¨The story of an hour¨ The short story describes the series of emotions Louis Mallard endures after hearing of the death of her husband, who was believed to have died in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart problems and therefore her sister attempts to inform her of the horrific news in a gentle way. Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room to immediately mourn the loss of her husband. However, she begins to feel an unexpected sense of exhilaration. “Free ! Body and soul free !” is what she believes is a benefit of his death.This is an early feminist work that questions the attitudes about what women should be and how they should act. The protagonist challenges the belief in patriarchal society that women are nothing without a husband as she begins to embrace a future alone to determine her own direction and life.
Daily Archives: March 26, 2022
Both the short story, “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and the poem, “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson explores the lack of freedom and individuality of a married woman deeply and thoroughly, despite their limited length. During the Victorian times, to which both writings date back, a wife was more of a status symbol. She was something to acquire, something that makes a boy a man, gives him credibility. A wife was her husband’s property, whose only happiness, need and want in life was to be just that. If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away, It lay unmentioned, as the sea Develops pearl and weed, This quote goes to show just how little a woman’s needs really meant. They went unmentioned and were treated as nonexistent. A wife’s only possible way to freedom and individuality was becoming widowed. “Story of an Hour” sheds light on such experience. Some could easily think that all those women who lived through such times were weak and had no concept of self. But I believe that the strength to shoulder of such burden with so much humanity, grace and endurance and then to forgive all that could only found in women.
In “The Story of an Hour” I think that Mrs. Mallard being youthful and being married to Mr. Mallard so young, seemed to be an unknown burden to her, until she heard that he had been killed in the accident. Especially in the 12th paragraph when she mentions there being “no powerful will bending hers.” She had been longing for her freedom from this marriage, and now saw that she had the world at her finger tips. I think this is where it parallels with Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife”. In this poem, the paragraph is “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” I think this paragraph ties in with what I spoke about above. Mrs. Mallard is thrilled at the opportunity to go live her life as a single woman, and to see what the world can give to her. This has similar themes as the second paragraph from “The Wife”. “If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away.”
In the poem “The Wife” it talks about a woman who is not married, depict herself as a wife and describes what it is to be a woman and what it is to be a married woman. The story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is about a married woman named Louise Mallard who’s husband passes away due to a railroad accident but she learns to be herself because being married made her feel as if her some of her freedom was taken away. The two main characters have similar life aspects as to feeling like a free person when not married. In the poem “The Wife” it says “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work of woman and of wife”. The beginning of this section of the poem shows that the woman when being married takes the personal fun of her life to take on the more responsible tasks of a married woman.
