Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" the StOrY of an Hour" follows Louise Mallard as sh news of her husband's death. When the news is broken to her, Mr - Mrs, Mallard begins weeping into her sister, Josephine's, arms, She then goes to her room to be alone and sits down in an e deals with the “ armchair. She finds she feels relieved that she is free of her husband. She degir ins looking forward to living her life for herself, Mrs, Mallard keeps whispering to herself, “Free! Body and soul free!" and as Josephine listens in to her sister from the other side of the door, she tells Louise to open the door. After a few minutes, Mrs, Mallard gets out of her chair and opens the door for Josephine and they both walk downstairs together. Upon arriving to the bottom of the staircase, the front door opens and Mrs. Mallard's husband, Brently Mallard, appears, alive and well. Josephine and Richards try to hide the sight from Louise, but it is too late. When she sees that her husband is still alive, she lets out a startled cry and dies from a heart attack. eek "The Story of an Hour" is Kate Chopin's most well-known story, and it, like most of her other stories and novels, deals with the question of marriage that is out of balance, and a woman who either wate she were free or is in the process of making herself free. In this story, Chopin gives us a better ironic twist on this theme: the wife does not opin gives it is dissatisfie even realize she is dissat " . i" been killed in a train accident. The story opens wit auteaie raamed Louise who learns that her husband is oman 4 with her marriage until she is told that an ill married w Scanned with CamScannersupposed to have been killed in a train accident. Louise obyig,, sly j, expected to be devastated by this news, but strangely, she ig not, is The story examines the woman's reaction to her sudden an unexpected independence and ends surprisingly when she iscover, that her husband is actually alive, Louise Mallard's response i, the news that her husband has been killed and her demise “Pon his appearance exemplifies Chopin's beliefs regarding women's rote, in marriage and feminine identity. The story dramatizes Louise Mallard's psychological ambivalence towards marriage; whether to be happy or sad for the loss of her husband seems the key qUestion for the reader. From the very beginning of the story, the narrator reveals that Mrs. Mallard has "heart trouble," a matter which misleads the reader that she died at the end of the story owing to a heart attack, not from a heart shock that her husband is still alive. Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine and her husband's friend take great care to tell her the news of her husband's death as cautiously as possible. Mrs. Mallard reacts to the news of her’ husband's death with “sudden, wild abandonment" and locks herself in her bedroom. In the solitude of her room, Mrs. Mallard understands the fundamental change taking place in her life. She sits in a chair, no longer crying, but only thinking of how free she is now, no one to take responsibility for or to be dominated by. She feels this because marriage for her is nearly imprisonment and enslavement in a Patriarchal and catholic society as hers. For one blessed hour, she believes Brently, her husband, dead, and in her own mind she sets about rebuilding her future; when he arrives at home safe and sound and she discovers that his train had not crashed after all, Louise drops dead of a heart attack. Her family assumes, of course, that the shock of seeing a live person believed to be dead was too much for her; but Scanned with CamScannerin ionplies otherwise, It seems More like sone pear the thought of returning toa life . that Louise could no the sjittle woman," and never in control, 5; thang back to that way of living, yearning for freedom, in which she was, always he would ¢, rather be and consequently dead oftes ’ ‘ N-celebrated by Chopin, is typical in the limited setting of the sto: ally drawn in ry. We can Clearly see that th | set in one confined room with a Staircase and a le story is front door. The wi s, 4 . " thing symbolizes confinement and imprisonm i" ent from which she is so happy to escape through her husbands death, she dies, So this The style of the story is quite simple and the point of view is also simple. The story is told from a detached, third-person limited point of view. The reader identifies with Louise, the only character whose thoughts are accessible. At the beginning of the story, Louise is incapable of reflecting on her own experience. As Louise becomes conscious of her situation and emotions, the reader gains access to her thinking which reveals her inner thoughts and feelings about what happened to her and the prospects of what is going to happen o her when she is free with no one to control her. "The Story of an Hour", thus, represents the expression of a e ings about her marriage. It is a 5 thodox feelings al woman's shockingly #9 4 and extreme example of the theme of self-assertion, selfhood — vivid and e: freedom. : think of 19 century condemnation of a It is about solitude and isolation not selfishness— 4" i when we . ‘ within, oon to perform ther domestic duties and ae for the inaivides Bape’ of their families; Victorian women were piness ants and health and haP' axing the satisfaction of their own wi om se se ner The Atuakening, depicts & ONAN at sn e yl 7 ike i 1, does s a g, but this awakening, unlike in the nove ake prevented Scanned with CamScannerits but death. But the protagonist's death - ay ji of Victorian conventions. ‘mply not bear any frui the demise and defeat Scanned with CamScanner