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The Story of an Hour is a short story by the American writer, Kate Chopin.
Plot
The main character is Mrs. Mallard, who has a "heart condition." One day, Mr. Mallard's friend, Richards, learns that Mr. Mallard died in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine tries to break the news to Mrs. Mallard softly because of Mallard's heart condition. Upon hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard begins weeping, a reaction that Chopin notes as different from most women, who would refuse to believe it. Mrs. Mallard soon locks herself in a room with a window, hurls herself into a large chair, and, sobbing, gazes out at the world bustling around her. Soon, her sobs turn to gasps. She approaches climactic, sexual moment where "her bosom rose and fell tumultuously" as she embraces freedom and joy in the world. She turns the word "free" over in her mouth, whispering it with zest. Josephine, her sister, arrives at the door, begging her sister - now referred to not as Mrs. Mallard, but rather as "Louise," to emerge. As Louise comes out, she carries herself like the "Goddess of Victory," and descends the stairs with her sister. As the two move to the bottom of the stairs, we see a literal manifestation of the story's dénoument. Yet before the two fully descend the steps, the door swings open to reveal Brently Mallard, Louise's nominally dead husband. Richards flings himself in the way to hide the apparation from Mrs. Mallard, but is too late. She sees her living husband, and her freedom is ripped from her arms. The sudden tragedy, the reader believes, kills her. However, the doctors on the scene diagnose her as having collapsed from a "joy that kills," an overt jab at men's inability to understand women.
Character development
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard is informed of her husband’s supposed death. Simply characterized as “young, with a fair calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength,” (pg. 2) Mrs. Mallard feels trapped by her husband. An example of this is during the story’s climax when she is whispering “Free! Body and soul free!” By taking joy in the knowledge that the future days are to be hers alone, Chopin shows how her character is completely overwhelmed by the role society has forced her to play: a woman overshadowed by her husband.
Reception
Analysis
Kate Chopin may have chosen the title “The Story of an Hour” because the word story is more concrete than perhaps dream. Had Chopin titled the story “The Dream of an Hour” the reader may have suspected the ironic outcome. When the doctor concludes that Mrs. Mallard has died of heart disease they are correct. However, in this instance of dramatic irony the other characters believe she has died because she is so overjoyed that her husband is alive, while the reader knows the truth and that it is the exact opposite. In a sense, even though Mrs. Mallard has died, she is ultimately free. Ending her story with the death of Mrs. Mallard, Kate Chopin uses symbolism to show that the cessation of Mrs. Mallard’s heart beat is in direct connection with the abandonment of love for her husband. With this, along with her witty use of diction and syntax, Chopin creates a sense of desperation from the beginning that death is the only means to an absolution, whether it is the death of a person (Mrs. or Mr. Mallard) or the death of a concept (marriage).
References
External link
"The Story of an Hour"