Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" can be read and analyzed in a variety of different ways. Every one of the common critical strategies could be sufficient. Taking a look at a work from all of these points of view can be very difficult and drawn out. Briefly touching the surface of one of these strategies alone takes much time. There is a lot of thinking and analyzing that has to be done. In some of these strategies, the reader has to throw out everything he or she would normally do while reading, and look for underlining meaning and hidden references. In others such as reader-response, the reader must rely on what he or she thinks or sees, and must disregard any other meaning that the author intended to have. So these different ways to analyze works of literature can be as similar and different as the works themselves.
Before getting into the interpretation of "The Story of an Hour," I will give a short summary of the story. The main character is a woman by the name of Mrs. Mallard. Kate Chopin presents Mrs. Mallards first conflict of the story at the very beginning. The news of her husband's death in a railroad accident has just been broken to her and she begins to weep, just as any average wife would do. Then, she runs to her room and cries more only to be interrupted with a different kind of feeling. Although she admits that she loved her husband sometimes, she still felt that sense of freedom being given to her. When she finally comes out of her room, she notices someone opening her front door, and in walks her husband. The sight of Mr. Mallard causes her to let out a final cry as her heart fails. The doctor said she had died from "joy that kills" (Meyer, 20). .
Having a woman as the main character provides the perfect opportunity to utilize gender criticism. There are a few different kinds of gender criticism, such as feminist criticism and gay and lesbian criticism. In feminist criticism, the object is to show how the female is depicted in the story in relationship to the males.
Kate Chopin uses many different elements to create the theme of "The Story of an Hour." ... The theme of "The Story of an Hour" is the frailty of life. Irony is the first element of "The Story of an Hour." ... There are also several instances of foreshadowing in "The Story of an Hour." ... The final instance of foreshadowing in "The Story of an Hour" occurs when Mr. ...
In the short story, "The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin the primary interest of the story is in the character of Mrs. ... When initially reading the short story "The Story of an Hour," I believed the thesis above to be accurate. ... Kate Chopin uses a variety of symbols throughout the plot of the short story, "The Story of an Hour." ... Mallard as the primary interest of the short story, "The Story of an Hour." ... "The Story of an Hour" is a great short story to discuss amongst readers because of the wide range of possibilities and interpretations. ...
Through the use of imagery, Kate Chopin related the main character's emotions in The Story of an Hour, to that of the realism of the Gilded Age. In this short story Kate Chopin employed sight imagery to relate Louise Mallard's emotions in The Story of an Hour. ... Sight imagery is again used to relate the realism in the story, The Story of an Hour, to life and to refute the beliefs of the Romantics. ... Kate Chopin also utilized taste imagery in The Story of an Hour. ... Through the use of imagery, Kate Chopin related the main character's emotions in The Story of an Hour, ...
The Story of an Hour "The Story of an Hour" is about a woman who finds the liberation to live for herself through her husband's death. ... Her characters are always commits sins that often made her contemperaries cringe, whether reading private mail (Elizabeth Stock's One Story"), deceiving well-meaning nuns ("Lilacs), smoking illicit hallucinogenic ciggarettes ("An Egyptian Ciggarette"), condoning murder (The Godmother") or rejoicing at a husband's death ("Story of an Hour"). ... The "Story of an Hour" is a criticism of marriage as an institution that traps women. .....
Very little action is seen in Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour."" ... "The Story of an Hour- takes place during the season of spring. ... As we read the story we are able to see Mrs. ... The ending of "The Story of an Hour,"" displays many different instances of irony. ... In closing, "The Story of an Hour,"" by Kate Chopin, is written in a way that leaves it open to many different possible interpretations. ...
The Story of an Hour "The Story of an Hour" is emphatically a coming of age anecdote, written by Kate Chopin in eighteen ninety-four. Louise Mallard is the variance protagonist of "The Story of an Hour," who is faced with her husband Richard's death, in a time when women had to have a man in their lives in order to be respected and survive. ... The title "The Story of an Hour" first of all reflects how time is an untamed animal that picks and chooses its victims. ... "The Story of an Hour" also brings another premise to the scene, with how humans attempt to control one another to ther...
The Story of an Hour "The Story of an Hour" is emphatically a coming of age anecdote, written by Kate Chopin in eighteen ninety-four. Louise Mallard is the variance protagonist of "The Story of an Hour," who is faced with her husband Richard's death, in a time when women had to have a man in their lives in order to be respected and survive. ... The title "The Story of an Hour" first of all reflects how time is an untamed animal that picks and chooses its victims. ... "The Story of an Hour" also brings another premise to the scene, with how humans attempt to control one another to ...
In Kate Chopin's short story, The Story of an Hour depicts a short hour of a woman's life. ... Louise sits in a chair facing the window for an hour in her room. ... After a good solid hour is up, Josephine comes up the stairs to her bedroom door and asks Louise to come out. ... The little the dialogue and action in the story, the better the story was. The Story of an Hour kept me wanting to read more. ...
"The Story of an hour" The story of an hour takes place in 1900's where women weren't treated as individuals, they were treated as possessions and expected to be a loyal housewives. Construction of gender contribute to the irony in the story of an hour. ... Therefore, her death is ironic because the construction of gender contributes the irony in the story of an hour. The construction of gender throughout the story has two different views. ... The construction of Louise's characteristic contribute to the irony in the story of an hour when Louise dies at the end of the st...
The Freedom of an Hour Freedom of body and soul is the most important right any person can have. ... In "The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin, Mrs. ... The story quickly shows that Mrs. ... The title, "The Story of an Hour," shows that this is actually the story of the only hour in Mrs. ... Mallard in "The Story of an Hour." ...