife to her husband. It is considered to be “honorable work” for a woman to be a wife. Throughout the poem, you get a sense that the wife is unhappy. One line says, “It lay unmentioned, as the sea/ Develops pearl and weed…”(Stanza 3, line 9-10) This illustrates how the wife in the poem remained quiet and buried her feelings towards her relationship with her husband. Similarly, in the story, Mrs. Mallard also played the wife role for her husband but was shown to be unhappy while doing so. After finding out the death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard was heartbroken but shortly after had joy when realizing that she was “body and soul free”. This refers to her not having to cook, clean and other things you have to do as a wife for a man. She was finally able to live for herself to do what she wants and not for her husband. At some point, her husband appeared at the front door explaining how he wasn’t even near the scene of his supposed death thus causing Mrs. Mallard to fall to her death. Seeing that her husband wasn’t really dead, she knew that she would have to be unhappy once again and it literally killed her inside. The theme of wives being unhappy playing the wife and their true feelings behind it are unspoken is present in both pieces of writing.
The poems “Wife” and “The Story of an Hour” are very similar. They both describe men’s disrespect and oppression of women in the 19th century, as well as women desire for freedom. In the pome “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson, it describes how to become a wife. In the first stanza of the poem, she said “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” It means that the marriage is an restriction to freedom to women, because they need to give up and sacrifice their dreams and hobbies to serve her husband. In the second section of the poem, she said, “If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away,” With the passage of time, they gradually adapted to the identity of their wives, their own charm and brilliance were gradually polished and disappeared. In the last section, “It lay unmentioned, as the sea Develops pearl and weed, But only to himself is known The fathoms they abide.” The thoughts are hidden in the bottom of their heart, and no one can know their real thoughts. In the story “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard was shocked and sad when she knew that her husband had death, because she lost the reason for her to be a wife. However, after that, Mrs. Mallard changed from grief to joy. She realized that she was free from the bondage of marriage, and the repressed emotions and desires in her heart for many years were released. The taste of freedom kept Mrs. Mallard excited and happy until she was death.
“The Wife” the poem from the poem by Emily Dickinson and “The story of an hour” and its protagonist Mrs. Mallards have a relationship since in both situations the wives feel that they changed their life to give it to their husbands, they left behind their the lives of free women to dedicate completely to them. on the one hand ¨The poem¨ the wife refers to a woman who does this for pleasure and to impress her husband by dedicating herself to him. In ¨The story of an hour¨ we can see how the wife suffers from the supposed death of her husband but as the minutes go by she realizes the life that she can begin to live without him, knowing that he is now a free soul just like than her. Both wives dedicated their lives to their husbands and enjoy the situation that they are going through to the form of her, one is happy making her husband happy by pleasing him and the other enjoys the idea of being free at last and resting from being a wife.
The theme of the poem written by Emily Dickinson’s “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” because in both stories we can notice the similarity that freedom is taken away from Women by men. The author Mrs. Mallard chooses to uses the phrase “storm of grief” to describe the emotions Mrs. Mallard’s had when she hears the life changing news. Although it took some time for her to come to senses that she is no longer being captivated but free. The quote that resonated with me was when she whispered, “Free, free, free!”, it showed me how much Mrs. Mallard desired to be free this whole time she hated her lifestyle. But what really surprised me was she died after she found out that her husband was alive it shows me that she no longer wanted to being locked in a “cage”. She couldn’t stand the thought of her old lifestyle. The theme of the poem “The Wife”, is the sacrifice a Woman can make to herself for a marriage in which causes her freedom to be stolen from her.
The theme of Emily Dickinson’s “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallards emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” because both women missed the freedom they had before their marriages and yearned for it back. Emily Dickinson’s poem shows a women that has given up all fun in her life and anything that still reminded her of her young self for her family. Any hope that the wife had at excitement or enjoyment in life had over time worn away. The wife believes that only the man can know these enjoyments in life and her obligation is only to be women and wife. Mrs. Mallard similarily shows some form of joy and relief when finding out news of her husbands death. Her relief came from her realization that the next however many years she had left that they would belong to her entirely, she no longer had to live for someone else.
“The Wife” relates to Mrs.Mallards emotional state in “The story of an hour” due to the fact that they are married and have a story to tell. Even though it is from their own point of view one wife from “The Wife” she decided to “take the honorable work of a woman and of wife” which is Clean, cook and take care of the husband… & the other wife from “The story of an hour” is a different kind of wife who is currently sick and she finally notices that she does not need to live for her husband and that she is free.
Both Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife” and Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour share a distinct theme. Both speak about the wife’s role in a household and the loss of freedom in accepting this role due to societal roles and standards placed throughout the ages. both wives in each passage share the same sense of loss in which they lost their freedom and accepted their roles as housewives, the lines ” dropped the playthings of her life” in “The Wife” perfectly describes how Mrs. Mallard felt while her husband was still alive. When Mrs. Mallard is privy to her husband’s death for the first time she breaks down but it is unknown if they are tears of sadness or joy to the reader at first glance. The second stanza of the poem “If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away,” details the results of the wife’s acceptance in the role they partake in by mentioning all that is lost. and to be lost. which perfectly explains why Mrs. Mallard’s hysteric state when she realizes she’s “free” as noticed when she begins whispering to herself “Free! Body and soul free!”.
Hi Gabriel, I really agree with your statement about social standards. Even in the 21st century there are people who are expected to follow their husbands in their shadow. Even though there was a point in time where that was expected it doesn’t change the fact that it can mess with women mentally, when they are being seen and not heard. Sometimes ignored by their own husbands Anyone in that situation will feel the way Mrs Mallard felt.
The Poem “The Wife” written by Emily Dickinson’s and “The Story of the Hour” written by Kate Chopin both represent Mrs.Mallard’s emotional state in that they both represented situations in which both women felt trapped and unheard in their marriage. In the poem “The Wife” “It lay unmentioned, as the sea…But only to himself is known” the writer hints towards feeling like she isn’t seen or noticed in her marriage. Leading to a feeling of neglect and unimportance. This isn’t an uncommon thing because to this day women feel trapped and alone in their own marriages, often feeling like their husbands shadows. The quote above represents Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state because once her husband died and she got a moment to herself to fully process what was going on she whispered to herself “Free Free Free.” Indicating that she is not too bothered by her husband’s death but relieved.
“The Wife” by Emily Dickinson theme relates to Mrs. Mallards emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” by Guy de Maupassant because both show how women give up themselves for their husbands and domestic lives to their peril such as when Mrs. Mallard dies from “the joy that kills” after finding out her husband was alive and her hope to finally be a free woman and owning the rest of her days herself was crushed. Mrs. Mallard felt deeply that her confinement in her marriage was cruel in this statement “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” and even though she did love her husband sometimes, her freedom from his death was a relief. Mrs. Mallard describes how the possession over another being is wrong here: “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 a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.” Up until then Mrs. Mallard lived a life revolving her husband similarly to the verse mentioned in Emily Dickinson’s poem:
“She rose to his requirement, dropped
The playthings of her life
To take the honorable work
Of woman and of wife.”