The theme of the Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour.”, in many ways. Cleary in the time period in which both the story and poem were written, feminism was just a trembling whisper. However these short passages exploit the experiences of Women who were undermined and emotionally & physically abused first hand. The theme of “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” by using verbiage to set a dark tone when describing their relationship to their spouse and how they are bound to their partner. This can be directly proven from lines eleven and 12 of, “The Wife”, where Dickinson quotes “But only to himself is known
The fathoms they abide.” (11-12). Mrs. Mallard proves to be relieved by her husbands death being that there is no longer a clasp on her independence. This can be derived from, “The Story of an Hour”, when her sister Josephine mistakes Mrs. Mallards tears of joy for tears of greif, “I beg; open the door — you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.” “Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.” (15-16). Finally, are many other examples in which you can make this direct correlation as well., but I find that this identifies best with the relation of the Women’s emotional state in the two passages.
P.S. (I capitalized Women as the stories were related to feminism and independence) 🙂
One thought on “Daniel Machover – Week 9 Discussion”
Hello Daniel, “The Wife” by Emily shows the capacity of Mrs. Mallard and her strength after the death of her husband. She sits up and tears off her widow’s veil to face life, and she doesn’t care what others think of her and her life choices. So, she keeps moving forward by working hard to take care of her needs. Also, she handles her problems and finds the best way to resolve them.