The Story of an Hour Argumentative Essay

Category: The Story of an Hour

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The possibilities of freedom for women were unlikely for women living in the late nineteenth century. Women were confined and overpowered by men. Kate Chopin, a women of the late nineteenth century herself, was a writer living within such a society. In "The Story of an Hour" (1894), Kate Chopin uses elements of settings--windows and door--in order to highlight the possibilities of freedom and the threat of confinement for women in late nineteenth century American society.

Chopin uses figurative language of symbols and imagery to conflate the possibility of freedom with the physical setting outside the window. Chopin uses the “open” window as a symbol to suggest freedom: She juxtaposes the comfortable, roomy armchair with the window to demonstrate Mrs. Mallard's feelings of freedom and comfortability within her own home now that her husband is dead. Mrs. Mallard looks out of her window into the endless opportunities she is now able to dream of:"There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair"(Chopin 147).

She uses the “tops of the trees” as symbolic imagery to describe how Mrs. Mallard is now feeling free. The spatial relation between Mrs. Mallard and the trees outside is used to suggest that freedom has become more tangible than before: "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life" (Chopin 147). Chopin uses taste imagery to suggest that Mrs. Mallard has become more aware of her own senses and perception of freedom:"The delicious breath of rain was in the air"(147).

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Chopin conflates the patches of blue sky--a symbol of hope--to emphasize the unbounded prospects Mrs. Mallard now has facing her. Color imagery is used to suggest positive emotion: "There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window" (Chopin 148). Chopin uses onomatopoeia--twittering sparrows--to evoke new life. The spatial relation between Mrs. Mallard and the eaves suggests she is closer to freedom and the outside world.

"Countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves" (Chopin 148). The conflation of symbols and imagery with the possibility of freedom suggests Mrs. Mallard is beginning to feel independent as a women in the late nineteenth century. The possibilities of freedom are becoming more of a reality for Mrs. Mallard. Chopin conflates the spatial relation between Mrs. Mallard and the outside world with sensory imagery to make the possibilities of freedom concrete.

Chopin conflates the spatial imagery --“something coming at her”-- between Mrs. Mallard and the unknown to suggest that freedom is something new to her: “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully”(148). Chopin uses animal imagery--“creeping”-- to suggest that freedom, once distant, has now become concrete and close. Sense imagery is used to portray new life: “She felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air" (Chopin 148).

Chopin uses the color of Mrs. Mallards white hands as imagery to conflate and compare with heaven; the unknown. “She was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been”(148). The reality that Mrs. Mallard is beginning to feel freedom is something she would have never of dreamed for herself as a women living in her time.

Chopin begins to manipulate the temporal setting by conflating the past and the present. Chopin is able to manipulate the temporal setting, symbolically, by foreshadowing the future. She conflates the present, new life and freedom, with the future, death: "She knew that she would weep again when she saw the, kind tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead"(Chopin 148). Again, Chopin manipulates the temporal setting by conflating the present, a bitter moment, with Mrs. Mallard’s future freedom: “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely”(148).

Chopin juxtaposes the “open window” with magical medicine, an “elixir” to portray the remedial feeling of freedom Mrs. Mallard is experiencing:"She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window" (Chopin 149). Chopin manipulates the temporal setting of the present to suggest a positive future for Mrs. Mallard: "Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own" (Chopin 149). Chopin conflates Mrs. Mallard’s past feelings of infinite confinement, with her present feelings of everlasting freedom suggesting there may be a long lived future for Mrs. Mallard. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long”(148). The manipulation of time allows Chopin to takes us into the future where endless possibilities await.

Chopin conflates the physical setting--doors--with the possibility of freedom and confinement. Chopin uses the locked door as a metaphor to show that Mrs. Mallard is now in control, something that hasn’t happened before: “Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the key-hold; imploring admission”(149). Chopin juxtaposes the idea that Mrs. Mallard was confined and ill before she was in control of her own confinement with the idea she is getting better at last with newfound freedom: “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill”(149).

Chopin conflates Mrs. Mallard standing up with the action of opening her own door to demonstrate how the possibility of freedom has given her a newfound confidence: “She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities”(149). As the door is opened by a man, Chopin uses the latchkey as a symbol of confinement to suggest that there is still an inequality between men and women:“Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who had entered”(149). Chopin has brought the reality of confinement and inequality back to life as Mrs. Mallard dies as a women in the late nineteenth century locked in her house.

In "The Story of an Hour" (1894), Kate Chopin uses elements of settings--windows and door--in order to highlight the possibilities of freedom and the threat of confinement for women in late nineteenth century American society. The possibilities of freedom for women were unlikely for women living in the late nineteenth century as women were confined and overpowered by men.

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin Essay

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is an impressive literary piece that touches the reader’s feelings as well as the mind. Even thought that the story is short, it is very rich, complete, and it carries deep sense of meaning to everyone. It is also represented through a negative view of marriage with a woman that is not saddened by the death of her husband. It is a great view to read it carefully and pay attention to each and every word said in this story they are telling. This short story is trying to bring the meaning is not to believe everything that is told to you until it is seen with your own two eyes.

This short story was very interesting to because it captured how the main character experienced in her life regarding something that not everyone has the luck to have the happiness of freedom, but it will only be understood at the end of the story. In the story Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble and her friends come over to break the news about her husband’s death most gentle as possible. Most of the time with a story like that as the reader reads expects to be feeling sad and for a while they thought Mrs. Mallard wouldn’t be able to control herself from the pain of having her husband pass away. She understands the news and understands the news when the author shows it little by little on how she realizes it and what helps her to understand it. In one of the paragraphs it says “She goes to the room and there stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair into this she sank” (Chopin, 1851-1904). This is a symbol of security and comfort even though her husband died, the open window meaning the connection to another world. Mrs.

Mallard ends up dying of joy that kills because she got to see her husband walk in after being told that he was killed. She dies from happiness of seeing her husband again and chooses rather to die than to live again under her husband’s will after experiencing freedom. Irony as the ability to alter other’s ideas about what might be expected and what things can really occur. Mrs. Mallard was very devastated and unable to think straight after hearing the news of the accident that had occurred with her husband. The only thing was she saw him alive and doing well.

She prepared herself for her husband’s death and grieving time, so that she can see him walking in the door. In this story formalist approach is used in this literary criticism on how it was developed. In our textbooks it states that “Every writer chooses particular tools to create a presentation of something that exists in his or her imagination (Clugston, 2010). The setting of this story that makes it so memorable is that Mrs. Mallard is in her bedroom most of the time throughout this story getting ready for her to hear the bad news about her husband.

There was a great surprise at the end of the story and it was that she was so shocked to know that her husband was alive and that nothing really happened to him. Mrs. Mallard with her heart condition and all was the one that got killed after a joy of killing. She thought she would have freedom even if it was just for one hour. After this hour passed it made her feel comfortable, happy, and free to make her understand a sense of her being. The story of an hour was long lived even if Mrs. Mallard only got to live an hour of her being free without her husband before she found out that he was alive.

We should only believe what we see with our own two eyes before we start thinking that everything has happened. The bad news that Mrs. Mallard received was from other people that came to tell her about the accident, but really it wasn’t true because her husband appeared right through the front door. It really didn’t let her live that long after she was shocked with her husband being alive. She ends up feeling a sense of freedom, but it is a freedom that she is the one that ends up departing from this world.

Summary and Response to A Story of an Hour

Summary and Response The desire of freedom definitely comes with an immense price. In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin describes her main character, Louise Mallard, as a freedom seeking housewife, trapped in an unwanted marriage with her husband Brently Mallard. She soon after gets granted the gift of freedom when she finds out her husband had been in a train accident, which ironically Kate Chopin’s father died of the same tragic death. With Kate Chopin’s unique writing style, she has been a major influence in literature for decades.

According to Feminist Writers, “she opened her 19th-century female readers’ eyes to a familiar world [they] had never know. ” Authors S. Selina Jamil and Daniel P. Deneau both analyzed the story and gave their opinions on how the emotions of Louise affected internally and externally. With two different viewpoints on the short story, both authors provide valid points when scrutinizing the direct variation when it came to Louise’s motives. When reading “The Story of an Hour,” one is drawn into the troubling tale of Louise Ballard and how she reacts to her trying times as a thought to be widow.

The ending throws the reader for a loop and is completely unexpected, but that’s Kate Chopin’s writing style. The story is unpredictable, enjoyable, and controversial, and definitely leaves the reader satisfied. S. Selina Jamil responds to the piece of work, “The Story of an Hour,” completely different than Daniel P. Deneau. Deneau describes the story as a sensual experiences internally occurring within Louise in his critical essay called “Chopin’s The Story of an Hour. ” Deneau places much emphasis on the passage that concludes that Louise has become “free” (Chopin 247).

Then he concludes that she forms a sexual unity with the supernatural. “With no male aggressor-partner named in the text, only a “something,” readers naturally will speculate. For me, two possibilities exist—both supernatural…” (Deneau). From then on Daniel P. Deneau infers that when Chopin uses phrases like “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 247), “slightly parted lips”, and “keen and bright eyes”(Chopin 247) that she was hinting at a sexual innuendo.

Seeing that Chopin does have a background that consists of stories that consist of controversial sexual topics, I can see how someone would mistakenly think “The Story of an Hour” would be yet another provocative piece. Contemporary Authors Online said that “She is best known for her 1899 novel, The Awakening, a once-scandalous account of one woman’s growing sexuality in the American South during the Victorian Era. ” Kate Chopin mainly wrote about compelling stories, with a dose of sexual controversy.

Yes, what Louise went through was a life altering, pivotal time, but a sexual experience seems far-fetched. She begins mourning over her deceased husband, but soon after she begins to grasp that she is no longer oppressed by the male dominant figure in her life. Deneau states that “In a limited space, and without the assistance of a psychological vocabulary, Chopin may have been forced to rely on the indefinite, the unidentified, which, as best we can judge, is some powerful force, something supernatural, something beyond the realm of mundane experience or the rule of logic. I oppose his views on the “supernatural” force compelling Louise to prosper in her feelings and begin to move forward in her life. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, the “supernatural” is relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe; especially: of or relating to God or a god, demigod, spirit, or devil. All Louise did was begin to pay attention and react joyously to the new season that had begun to blossom. The views of S. Selina Jamil are polar opposite.

Providing valid structure and content, Jamil begins her critical essay “Emotion in The Story of an Hour,” with strong overview of the emotions that Louise seems to be going through. A weak mind and meek hearted woman by the name Louise Mallard begins to fall prey of society’s cookie cutter views on how men and woman are treated. In her feminist studies, Norma Basch clearly concludes that women have the right to prosper just as men do, but during the time in which the short story occurred; woman became more complacent in their everyday roles as just a housewife.

Norma describes a marriage that is male dominant is somewhat a “form of slavery” (Basch 355). Trapped and suffocating in her daily routines as a silenced housewife, Louise receives the news about her husband. Emotions overwhelmed the blushing bride, and she soon found herself to be a widow. ”Until her moment of illumination, Mrs. Mallard’s emotions have been stifled and suppressed to fit into the mold of hollow social conventions,” say Jamil in her critical essay.

Emotional pain hits Louise and all she could do is bask in her sorrow, but soon enough an overwhelming feeling of “freedom” washes over her as the new life of the old Louise Mallard was beginning to unravel. Feminist Writers states that in The Awakening “Edna commits suicide by walking out, naked, into the ocean…” and then proceeds to say that “The act of suicide is a positive embracing of freedom, and act of re-birth. Kate Chopin shows in her writings that empowerment of being free is so strong that it can lead to death. In the hour that Louise sits and collects her thoughts she becomes more self-aware than many do in a lifetime. Completely agreeing with Jamil, she states that “For one hour of emotion, Louise does glimpse meaning and fulfillment. ” The irony of the story is that her success of actually becoming a free woman was not long lived but cut short all because of heart trouble. The growth of emotional awareness informs mechanisms that that underwrite the emergence of self-identity and social competence,” (Dolan 1194) Dolan describes that once someone becomes confident in their self-awareness that they will have reached the peak of satisfaction. What does it actually mean to be happy? Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary state that it can be defined as enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment. Clearly Mrs. Mallard got her dying wish of happiness and even though it was short lived, the feeling to her could last a lifetime.

Between “Emotions in The Story of an Hour” and “Chopin’s The Story of an Hour,” S. Selina Jamil was the powerhouse when it came to providing and incorporating importance of the entire story, instead of just a section Daniel P. Deneau did. Jamil broke down “The Story of an Hour” into the perfect guideline in following how Mrs. Mallard emotions played out throughout the hour she experienced a mix of emotions. Jamil gave more examples that used the whole story instead of just a cluster of the short story, making it harder to follow.

The context of “Chopin’s the Story of an Hour,” by Daniel P. Deneau was completely off set compared to S. Selina Jamil. All in all each essay from both of the authors were good; one surpassed the other by using certain specifics. Mixing both emotions and surrounding features, S. Selina Jamil got the upper advantage of the group because of how much information she covered, and how she described Mrs. Mallard’s ever changing emotions. Works Cited Basch, Norma. “Invisible Women: The Legal Fiction of Martial Unity in Nineteenth-Century America. ” Feminist Studies 5. (1979): 346-66. JSTOR. Web. 15 March 2012. Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour”. Literature and the Writing Process. Ed Elizabeth McMahan et al. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2011. 246-247. Print. Deneau, Daniel P. “Chopin’s The Story of an Hour. ” The Explicator 61. 4 (2003): 210+. Academic OneFile. Web. 14 March 2012. Dolan, R. J. “Emotion, Cognition, and Behavior. ” Science 298. 5596 (2002): 1191-94. JSTOR. Web. 15 March 2012 Jamil, S. Selina. “Emotions in The Story of an Hour. ” The Explicator 67. 3(2009): 215+. Academic OneFile. Web. 14 March 2012.

The Story of an Hour by Louise Mallard Analysis

After discovering the death of her husband Brently, Louise Mallard is filled with grief and sorrow. Louise out of instinct, stumbles upstairs to her bedroom and sits down to be alone and cry. However what soon awaits her is an open window. Louise peers out of the window and feels the cool blowing wind, fresh air, the foreseeing scents, and the calming sounds. From the open window itself, Louise experiences a sense of freedom and immediately stops her sobbing.

Kate Chopin herself even says: “She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.” (Chopin #222). Kate Chopin represents the window as a picture of freedom and opportunity that she could experience after her husband’s death. Louise ponders a new life from merely looking out of the window and at the same time feels a sense of elation from looking at the sky. Louise then mutters “Free! Free! Free!” (Chopin #222).

Through the open window Louise could see a clear, bright view into the distance as well as Louise’s own bright future. Unfortunately, these happy emotions and feelings do not fulfill her expectations- as it was happiness that ended her life. In a sense, Louise could even be happy, because she thought she was a burden to her husband, thus feeling relieved that she did not cause him any more burden. Mrs. Mallard also felt happy in the fact that she may have loved him, but the excitement for the future was too overwhelming, leading her to gleam in happiness just after losing her husband (which is not a normal thing to do).

Moreover, Louise felt she was always being held back and never truly felt that she was allowed to become independent and free. In context, Mrs. Mallard had a special kind of hatred towards her husband. Not a real hatred, but a hatred towards how Brently treated her; In a way which she never felt completely free. Louise’s heart troubles reflect a lot on her freedom as well.

The heart troubles that impact Louise both physically and emotionally represent the confusion towards her marriage as well as the unhappiness she had for the lack of freedom. The fact that Louise has a weak heart made it difficult and threatening for her sister, Josephine, to convey the message of her husband’s death to her. A person with a weak heart afterall, would not deal well with such sudden heart-breaking news. In the end however, excitement was the factor that ended her life.

Not because of her sadness and shock of her husband’s death, but rather the excitement of independence and freedom which stirred her heart tremendously. Louise herself even whispered,“Free! Body and Soul free!” (Chopin #222) The story of an Hour could very well be considered as an ironic story. Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as a wife that loves her husband, but at the same time happy by his sudden disappearance.

In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard’s hope for her “future” life was completely ironic too, because it was when she died that Kate Chopin described Louise’s death of “a joy that kills” (Chopin #223). But we, as a reader, know that it was obviously not the joy that killed her- it was the excitement for the future that awaited her.

All of that however stopped her heart when she discovers that her husband is still alive. What Louise Mallard wanted the most was freedom, and when she saw that small glimpse of freedom through the open window, she could not go back to living under her husband’s control. Ultimately in the end dying in a state of complete shock and misery.

Work Cited