The Story of an Hour - Kate Chopin

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When Mrs. Mallard is coming out of her room “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.” (Chopin). It was only yesterday that she had hoped for life not to but long, but for it to be short. Before her husband Brently died the only thing she had to look forward to is years of dull, unchanging dependence. Now rather than dreading the future, she now looks forward to the future eagerly. Mrs. Mallard Is now ready for the future and what it holds. She goes from not wanted to live long, to wanting to live forever. She was ready to be independent, and to start living her life for herself.

When Mrs. Mallard finds out of her husbands death she starts to cry. At the beginning of the story she cries dramatically when she learns that her husband is dead, enduring “the storm of grief”. She continues to cry when she gets in her room, but the crying is more unconscious sobbing. It is more of a reflex than spurred by emotion. Mrs. Mallard begins to see herself crying over her husbands dead body, and once the funeral is over the crying stops. The crying stops because now she is ready to move and start to live her life for her and be an independent woman.

Back in this time period where this short story takes place women had no choice in who they were going to marry. She would have married very young and would have had no say in the marriage. This is why Mrs. Mallard says that she doesn’t love him most of the time. She has never had the chance to live for her, she had never had the opportunity to be an independent woman. This is why she weeps a first, but then she begins to be over joyed. She begins to realize that now she can live her life for her. That now she can be an independent woman. That now she can do whatever she wants to do without having to answer to anybody but herself. This is why she is so joyful. Not that her husband has died, but because she can live for herself. In this short story Kate Chopin never specifically names how her husband oppressed Mrs. Mallard, but it shows that marriage is oppressive to both the man and the woman. It shows that neither the man nor the woman is really able to live independently.

In conclusion, the marriage has oppressed Mrs. Mallard and he ability to be an independent woman. In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin shows us that women did not have a say in the marriage and that they were pretty much stuck. It is clear that Mrs. Mallard did not want to stay with her husband but she had no choice. Chopin uses an abundance of imagery, and symbolism to show this.

Works Cited Page

(n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2015, from http://www HYPERLINK "http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/themes.html". HYPERLINK "http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/themes.html"sparknotes HYPERLINK "http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/themes.html". HYPERLINK "http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/themes.html"com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/themes HYPERLINK "http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/themes.html". HYPERLINK "http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/themes.html"html

"The Story of an Hour" (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2015, from http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/