The Story Of An Hour by Tea

The Story of an Hour

I am studying a work from Kate Chopin entitled “The Story of an Hour” along with the freedom and ironic emotions of a wife, Mrs. Mallard who learn the shocking news regarding her husband’s death. In my thesis, I am going to argue Mrs. Mallard feels terribly heartbroken as she learns a wrong news on her husband’s death and afterwards involves into the happiest wife, where the male-dominated society of that time and thus experiences true freedom based on the historical context, which was written in the late nineteenth century, because this temporary enjoyment would remain elusive for her husband returns, and eventually she collapses and at the end the doctors concluded her death as a “joy that kills” feeling overwhelmed. Following this, I am going to share the situation which the author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, was trying to alert the patriarchal society of that time but could not expose her thoughts and feelings publicly.

First, Mrs. Mallard’s the protagonist of the story, has a fragile condition and her surroundings of only, Josephine her sister and Richards, her husband’s friend must announce the sad news about Mr. Mallard’s train accident but delicately. Mrs. Mallard is going through a mix of feeling when she learned this terrible news and after she stops crying. At first, she feels devastated when she learned it and right away she runs upstairs to her room to grieve. Subsequently, as Mrs. Mallard remains in her room alone, her feelings twist in a way that she starts thinking about how life would be without him. Her emotions start to awake and in fact, she realizes she would be free from her husband’s authority. The persons around her, think she wants her husband back but not at all. Only the readers and the narrator know her real feelings and she had theoretically experienced a “monstrous joy”. Just as she locks herself in her room and locks out her social world, she also locks out social conventions purging her repressed emotions, she awakens to all the individual elements of her natural environment (Selina, 2009).  Taking a time for herself she is watching nature and engaging in sense perception and she is processing some emotional stimuli (Selina, 2009). I agree that remaining alone and contemplating the nature could help to awake her consciousness and see life differently. Thinking that her husband is gone forever and the unrestricted life in his company, she now understands the freedom that lies down ahead of her. Mrs. Mallard repeats exactly three times “free, free, free!” to emphasize on this reality (Chopin, 279). It obviously reveals that she was experiencing life for a moment after she was informed of her spouse’s decease. That must be the most beautiful day of her life since she is married and as described in the story is an “elixir of life” as she enjoys these new feelings and emotions (Chopin, 279). Nevertheless, when she decides to open the door to her sister and go out of the room, her love for life and the wish to live longer than she expected to turn into an ironic twist. While taking the stairs her spouse walks in. Watching him walk into the house is a big and unexpected surprise that she could handle. It attacks her with such a strength that it takes her life. It could be possible that her fragile heart simply could not tolerate the unhappiest news of her life. Learning her husband’s death signified life to her which she expected to be long enough. Mrs. Mallard was not hit for his loss, as many wives would be by remaining paralyzed, incapable to accept the painful sense of loss (Selina, 2009). Even though the doctor announces that she passed away because she was so excited to see him alive, but actually it was the opposite that happened. After experiencing a short instant of what it was like to be free from an afflicted marriage she just could not carry herself to the idea of living an additional moment of that life controlled by Mr. Mallard.

Moreover, the story lasts for an hour and quite comprehensive since it takes place inside the Mallards’ home. Obviously, there is no much time the characters might go anywhere or do whatsoever. The ladies are constantly inside the Mallards' house, compared to the men who can come and go as they please. This simply signifies the main action of the story occurs within the Mallards' home. The story gives some descriptions of the house, it has more than one floor since it mentions a staircase, then the interior doors have a lock and Mrs. Mallard has her personal bedroom. In her room, there is a comfortable and large armchair, but we do not know the details of it such as its color and nor the material it is made of or even if there is a wallpaper. Mrs. Mallard appears to be detained or restrained in her own house, due to her health condition. On the other hand, it seems that the world outside appears more dangerous, where Mr. Mallard supposedly gets killed in a train accident, and it does not seem to be safer. Even though Mr. Mallard was not in that accident, the outside world appears to be unsafe for some persons. However, there is no way to flee death when it comes to Mrs. Mallard in a domestic space. While Mrs. Mallard is in her acquainted home, she ends up being the one in constant danger wherever she goes or stays. Probably that Mrs. Mallard is anxious about the outside world. Meaningfully, once Mrs. Mallard remains alone and deals with her spouse's death, she goes deep into the house, finding refuge in her room and locking the door. Her sister Josephine, staying and calling at the door, is trying to get her sister coming out of the room and shortly after, she gives up trying and walks away. I am not sure about her sister Josephine, but she seems comfortable there. Regarding Richards, he is in the Mallards' house, however, on his way he learns the news of a terrible railroad disaster from his newspaper offices. I could also observe, too, that throughout the story nobody leaves the house. Only that men come in, but no one goes out.

After understanding the men coming in or out as their please, we can conclude the opposite for women. The story depicts the role of woman in marriage and in the society during her time and reveals the subject of male dominance. There are some comparisons and alterations in the role of woman in marriage and in the community in 1940’s compared to the way women are treated today. Mrs. Mallard feels truly happy although the situation was heartbreaking. Furthermore, she realized that she gained freedom from an exhausted marriage and from her husband controlling everything in their relationship. In 1940’s, ladies did not have lots of rights. They were denied in the politics and still had not allowed voting. Women were expected to be just a basic housewife, taking care of the husband and the children. Today women can get high education and good occupations with promising salaries. However, some women are still treated the same way they were treated in 1940’s. Male domination resulted in the denied rights and unequal distribution of responsibilities a husband and wife should do. I have always believed that without women we would not exist (Tucker, 1996). However, some men still believed that women are weak, they are oppressed and subject to men. Even though this is not always true, we must agree that it is still happening today. I hope that as time goes by this practice and even belief will be ignored.

 The author, Chopin seems to draw parallels between events and acquaintances in her own life and events and characters in her stories. One of the most interesting discoveries was knowing Kate Chopin's lover, Albert Sampite. Kate Chopin did not neglect her responsibilities to her family out of desperation for her lover, but rather left Sampite's hometown in Louisiana and returned to her mother in St. Louis. There was a rumor that the book “The Awakening” was excluded after its publication in 1899. Hitherto negatively received by critics and the reading public, the provocative and controversial book was never banned, and grief over The She was born in St. Louis in 1850, lost her father in a train accident, her brother during the Civil War, her best friend in a move to the North, her husband to swamp fever, and her mother to an early grave. Chopin proved to be a strong woman, and, along with six children to raise, became a writer to support her family. Initially facing rejection after rejection, Chopin continued to write and submit her work and eventually became a published writer and obtain. Her best works known are The wakening”, "The Story of an Hour," and "Desiree's Baby" that depicts her own experiences in the South, but have universal significance (Kunf, 1991). Chopin once stated that her main interest as a writer was to portray 'human existence in its delicate, complex, true meaning, uncovered of the veil with which ethical and conventional standards have draped it (Kunf, 1991). Ironically, Chopin was required to veil her messages because it conflicted with the gender accepted roles of the nineteenth-century society. Chopin had to deal with what she wanted to write and what her society judged as acceptable. American literature is full of struggles with male heroes caught between "internal desire and external reality. Yet these same struggles were even more puzzling for the American heroines because idealistically they were not supposed to have any internal desires outside of their families. Hence, heroines were usually females caught in masculine quandaries. Like several of her heroines, Kate Chopin was struggling with society's expectations, yet she managed to deal with this problem even though her flourishing vocation placed her in a strange society. She attempted to make her work authentic, which is an experience in which one recognizes and gratifies individual needs but if these needs are denied, one will never attain maturity or happiness (Kunf, 1991). Unfortunately, Chopin's messages through her stories and characters did not always allow an apparent approach. Similar to her female characters, Chopin found herself caught between her desire for legality and strove to elaborate her work and acceptance by professionals, critics, and society in general. While many critics Chopin’ works, her style is found somewhat ambiguous because she disguised her themes and characters to appear respectable.

Works Cited

Cutter, Martha J. “Losing the Battle but Winning the War: Resistance to Patriarchal Discourse in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction”, Legacy, 1994, Vol. 11, No. 1.

Jamil, S Selina. “Emotions in The Story Of An Hour”, The Explicator; Washington Vol. 67, N° 3, Spring 2009.

Kunf, Marcia Ann. “Kate Chopin's female characters: A study in conflict and growth” Florida Atlantic University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1991.

Tucker, Susan. “A solitary soul: The life of Kate Chopin”, English Journal, High school edition; Urbana Vol. 85, N° 3, 1996.