To understand the meaning behind Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" one would need to understand her past. She was born February 8, 1851 to Thomas and Eliza O'Flatery in St. Louis, Missouri (Haywood 1). After her father's untimely death in 1855, Chopin was raised by her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother (Ker 1). She attended St. Louis Academy of Sacred Heart, an all-girl school taught by nuns, and graduated June of 1968. With no strong male figure consistently in her life Chopin married Oscar Chopin in 1870, and was widowed in 1882. A couple of years later she sold her plantation and moved her family back to St. Louis (2). At the age of thirty-nine Chopin began her career as strong-willed feminist writer (Haywood 2). .
In the short story "The Story of an Hour" Chopin questions the need for dependency on another person, particularly men, to fulfill the needs and desire for happiness. Chopin opens the story by introducing Mrs. Mallard, "afflicted with a heart trouble," receiving the news of her husband's untimely death. Mrs. Mallard bursts with emotion and then seeks solitude in her room. "There stood, facing an open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank." The symbolic feeling of the armchair is warm, inviting and calm. The open window is opportunity. Out this window Mrs. Mallard could see "tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life." Looking out the window at her new life, she is seeing rebirth and watching the trees opening up to heaven for her. "There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other." Though life may seem beyond horrible, Chopin is showing that there is happiness beyond devastation; people just need to open their eyes to see it. Mrs. Mallard understands this. She "abandoned herself" and realizes that while her "repression" is dead, she is alive and ahead of her stood a life for her to fill with happiness.
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." ...