“The Story of an Hour”

Brief Summary

Mrs. Louise Mallard is unhealthy and suffers from a weak heart. Her sister, Josephine
comforts her, worried that the news she is about to hear will kill her. Josephine and Richards, a
friend of Mr. Brently Mallard gently reveal that Mr. Mallard has been killed in a railroad disaster.
Mrs. Mallard, though grieving, realizes that she is now free from marriage in which she wasn’t
truly happy. So though she mourns the death of her husband, secretly she’s joyful and
delighted. After Mrs. Mallard comes to the conclusion that she is now free to live a happy life,
she and Josephine walk down, just as Mr. Mallard, unharmed by the tragic accident, comes
through the door then Mrs. Mallard collapses. The Doctor said that she had died of heart
disease – of joy that kills. It seems clear that her shock was not joy over her husband's survival,
but rather distress over losing her cherished, newfound freedom. Louise did briefly experience
joy, the joy of imagining herself in control of her own life. And it was the removal of that intense
joy that led to her death.

Critical Theories/Approaches

Part of the enjoyment and satisfaction of reading good literature is finding its
significances, meanings and messages. The purpose of literary criticism is always to help us
understand and appreciate a work more fully, no matter what approaches we use. When it
comes to “The Story of an Hour” of Kate Chopin, there’s a lot to dig through and many of the
story’s themes, characters and symbols critique women’s marriage roles during the period. Here
are my interpretations of the story through the use of different theories/approaches.

Biographical approach is a technique of relating the author's life and thoughts to

his/her literary works. While historical approach examines the relation of historical or cultural
backdrop to the text. By examining Kate Chopin’s life, I was able to have a deeper
understanding of her writing. Catherine O’Flaherty or Kate Chopin life is reflected in her writings.
Chopin was the second child of Thomas O’Flaherty of County Galway and Eliza Faris of St.
Louis, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850. Her early life had a great deal with trauma
when her father died from a sudden and terrible railroad accident. That incident instilled in
Kate’s memory, until it became her basis in the story of an hour, almost forty years later.

Chopin was well-educated and she was a person unusually devoted to reading and
studying. From 1855, after her father’s death to 1868, Kate Chopin attended the St. Louis
Academy of the Sacred Heart, with one year at the Academy of the Visitation. About her family
members, with sisters who taught at school and with her life-long companion Kitty Garasché,
Kate developed deep bonds. She was also exposed to non-traditional roles for women through
her familial situation and was mentored by the Sacred Heart nuns. Much of the fiction Kate
wrote focuses on the nurturing she got from women as she grew up. Her mother, grandmother
and great-grandmother chose to remain widows after their husbands died. As a result, Chopin
discovered how vital the freedom of women could be and that idea would be seen much on her
writing.

Kate spent the Civil War in St, Louis, a community where both the Union and the
Confederacy were supported by citizens and where her family had slaves in the house. Chopin
was also aware of the division in society at the time between the powerful and the oppressed.
She was raised in the U.S. Civil War, so she had first-hand knowledge of violence, slavery and
harassment in the United States. Her half-brother joined the confederate army, was seized by
Union troops and died of typhoid fever.

At the age of nineteen she was married to Oscar Chopin, who came from a wealthy
family. The pair moved to Orleans, where they could start both a general store and a large
family. Between 1871 and 1879 Kate gave birth to five sons and a daughter. Oscar was less
capable of running a business. As a result, their family was forced to move in the rural Louisiana
due to their financial trouble. Unfortunately, Oscar died of malaria in 1882, leaving Kate Chopin
in high debt and with the responsibility of managing the family’s struggling businesses. Kate
became widow in the age of thirty-two with the responsibility of raising six children. Like her
mother and grandmothers, Kate never remarried.
 Kate Chopin tried her very best to manage their business but later after a year she did
not succeed. Then Chopin agreed to her mother’s wishes to move with her children to St. Louis
after trying her hand at managing the property for a year. The year afterwards, Chopin’s mother
died. In order to support her family, Kate began to write. Her life experiences became her
instrument to succeed as a writer.

Throughout Kate’s life, she experienced different and difficult lifestyles, including the
early death of her father and husband. Without the support of her families and being a woman
alone, she was isolated much by the community.

At the age of fifty four, Kate Chopin died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1904. But her
“The story of an hour” and her other well known works of literature has lived on. No wonder that
she’s one of the most important American writers of the 19th century.

In the 19th Century, American life was experiencing major changes. There have been
changes in technology, culture and even in leisure activities. In 1894, just when the 1800s were
drawing to an end, “The Story of an Hour” was written and published. As the globe
progressed into a new century, American life shifted dramatically as well. The days were most
people were supposed to work at a trade or on a farm were gone. Industrialization led factory
workers made work more effective and many of these factory owners eventually introduced
more fair treatment of their employees, allowing them freer or more leisure time than before.

Women in the late nineteenth century in America were treated as slaves. They were
expected to do everything and they worked for their men. Marriage could never be decided by
women; but rather men are the ones who selected and families were deciding marriages for
their daughters.

Although the country at this time facing an economic downturn, technology transition
such as electrical lighting and radio success has changed many people’s everyday lives and
created new jobs. However, the job for women was especially different. Working women as a
whole were looked down upon by society, no matter why they found themselves in need of a
job. Women of Kate Chopin’s social rank were expected not to work at all, often even delegating
the responsibility of managing the house or raising children to maids or nannies. In her time,
working was only for lower class women who could not afford a life of leisure. Women were
living under inequalities. This had been a very big influence to her writings, mainly on her views
about feminism – views about women.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association was created in 1890, which fought
for women’s social and political rights. While Kate Chopin never participated in any of the
manifestations she does embrace and presents her characters as fully capable woman and
believe that women should have greater freedoms as individuals and often talked about these
ideas in her literary works, including “The Story of an Hour”. We can see how Kate Chopin was
influenced by the historical events that were happening around her due to the civil war. Her
strong feminist beliefs, perspective on life changes, thoughts on freedom, can be noticed and
valued in “The Story of an Hour”.

The largest part of gender criticism is feminism, which critiques and seeks to correct
women’s subordination to men in society. In the story on an hour, Kate Chopin exposes a deep-
rooted dilemma that women face in marital relationships in the story. She frequently presented
women in their relationships or marriages in unequal positions. As in “The Story of an
Hour”, she conveyed the notion that women were oppressed by unhappy marriages. With this
idea, she has expressed that marriages limits the freedom of women. Husbands had a power
and their will was often imposed upon their wives. The wives had no choice but to bow to the
will of the husband. Although the husband was gentlemen, wives had no sense of freedom or
individuality and were inferior to men. It brought an unhealthy balance between society and
marriage when woman had no control over their lives because they were slaves whose only
main priority was to live for their husband rather than themselves.

Mrs. Mallard was an example of an average housewife who was oppressed by her
husband. I believe Kate Chopin had connection with the story and the main character. When
Mrs. Mallard felt a brief moment of grief and sadness at the loss of her husband and was
replaced for gladness, it shows how Kate Chopin felt as she heard the news about the loss of
her husband. Even though she truly loved her husband just like Mrs. Mallard, she was not also
happy because since she married Oscar, her life has been difficult. Though “The Story of an
Hour” is a fiction story, it speaks loud about the life of women in the late 19 th Century. The
significance of the text in reflecting history and promotion of feminism is clearly supported by the
aforesaid examples.

Psychological criticism is a way to understand characters based on their desires,

impulses and feelings that affect or influence decisions, attitudes and behavior. The Story of an
Hour by Kate Chopin was very detailed in describing the character’s emotions. Mrs. Mallard
feels trapped in her marriage; thus she believes that this inner self has no chance to spread its
wings. The personality traits, such as power and suspension of intellectual debate are how Mrs.
Mallard illustrates her unexposed ego. This also influences how Mrs. Mallard’s view of her
world. Because she limit her inner ego with much effort, the impact of her husband’s death is
more than just grief of loss, but instead elation of relief. She did not stop wondering whether it
was a monstrous delight or not. A clear and exalted perception allowed her to condemn the idea
as negligible.

Mrs. Mallard’s ego, the main victim of her image, also demonstrates the conflict often
going on between the id, ego and super ego. This is exposed when Mrs. Mallard starts to
process her long oppressed emotions, after accepting her husband’s death. She was beginning
to recognize “something” that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it
back with her will.

The “something” that approaches in my opinion, is Mrs. Mallard’s id. It is uncontrolled,

emotional, and eager for the freedom long buried under their marriage. Yet, since the main
factor that keeps the id restrained, is the inability to logically or legally remove herself from the
marriage, the death of Mr. Mallard gives the id a perfect reason to rule as much as it wants. This
is where the superego comes in as Mrs. Mallard’s “will”. Unfortunately, the id is far too overjoyed
towards its newfound freedom, her “will”, which is supposed to restrain the id with social
regulations and moral values, is defeated.

The struggle between the id and the superego is often balanced by the ego. Since Mr.
Mallard’s death, at this point of the story is a decided truth; it is less likely that the superego
needs act submissive towards the role of an obedient wife. Mrs. Mallard’s ego, and also herself,
justifies her inner conflict and gradually accepts her want for freedom, because freedom is now
bestowed on her by default. Her inner struggle is a typical example of how the id, ego and
superego fight to find a balance inside her.

A formalist criticism seemly transformed the true meaning of what the “The Story of an
Hour” was trying to transcribe. All of the elements such as symbolism, imagery, and theme can
truly change the way you look at something, for the better.  In describing Mrs. Mallard’s feelings
as she oscillated between numbness and intense pleasure, a difference in the number and use
of words is noticed. At the beginning, she was shocked and grieved when she heard about the
death of her husband. Kate described this event by only using a narrative sentence. Then she
used a variety of vivid and strong words about the unexpected ongoing scenes that represented
her satisfaction with the death of her husband. There is a significant change in the balance and
use of language here, telling us that after accepting the loss of her husband, Kate Chopin would
like to emphasize Mrs. Mallard’s feeling, rather than dwelling on showing us all about the old
story between her and her husband.

Like her thoughts and mind, the windows outside her room are lively and vivid, while
everything about her physically is confined. It implies that her husband’s death is the only
moment when her real feeling, referring to her freedom initiated. Using certain words that reflect
her inner world of life, often ironic or playful uses of certain words and phrases are found, which
further demonstrates the constraining nature of their marriage. Kate’s illustration of the
relationship between the couple is an example. Contrasting the expressions used in describing
her emotions, a simple and direct language is used here to describe situations that Mrs. Mallard
is not emotional about her husband’s death, which further suggested that she did not have any
strong feelings towards her husband. Kate would not choose only to use just a sentence to
describe her feeling if her husband’s death did matter. The choice of words has reflected the
relationship in between husband and wife.
 In the “Story of an Hour” Louis Mallard experienced an internal conflict throughout the
story. In the short story, she found herself fighting with her own feelings, between what she
should feel/act and what her true feelings are. When Mrs. Mallard is told the news of her
husband’s death, it seems that she is depressed and grief-stricken. However when she was
alone in her room, she kept whispering under her breath “Free! Body and soul free!”. This
shows the readers how she really feels, which is not the way she is 'supposed' to feel.
The last line “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of the joy that
kills” implies that Mrs. Mallard ironically dies from a "heart disease-of-joy that kills". However
she doesn't die from the joy of seeing her husband, but from the thought that the joy she
experienced is now over. This is character versus self as well as character versus character
because Mr. Mallard indirectly kills his wife since it is the sight of him that kills her. Louise
Mallard suffered from an unhappy marriage and relationship because it was what she was
“supposed to do”. You can say that society’s restrictions are what really killed Mrs. Mallard
because she could not live the way she wanted to live.

The delayed revealing of the central character’s first name Louise suggested that Mrs.
Mallard is indeed lack of self-individuality and identity until her husband’s death which
awakened her mind. Louise Mallard is heading back to repression from a state of repression to
independence and the thought alone is enough to kill her.

Kate Chopin is well known for writing about strong but sensitive and intelligent women
and that is clearly shown in this story. For some time now, Kate Chopin has been an inspiration
to women’s rights groups and her work is definitely worthwhile. “The Story of an Hour” is full of
twists and intrigues, explaining the realities of what an hour of surprise ups and downs in life
can bring. The author does a wonderful job of manipulating the story to mirror the unexpected
events that can occur at any time in our lives. There is so much involved in this story from
historical perspective to the reflections on Kate’s own experiences and ideas that it was
definitely worth examining closer with analytical and critical approaches.