She is a middle aged woman with heart trouble, and bad news was about to come her way of the “possible death of her husband” (Chopin, 1894, para.1). Mrs. Mallard was a lady who was possibly controlled in her life by her husband. “When hearing the news of the death, she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in Josephine’s arms” (Chopin, 1894, para.3). I can feel the attachment that she had with her husband, but wept once also shows maybe some antipathy. Mrs. Mallard made her way to her room and stared out her window to watch her new life take fold.
Morgan A. Campbell Composition I Professor Jacquelyn Markham Characterization of Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” When asked if Chopin's characterization of Mrs. Mallard justifies the story's unexpected and ironic climax the answer is yes. Chopin gives us characterization of Louise Mallard and makes the story have a very interesting unexpected and ironic climax We are told a story about Mrs. Louise Mallard and how her husband has been killed in a train wreck. We learn about the emotions that Louise feels when she receives the news about her husband, first it is guilt soon it is happiness. At the start of the story we discover, Mrs. Mallard experiences heart troubles and that her sister Josephine and her husband's Friend Richard have came to her house after hearing about a tragic train wreck that has left Mrs. Mallard's husband dead. They both fear that when they tell Louise the news of the wreck that killed her husband, Louise may become very sick.
Both marriages are restricting, and challenge the protagonists’ concept of self and individuality. In “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard gets the news of her husband’s death from her sister and her husband’s friend. She quickly retreats to the privacy of her own room which her companions believe is to grieve in solitude. In actuality, she shows the reader that she is finally confronting the wasted days of her life, and through that realizes that she has been given a second chance. She reflects on her marriage and we find that, although it was a good one, her husband never knew how unhappy his wife was.
However, she is able to begin her transformation to a self-aware woman when she learns of her husband’s death. The single hour she has to herself, believing she is now “free” from the shackles of marriage and society’s demands, was the most liberating of her life. The reader is able to witness this in the passage: “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!’ The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright.
Body and soul free” (169-170). Louise’s celebration of her husband’s death ends when she leaves her bedroom to be with her sister again. Suddenly they hear someone turning a key in the front door and they turn to see Brently Mallard, Louise’s husband. Louise was so shocked of her husband’s arrival that she, having prior heart trouble, has a heart attack brought on by “joy that kills”, or so the doctors said (170). Chopin uses quite a bit of figurative language in her story; two of the best examples are Louise’s heart trouble and the open window in her bedroom.
"There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself". She was so overwhelmed with happiness that when she found out her husband had never died she had literally died in an instant of “the joy that kills.” She so badly wanted to be free from her husband that she could not take in the fact that he was still alive so her reaction was death which is one way she will truly be free. The same ideas are explored in "The Yellow Wallpaper" where the narrator in the story is overwhelmed with feeling like a slave to their own husband and consumed by her own thoughts. She is trapped within her own mental processes constantly analyzing the "wallpaper" and connecting it with things in her life. In both of these stories each woman has a way to escape or try to make themselves feel "fulfilled"
It wasn’t until the second time I read the story that I realized Mrs. Mallard was relieved when she heard the news of her husband` s death. The actions and words Mrs. Mallard portrayed proved this point. The author leaves the reader to almost make a story of their own by leaving out details and allowing the reader to add their own. To prove this, in the beginning of the short story, the reader gets the impression that this woman is going to be extremely upset that her husband has died in a train accident. Her closest friends and family come to her to easily break the news of her husband` s recent death.
However, love in the two stories did not result to happiness for the unknown woman in “A Sorrowful Woman” as in “From A Secret Sorrow” Faye ends up in a happy marriage and a great family. In "A Secret Sorrow" Faye feels that the only for her to achieve fulfillment and true happiness is to get married and have children unfortunately, her fate dictates otherwise. This resulted to a critical point in her relationship with her fiancé. Faye was expecting that her man would leave her once he knew of her disability. On the other hand the lady in "A Sorrowful Woman” has a husband and child but finds she sick and tired of what she had.
From these things, I think that the woman's disease results from a psychological cause. Maybe, I think that the chief cause is her husband because she feels joy when she was heard that he was dead. Chopin also uses setting to contrast the news of her husband's death or her longing for freedom. In the text, "the open window and the open square(1,3)" repeat again and again throughout the story. In addition, "the tops of trees, the new spring life, the delicious breath of rain, the notes of distant song and countless sparrows" don't get along with the woman's present situation.
Leslie Knox Ms. Baldwin English 3/ Period 6 2 March 2013 The Story of an Hour Essay In the story, The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, there is a woman with a heart condition that receives bad news. She deals with thenews in a different way than most people would. At first she js sad, but then she realizes she is happy. At the end of the storythere is a major twist. The woman, Mrs. Mallard, is told by her sister Josephine and her husbands friend Richards, that her husband Brently Mallard has been killed in a railroad accodent at work.