Jose Charles

Professor Schmalzried

ENGL 2341

21 January 2021
Reading Notes: “The Story of an Hour”

Important Vocabulary from the Textbook Chapter/Introduction Section:

 Short Story: The main themes in “The Story of an Hour” are freedom, time,
and identity. Freedom: Louise is overjoyed by the realization that Brently's death will
render her free to live as she chooses, highlighting the repressive nature of Victorian
marriages.
 Third person point of View: we were introduced to the characters on experience they have
gone through before we even knew, and we were described how the characters were feeling
and were experiencing in each paragraph.
 Foreshadowing: a character’s death giving us an idea of the illness the woman had and how her
state of mind was. we knew she was at a state of grief.
 Pulp Fiction: Stories written for cheap magazines, printed on low-quality “pulpy” paper. Because
the magazines where often cheap, the authors were usually not paid well for their writing,
which meant the quality of stories in these pulp magazines varied a lot, from good to terrible.
 Mythos: When an author creates a group of interconnected stories that all take place in the
same “extended universe” or may share characters or ideas. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is
part of the “Marvel mythos.
Author: The Story of an Hour" is a short story written by Kate Chopin on April 19, 1894. It was
originally published in Vogue on December 6, 1894, as "The Dream of an Hour". It was later
reprinted in St. Louis Life on January 5, 1895, as "The Story of an Hour".

Date Written: April 19, 1894.

Setting: they were at the home of Mrs. Mallard

Characters:
 Narrator: the narrator’s name is never given only spoke of the characters that were
present with Mrs. Mallard
 Louise Mallard: The wife of Brently Mallard. She grieves the news of Brently's death but
is also overjoyed at her new freedom.
 Brently Mallard: The husband of Louise and is believed to be dead. He returns home not
knowing he was believed to be dead.
 Josephine: The sister of Louise who helps to console her about her husband's death after
informing her of it.
 Richards: Brently Mallard's friend. He was the one to learn of Brently's death.
Plot: "The Story of an Hour" follows Louise Mallard, the protagonist, as she deals with the
news that her husband, Brently Mallard, has died. Louise is informed of her husband's tragic
death in a railroad accident by Richards, a close friend of Brently. Louise reacts with immediate
grief and heads to her room where she gradually comes to the realization that she is happy that
her husband has died. Though she bore no animosity towards her husband, the implications of
his death include a new sense of freedom for Louise. This realization of possibility is the source
of her joy. Later, she heads back downstairs, only to witness Brently coming home. Her joy turns
to shock at the sight of her husband and she dies as a result. The doctor in the story diagnoses her
death as heart disease, also described as "of the joy that kills" since she died after fantasizing of
living a free life.

Critical responses

Notable Quotes:
 “Free body and soul free!”
o This was a whisper to herself as she sat in the room and though of her grief. It may have
been a foreshadowing of her soul letting go of her body asking to escape to death.

 “Free Free Free”

o In this quote by Mrs. Mallard she said It to herself and asking to be free in this state of
the story she gives of an overwhelming amount of sadness an grief
Theme, Moral, or Message:
Love sadness and letting go of what you love in life. In the passage I can tell she really felt a
strong bond with her husband and hearing about his death broke her soul happiness and her world. You
can tell she was never the same after his death giving the fact that she was not eating well, and she
locked herself in a room away from other people and preferred to be alone. The message is that if you
loved someone it can hit your life so much that It will affect you in a negative way but there is always a
light.

Notable Literary Device:

 Foreshadowing: ever since she locked herself in the room and began to talk to herself
about being free you can hear the sadness of how she left about her husband. Her talking
about her soul being free was a sign of her wanting to be free from the world and join her
husband.

Reflection and Your Thoughts:

Throughout the story I felt sorry about the woman and her losing her husband, I felt that
everyone who was checking up on her was very worried about her and were genuinely worried of her
well being and state of mind. I can tell by her losing him she must have had a strong connection with
that man and must have really truly loved him to have later died of sadness because of how his death
affected her.

Lingering Questions:
 What inspired Kate chopin to write “The Story of an Hour” and what experienced must have she
gone through to have thought of a concept.
 Why did her family not try harder instead of just leaving her on her own to be able to not cause
her death?
 In what ways does this story connect with other people’s personal experience?