Death in “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” is a tragic story filled with death. Death is a huge theme in this story which is evident as five deaths are revealed. Emily’s inability to accept the passing of her father greatly foreshadows the deaths of her loved ones in her future. Death is evident in Emily’s fading physical appearance and the depletion of her social class. Faulkner conveys the theme of death in “A Rose for Emily” by concealing the death of Emily’s lover, Homer, and later revealing that Emily kept his body upstairs.
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.
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.
Through the struggles of this character, the reader experiences the different stages of grieving and the ultimate cost of heartbreak. The story opens with a description of how the characters were very tactful in breaking the news of the death of Mr. Mallard to Mrs. Mallard on the account of Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble. Richard, Mr. Mallard’s friend, hastens to announce the dreadful news with tender care. Yet, her sister, Josephine, is the one who gently breaks the news to her. These precautions were taken out of the fear of the possible impact of the devastating news on her already fragile health.
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.
Rather, her feelings must be managed and controlled by those around her. In this first paragraph Chopin demonstrates the oppressive expectations of the time. In hearing the news of her husband’s death, Louise responds in a way that defies the oppression of her generation. It was expected that she would respond “with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance” and yet she responds with “sudden, wild abandonment” (Chopin 177). This reaction is in conflict with the expectations put upon her as a mourning wife, and it is here that she begins to defy her oppression.
The Irony used in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin the real meaning of this story can be quiet confusing. Chopin created this story after her own husband’s death. In a way one might think that she may be relating her own experiences in this short story. In this short story Chopin has the reader thinking as if Mrs. Mallard was supposedly having heart troubles and that that was the cause of her death. Chopin also has readers believing that Louise is mournful of her husband’s death but it’s definitely the opposite.
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.
Kate’s mother was a “woman of great beauty, intelligence and personal magnetism” (Skaggs 1). The deaths of her father, grandfather and great-grandfather did not give her to opportunity to experience women being dominated by men and perhaps this shaped her future writing. Kate Chopin published more than 100 short stories set in Louisiana and focused on the lives of intelligent women whose thoughts and actions were unconventional for the time. Her characters were vibrant and intelligent and were trying to “satisfy three basic but often conflicting human drives that Chopin believes go together to make up a person’s identity-the drive for a feeling of belonging, for love and for a sense of individual sovereignty” (Skaggs 1). Two such stories are “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm.” Both stories take place in a time when women were still considered the legal property of their husbands.
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.