Symbolism:
Style: Kate Chopin uses a language that contains a
 When the sparrows was twittering, it
means that she thought she was as free
as sparrows
 When she saw patches of blue sky she
could see everything clear because she is
free
 The open window represents the freedom
and opportunities that await her after her
husband has died
Point of view:
3rd person narrator, limited omniscient, because
the narrator is outsider and only one character
reveals all though and feelings.
“She could see in the open square before her
house the tops of threes that were all aquiver
with the new spring life.” P2
Plot:
Exposition: Louse is informed about her
husband´s death.
Rising action: She goes to her room and gets
bad feelings.
Climax: She is aware that her husband´s death will
make her feel happy because of her freedom.
Falling action: Josephine goes to Louise’s room
and tries to convince her to calm dawn.
Resolution: Brently arrives at home alive, Louise
dies because of a heart attack.
Lengua inglesa y producción literaria
Wilmar Eduardo Blanco Salazar
“Story of an hour”
Kate Chopin (1850 – 1904)
Tone: dramatic and ironic tone
Mood: pessimistic
Dialogue: very short dialogues during the story, only the narrator
describe and tell us the events and what happened next. “There
stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair.
Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that
haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.”
Structure: chronological
Foreshadowing:. “Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she
was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.”
Irony: Verbal irony, because Louise died because a hard emotion,
the joy that produces freedom, but her husband was alive.
Allegory: the hardships that a woman suffers from marriage
Setting:
Time: 1 hour
Time period: End of the 19th century
Geographical location: USA Missouri (not
specific in the story)
Specific place: Mallard's room / House
Socio-economic environment: Meddle
working class
Theme
Theme #1 : Marriage: Marriage was an institution
in which women usually felt truss up.
Theme #2: Independence
Women hope for independence is unachievable
because it is reflected in the event.
very poetic vocabulary at all. The description of the
environment and the main character is very
common during the story.
“She sat with her head thrown back upon the
cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when
a sob came up into her throat and shook her , as a
child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob
in its dream” P1
(Part of the elements of language)
Characters:
Louise Mallard: Major Character, round and
dynamic and Protagonist.
She is the protagonist because is well described and she
changes through the story (she was alive and then she
died) “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose
lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.
But now there was a dull stare in her eyes” p1
Brently Mallard: Minor character: Flat and
dynamic
He Is Louse´s husband, he is dynamic because for
readers he had change in the story (he was apparently
dead but at the end he was alive)
Richard: Minor character, flat and static: he is a
friend of Brently. Is not described
Josephine: minor character, flat and static :she is
Louise´s sister. Is not described.
Conflict
Man Vs society:
Is a fight with social ideology of “mourning”
Because the main character instead of being sad for
her husband´s death, she is happy.
Elements of Description and analysis
language
Figurative Simile
language  “…except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams” p2
 “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. P1

Personification:
 "The clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.".p1
 “The delicious breath of rain was in the air” p2

Metaphor
 “When the storm of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room alone” p2

Sensitive Sight:
language  “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” p2
 “She could see in the open square before her house…” p2
Touch:
 “The delicious breath of rain was in the air” p2

Sound:
 “except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her”p2
 “…and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves” p2
 “The notes of a distant song which someone was singing”p2

Lengua inglesa y producción literaria

Wilmar Eduardo Blanco Salazar