Based on STORY OF AN HOUR by Kate Chopin I was surprised by Mrs. Mallard’s initial reaction to her husband’s death, which is shock and disbelief, followed by a sense of liberation and joy. This reaction may seem unexpected given the societal norms and expectations of the time period, where women were expected to be devoted to their husbands and mourning for their loss. I was intrigued by the use of language and symbolism by Chopin, such as the description of the open window and the springtime outside, It intrigues me as they symbolize new beginnings and the possibility of a fresh start for Mrs. Mallard. Additionally, Mrs. Mallard’s sudden death when her newfound freedom is taken away may also raise questions about the nature of freedom and its relationship to identity and self-fulfillment. Lastly I was puzzled by the complex and ambiguous portrayal of Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state. It may be difficult to reconcile her initial shock and disbelief with her eventual sense of liberation and joy, and some readers including me may question the suddenness and intensity of her reaction to her husband’s return. These complexities and ambiguities left me with unanswered questions and a desire to explore the story’s themes and meanings further.
Daily Archives: March 24, 2023
In the story “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant, one thing that surprised me was from the end of the story when Madame Loisel found out that the necklace that she actually lost was fake and was not even close to value that her and her husband had taken the loan for and had spent years paying off the debt by working hard.One thing that intrigued me was the character of Mathilde Loisel how she was very curious and fascinated with her dreams of being rich and living like the upper class that she borrowed a necklace for the party, lost it and then had to work hard all her life in order to pay it off.One thing that puzzled me in the reading was that why did she not tell her friend that she lost her necklace and why did she not have any conversation related to the necklace in years? because if she did tell her friend she could have found out the actual worth of the necklace and would not have to take on such a huge debt.
After beginning the story “The Necklace” you learn about Mathilde and her ungrateful and unaspiring nature as she attempts to navigate life as a woman in the middle class in the 19th century. She constantly expresses her disdain for her current situation and birrates her husband about not having more without ever providing a plan to improve their lives. So I was surprised by the end of the story when Mathilde pulls herself up by the bootstraps and works 10 hard years to pay off a necklace she needed to replace after borrowing it and losing it at a party. What intrigued me can be found in the same story. After Mathilde’s debts were paid she ran into her childhood friend who she had borrowed the necklace from. After keeping a secret from a friend for years, she grabbed her attention without hesitation, letting Jeanne know she was and what happened to her necklace. This interested me because before this Mathilde was self conscious and insecure about her appearance because she didn’t look wealthy, but in that moment she didn’t care that Jeanne couldn’t recognize her at first due to the physical wear of working hard for 10 years straight. All she cared about was letting an old friend know the truth. You can almost say she felt proud, as if she was humbled by the experience. After reading the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson, the first stanza confuses me. It reads: She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife. I don’t understand the almost militarized approach to 19th century domestic roles. Why do “playthings” of one’s life need to be dropped? Does a Man have the same responsibilities to sacrifice things they consider fun in […]
This week the readings were “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, “Love Poem 17: The Wife” by Emily DIckinson, and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, I was surprised by “The Necklace”. It surprised me how at the end of the story Madame Loisel sees Madame Forestier and approaches her to tell her how about the replacement necklace. It was remarkable and showed how proud of herself Madame Loisel was because she told her the truth about the hard work she went through to pay off her debt. I was surprised to hear from Madame Forestier that it was a fake necklace. In my opinion, this would be something that she could have very easily heard about considering the amount of people Madame Loisel and her husband had to borrow money from in order to pay it off. I feel like it is definitely something that could have been mentioned before. I was intrigued by “Love Poem: 17” because in very few words, Dickinson demonstrated how the wife “dropped” her life to take on the role of a wife and became what her husband required of her as his significant other. This caught my attention because many times in life we unfortunately hear how a woman drops everything around her to become what a man wants or needs of her. Therefore, it was something that was, in a way, relatable. I was puzzled by “Story of an Hour”. From my understanding, Mrs. Mallard was someone who was not in a healthy relationship with her husband, which is why she was yelling “Free! Free!” when she was by herself after hearing of his death. She maybe felt relieved because she was no longer going to have to deal with him. It was shocking to me to find out he was […]
During this week’s readings, the one that stood out to me was, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860”, by Barbara Welter. Throughout reading this, numerous things about the text surprised, intrigued, and last but not least even puzzled me at times. For instance, according to the text, it states, “Woman understood her position if she was the right kind of woman, a true woman. “She feels weak and timid. She needs a protector. She asks for wisdom, constancy, firmness, perseverance, and she is willing to repay it all by the surrender of the full treasure of her affection”. When I first encountered this quote, I was a bit shocked/surprised at what George Burnap expressed in his lectures. This is something that would be said by the typical American man in the years of the 1820s and up. However, this is contradicting of what women are and should stand up for, especially when it comes to “womanhood”. In defense to this, Mrs. Sigourney assured women that even though they were sperate sexes, everyone was equal. According to the text, it states, “Religion or piety was the core of woman’s virtue, the source of her strength. Young men looking for a mate were cautioned to search first for piety, for if that were there, all else would follow states”. This quote expressed how woman are pure and can help a man have faith back in Christ. This is representing women in a positive connotation, even if it is to help a man become settles emotionally and adhere to the different factors at play. Last but not least, the thing that intrigued me the most in regard to this excerpt would be how these ideologies were adopted and expected to be mass followed in the 18th and 19th centuries. This fascinates me because […]
Within the readings of this week, Story of an Hour was the most intriguing to me. I feel as a woman in that era, it was common to rely strongly on a man and feel that when they pass or they are gone, it’s as if your entire world is gone even. To have that shift where Mrs. Mallard is in a deep state of sadness and then a deep state of happiness is funny and realistic because sometimes in relationships women tend to lose themselves in a sense where we are not the independent and “free” girls we were before our relationships. To have her husband’s death not turn out to be true and causing her death afterwards was even more intriguing because of that unexpected outcome towards the end. The story that surprised me the most was, The Necklace. I certainly did not expect that tragic ending. Learning that such an event like that can make two people’s lives change and live like that for ten years is something to consider when you do something and need to think about your choices and how it can or will affect you. Madame Loisel should’ve been grateful enough of her husband and what he did for her. That small irresponsible move influenced years of torture and unnecessary debt and if I was in that position I’d feel so many negative emotions I would not know what to say or do, I’d just be speechless. The Cult of Womanhood and the short youtube video puzzled me in the right ways. It puzzled me because I rarely hear or get access to stories or excerpts that involve a meaning of womanhood and the role and positions a woman plays in society and in a family. To hear and read about it is […]
