Short stories go down like ice cream, but they often leave the reader with lingering sensations. What are those sensations? What do they have to do with your experience? Is "Literature" with a capital L a more effective brand of cultural meaning-making than commercials, Twitter, or the news?
Hopefully, we'll get the ball rolling on some of these questions. Featured texts describe utopian visions, bovine rebellion, freezing to death, and school shootings (among other things).
I enjoyed this story, “The Story of the Hour”; although a quick read, there was a lot of detail and literary elements. The story began with the news to the main character, Mrs. Mallard, of the death of her husband in an accident, and during this, she was having heart trouble. In this situation, any wife would mourn the death of her husband and not want to talk to anyone. This was shown in the third paragraph. “Exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul,” really symbolizing the meaning of death. There was a tonal shift going into the fourth paragraph was when the speaker says, “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.” That rest of the paragraph explains spring, which is a symbolism of a new beginning or life. Further in the reading implies that her and her husband seemed to have a rocky relationship and that, because of his death, she was free from him. “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” Mrs. Mallard is opening her arms to the new life that she is going to have. While she did love her husband, she still felt that it was time to be on her own and not be controlled by someone else. It was a complete shock to me at the end when the reader finds out that Mrs. Mallard’s husband did not even die; he came in the door and was unaware that there was actually an accident. As a result at the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard “died of heart disease—of joy that kills.” It was her happiness of new-found freedom that took her life away. This can symbolize that in order for her to be completely free, she had to die and go to heaven.
After Louise Mallard gets news about the death of her husband, her initial reaction is a feeling of deep sorrow. She weeps hysterically and wishes to be alone. After she cries herself dry, the realization that she is now a free woman becomes relevant. This shows that although Louise is upset about her husband passing, she was never truly happy in her marriage and thought of it as more of a restriction rather then a fulfilling relationship. With this new found realization that her possibilities are endless and there is nothing, nor no one to hold her back, her heart becomes over-filled with joy. This overwhelming feelings of freedom and happiness is too much of a strain on her heart which is weak (physically) to begin with that she ends up dying herself. That's what is ironic about this. The reader would assume that Louise would die from a broken heart after hearing the news of her husband but instead dies from the excitement of this opportunity to have the independence she had longed for all her life.
I really like this short story, it was short but still had so much to tell. Back in the day, women were considered to be “owned” by men so I understand why Mrs. Mallard was both happy and sad about the death of her husband. Once she found out that he had supposedly died in an accident, she cried and shut herself away from the rest of the people around her. However, as she looked out the window she saw a new life for herself as she looked at the new spring life. She realized that she could do so much more than just stay home and live the life she was told to live by her husband. I think some marriage roles came in to play where she was expected to stay home to cook and clean. But since she was without a husband, she felt free to do whatever she chose to do as if it was the beginning of a whole new life. Yes she was upset her husband had passed away and she would mourn at his funeral and cry but after that day, she knew she would be free to live a more independent life. I think that all the different emotions played a trick on her heart and led to her death. She started out the hour in great grief and sorrow and then became so joyful at the realization of her freedom. She was happy that she would be that happy and free for the rest of her life then to have that all ripped away all those different emotions torn from her, it just caused her heart to stop. Because she was so happy for the new life and because it got ripped away so suddenly and it happened all so fast, the author said she died “of joy that kills.”
I feel as though this short story leaves a lot of interpretation open to the reader. There are three stages that Mrs. Mallard undergoes and each can be interpreted multiple ways. The first stage is her reaction to finding out that her husband died. She immediately weeps. The question necessary to determine the interpretation of her reactions is: Does Mrs. Mallard really love her husband? If so, the crying truly is her sadness. If not, the crying may just be an act Mrs. Mallard is putting on for her sister and husband’s friend. This is possible because initial denial or shock of the issue may be more natural than immediate crying. The first step to overcoming an issue is admission that there is an issue which doesn’t always happen so quickly. The second stage of Mrs. Mallard’s reaction is her apparent madness while she is sitting alone in her chair. If Mrs. Mallard really did love her husband, this madness may be a coping mechanism to deal with the extreme and sudden loss. The unfortunate news could have driven her to insanity. If she does not really love her husband, this could be true elation. The third stage is Mrs. Mallard’s death after finding out that her husband is actually still alive. Mrs. Mallard either died of love or devastation. It all depends on whether the reader thinks she actually loved her husband or not. It seems as though Mrs. Mallard did not really love her husband, however that could be just one side of the story.
There is a lot happening in this short story. First of all my biggest question is why did Mrs. Mallard feel free once she had heard her husband had died? This leads me to think that her relationship with her husband was broken, or that they have grown apart to some extent. This still is a very strange way to take a death of a person who you have been close to for a good portion of your life, even if you do not love them anymore. My first thought of why this could be is the setting takes place in a time where women are viewed as someone who should stay at home and take care of her husband and kids, and she no longer wanted to care for him. The story never talks about mistreatment of Mrs. Mallard, but that could be another reason why she felt free. I was very surprised at the ending of this story when Brently Mallard walked through the door. I was confused about when Mrs. Mallard died. Did she die as he opened the door, or before? What I found most interesting about this story was that her sister and her husbands friends wanted to break the new to hear slowly because they knew she had a heart problem and they didn’t want her to have more troubles because of this and in the end her over joy eventually cause the death of herself. Lastly I want to know how the information was mixed up and Brently was nowhere near the accident.
The short story ‘The story of an Hour’ starts off about Brently Mallard being killed in in a railroad accident and Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, told Mrs. Mallard the news. Then the story illustrates Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to this news. And at the end the reader is surprised that Mrs. Mallard actually died and Mr. Mallard was alive. I noticed a lot of foreshadowing while I was reading this. The lines “ But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.” This is kind of foreshadowing and hinting to the reader something is going on. When I read this I though she was dying from being so heart-broken about the news. Also, the lines “And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” This made me picture Mrs. Mallard as an angel. And when she was looking out her window at the patches of blue sky was Mrs. Mallard looking up to Heaven. The last sentence is the most powerful sentence in the story obviously. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” Mrs. Mallard was clearly miserable with her husband. She was dying and was saying the word ‘freedom.’ That shows the only way Mrs. Mallard could escape her husband was to die. When the story talks about her being independent, living for herself, and no one having power of her shows the reader how ‘excited?’ Mrs. Mallard is to be gone and escaped her husband. So what makes this story so ironic is heart disease- of joy that kills, is Mrs. Mallard was so over joyed to have finally escaped her husband it kills her.
The story, “The Story of An Hour”, has got to be one of the saddest stories I have ever read. I had previously read this story in high school and was hoping that my opinion on it would change the second time around, but sadly no. The poor woman in this story had all her hopes and dreams ripped away from her in a matter of seconds. That’s like someone telling you that you hit the lottery and won a billion dollars and they watch you sit there and plan out all the things you are going to do with the money, then afterwards tell you it was all a joke. I feel really bad for the woman because the whole time she was with her husband she felt controlled, like she couldn’t be herself, she was in a way his little prisoner. Then she finally finds freedom in his death and in those few seconds that she is convinced he is dead, she finally finds true happiness in her life and begins to envision a better future for herself. When she has a heart attack in the end, I feel like she was just overwhelmed with the thought of her dreams being killed that her heart just couldn’t take anymore.
I have to say that this was a very good short story! I like how it had that twist at the end and how the whole story basically contradicted itself. I want to say it was ironic but I don’t know if that is technically the right term to use? Anyways when I first started reading this short story “The Story of an hour” I thought either one of two things was going to happen. At first I thought Mrs. Mallard was going to get possessed by her husband’s soul and end up jumping of a ten story building and kill herself. Something around those lines because all of the pass messed up stories we have read. Then I thought that Mrs. Mallard was realizing that she did not really like her husband that much at all and now that she is a free woman she was going to go look around for a new man. Kind of disturbing both ways if you think about it so either or I was pretty much expecting. Then once I got to the ending I had to read it about three times over because this was a big twist in the short story! All I have to say is that her sister and her husband’s best friend really messed up with this one. I mean you would think that they would double check and make sure Mrs. Mallard’s husband was dead because they both knew she had a week heart. In the end it was a real heart breaker to find out that Mrs. Mallards husband actually did not die, but instead her herself ended up dead.
I enjoyed the story because it was short and straight to the point. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to hear husband’s death puzzles me. At first Mallard is upset and cries over her husband Brently Mallard. Though later Mrs. Mallard envisions a positive outlook on what her life will be like without her husband. This led me to infer that there was a massive age difference between the Mallard couple and that Mrs. Mallard was with her husband for the money. With this inference, I believe that Mrs. Mallard visualized all the thing that she could do with her deceased husband’s money. The fact that Brently Mallard is alive destroys Mrs. Mallard’s dreams of receiving all of his fortune.
The short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was a story that I actually enjoyed; it was short, sweet, and caught me off guard. The main character, Mrs. Mallard finds out that her husband dies. Like most wives, their reaction is to cry, and that is what Mrs. Mallard does. She isolates herself from her friends and family, crying about the death and wanting to just be alone. While she was alone, thoughts ran through her mind. “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death” indicates that she realizes death is approaching and she opens up her arms to it. “’free, free, free!’” Mrs. Mallard cries out these words, realizing she is free: free from her marriage? Free from her husband? These questions ran through my head wondering why she believed she was free because her husband. As the story went on, the narrator said that Mrs. Millard “loved him-sometimes”. She obviously was not deeply in love with her husband. So I believe her tears were not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy and freedom. “Free! Body and soul free!” Now that her husband was dead , her soul was able to release. What caught me off guard was that Mrs. Mallard ended up dying. What was ironic to me was that Mrs. Mallard didn’t die of a broken heart, but of joy that she was free from her husband. Then, out of now where, Richard, her husband, comes walking through the door; he never actually died and had no idea that his wife was dying. When the doctors came, they said that his wife died of a heart attack- of joys that kills. Because Mrs. Mallard was over joyed that her husband “died”, she died herself, from the joy that is so powerful, it can kill.
The short story “The Story of an Hour” was very interesting. I enjoyed it more than the last few stories because it was short and to the point. The main character, Mrs. Mallard, whom suffers from a heart condition, finds out that her husband has died in a tragic accident. After being told the news by her sister and her husband’s best friend, she begins to cry hysterically and runs to her room and locks herself in. After spending a few moments gazing out her window, her whole mentality changes. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life.” That line in the story marked the point of relief for Mrs. Mallard. She begins to think of all things she could now do without being under her husbands control and becomes overly happy. Her happiness after her husband’s death is strange to me. If she didn’t want to be with him so badly, why did she stay with him? Shortly after her happiness comes for her new life, her husband knocks on the door, not even knowing about the train accident. When Mrs. Mallard sees this she instantly dies of heart disease, her heart was broken when her dreams of her new life were crushed, “Of joy that kills.”
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is the oddest and most rapidly changing short stories I’ve ever read. It starts out with Mrs. Mallard, a regular woman who finds out that her husband, Brently, has died in a railroad accident. This is very hard to tell her too because of her heart troubles. Once she’s told of the news, she immediately weeps (as anyone would do) and runs upstairs to be alone. At first, she mourns the death of her husband, but overtime, she starts to realize how much of a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. Isn’t that just awful? Her husband just passed away and she was over it that quickly? Anyways, she now says that she is “free”, meaning she has no more obligations towards Brently and can now do what she pleases. Mrs. Mallard found that she has become more independent with this experience and is now fine being a widow. Then things take a total left turn. As she leaves the room and comes back downstairs, Brently waltzes through the door, completely fine. In fact, he didn’t even hear about the railroad accident that took place. In result, Louise dies of a heart attack from “joy that kills”. Now the real question of the story is this: what was her reaction that caused her to die? Was it one of happiness to see her husband alive and well, or one of sadness that her independence was taken away from her in that one second? That’s what I liked about this short story. You can argue either side. I believe that it was one of sadness. For half the story, it talked about how she was going to move along with her life and that she was free of her marriage. It even said that there was no greater feeling, not even love, than knowing she regained her own self-assertion. I feel that that was the joy that killed her. She didn’t expect him to be alive, so she was happy knowing she could get along with her life all by herself.
The short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin surprised me. At first, I thought the main character, Mrs. Mallard, was so upset that she was going to take her own life but that all changed as I read on. I never would have expected for her to see her husband's death as an opportunity to be free. It seems as if their relationship looked perfect on the outside, but clearly she was feeling like something was wrong. It's as if she felt sheltered from the rest of the world while she was married to Mr. Mallard. I actually think it's really depressing that she lived her life this way. No one should have to feel isolated from all the other opportunities that are out there. The ending is what really caught me off guard though. The author described the process of being told about her husband's death in detail, and then her husband walks through the door. I was not expecting that. In that split second, all of Mrs. Mallard's dreams shattered. The last line of the story is so powerful. "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-- of the joy that kills" it's like she was feeling too many things at once and died from that, from my perspective. She was sad due to her husband's "death" but also excited because of the freedom she could experience. But then her husband walks back into her life and her whole world just comes crashing down all over again.
After reading this story, one of the aspects that stood out to me was the irony of what the news of Mrs. Mallard’s husbands death did to her verses what her sister and her husband’s friend Richard thought it would do to her. They thought that the news would kill Mrs. Mallard and what it actually did was it made her feel much better; it seemingly freed her from her heart problem. While I was reading this, this was surprising to me because as the author was describing Mrs. Mallard’s feelings as she was in her room, it seemed as though she was describing the process of dying, but it turned out she was experiencing relief and happiness. The other piece of irony that I found interesting was what actually killed Mrs. Mallard. That her sister and Richard were so worried that the news of her husband’s death would be too much for her heart to handle but it turned out to be the news that he was not dead that was too much for her heart. This led me to believe that her marriage was not very good at all and that she still loved her husband even though he probably didn’t love her: when she is in her room, she is relieved that her marriage is over but is sad that her husband is dead. In this aspect, the story is quite tragic because most people when they find out that their spouse is actually alive after thinking that he or she was dead would be overjoyed. However in this case, her marriage was so bad that she couldn’t deal with the thought of having to return to it after the prospect of being free from it. Because of this, I thought that her heart condition was a representation of her bad marriage and that it was her marriage that ended up killing her.
The very short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a very quick read with many events that happen in a short amount of time. I think that the title has a lot to do with the plot as a person or life can change dramatically in an hour. At the beginning of the story Chopin reveals that the main character Mrs.Mallard “was afflicted with a heart trouble” and not long after she reveals that “she was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. I find that is a very strange combination, as at the beginning when she reveals her heart problems I thought that she was an older lady, only shortly after to find out that she is young. It was strange that a young person had the troubles and features of an older aged woman and now after analyzing the story I think it had a lot to do with the unhappiness she felt while her husband alive and the life she was stuck in. Mrs.Mallard spends under an hour processing the news of her husbands death and in that hour she grieves and then quickly moves to thinking about her dreams and freedom as she whispered “free, free, free!” and “Free! Body and soul free.” She was now feeling a questionably joy because of the news that she had received of her husbands death. Mrs.Mallard response to all the life changing news was not that of a typical wife's reaction to their husbands death and that concluded me to think that she was trapped in a unhappy marriage. I think that she may have been stuck in a marriage that she could not escape or was either to scared to leave on her own. Shortly after in receiving the news of her husbands death as she was already beginning to look forward to her dreams of a brighter future, she walked downstairs to find her husband, Mr.Mallard standing their alive. I believe that she died from a heart attack because her potential for unhappiness was still alive(her husband).
The short story The Story of an Hour was a nice easy read and was actually still filled with a lot of detail. It’s funny though how I assumed that by the end of the story, someone was going to die or something weird was going to happen. Anyways, I think it is very weird that Mrs. Mallard was upset at her husband’s death for only a short while and then under her breath kept repeatedly saying free to herself. In my opinion, it shows that Mr. Mallard and Mrs. Mallard were having some issues and problems in their relationship and I believe that for Mrs. Mallard, being married was almost like a burden. I feel like she felt held down by the fact that she had to be with this one man only and she wanted to go experiment and see if she liked any other guys. The story takes an unexpected twist when Mr. Mallard walks through the door because his friend had received not one but two telegraphs stating that he had passed away in the railroad accident. Something about this story just isn’t right. I don’t get how they could be so sure that Mr. Mallard was dead and then the next minute he walks through the door and Mrs. Mallard with her heart condition screams and then dies from seeing him. It still disturbs me that she was not upset all that much when she received the news that her husband died and that she kept telling herself that she was free.
I enjoyed reading this short story. Mrs. Mallard seems to be a very complex person emotionally. She did not react in the way that I expected to the events of the story. I felt that her emotion when she found out her husband had died was natural but the fact that she died when she found out her husband was still alive puzzles me. It made me question whether she really wanted her husband around and if she was really in love.
The short story The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin begins with the protagonist Mrs. Mallard finding out about her husband’s death. Everyone is scared and nervous the break the news for her husbands death to Mrs. Mallard. She is sad and tired after hearing about the news of her husband’s death and wants to be left alone. Although, Mrs. Mallard is really sad about her husband’s untimely death she starts to realize that perhaps her husband dying isn’t the worst thing for her. She loved her husband but most of the time she didn’t love him “ Often she had not”. She starts to realize that for the first time in her life she is finally free; “ Free, Body and soul free”. She doesn’t have a husband commanding her anymore and she can make her own decisions. That realization brings the most joy to Mrs. Mallard and she is excited about her life now. However, her poor heart isn’t able to handle so much happiness and she dies due to a heart attack caused by happiness. This was a sad and strange story to read because a woman is so repressed or unhappy that she is joyful that her husband died and she has a heart attack because of being happy. I hoped that her journey hadn't ended so soon because she had dreams that she could finally achieve if her heart was strong enough.
"The Story of an Hour" is a short story by Kate Chopin that is about a woman who suspects her husband has died in an accident. Mrs. Mallard was informed by a friend that her husband died in a railroad disaster. The way Mrs. Mallard reacted to the news was strange since it was a significant other that she was losing. The story explained how Mrs. Mallard was happy that she wouldn't have anyone to live for and how she was finally free. However, I think Mrs. Mallard was somewhat a cruel person because she was happy that her husband had died. It just seems cruel to wish death upon someone or to be happy that someone is no longer living. I think the moral of the story might be that we should be careful how we treat others. Mrs. Mallard's husband never showed much affection to her and this could be the reason why Mrs. Mallard wasn't grieving with sadness. She didn't have the affection that usually occurs in a marriage and she could have become bitter toward her husband. In the story she mentioned that she loved her husband sometimes but not often. Maybe she thought that it was just a burden to be with someone that didn't want to reciprocate her love. Also I thought it was weird how Mrs. Mallard's pulse started to speed up and she just became overjoyed with the news of her husband's death. Then the overjoy that she experienced actually caused her death. It's so unrealistic that she died from happiness and joy. Although it was interesting that she thought her husband died but instead she is the one who ends up dieing. This part of the story leaves me wondering how her husband reacted to her death.
The short story “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin is mainly focused on the main characters reaction. Mrs. Mallard, hearing told that her husband was killed in a railroad disaster. She has her sister and friends around her to help cope with his death but all she wanted was to be left alone. Mrs. Mallard begins grieving through sadness but then turns to relief and freedom felt. Some people may say Mrs. Mallard reaction was strange, but I believe everyone is different and we all have our own way of coping with events that occur in life. Unfortunately the over whelming freedom and excitement was to much for her poor heart and she dies. Her dyeing hours were filled with excitement toward her future, and for that to be the last emotion she has then I think it was an amazing way to go. I am not saying she didn’t love her husband because she did, however the release of emotions was her own was of grieving with the loss of her husband. In addition I do feel bad for the husband, as everyone thought he had died and then to discover his wife had passed way is unfortunate.
Even though the short story “The Story of an Hour” was quick to read it was quite confusing and off for me. It actually took me a second read through to completely understand what was happening. I knew that her husband had passed, however I was not completely sure if she was truly hurt or if it was just her emotions arousing at the moment when really deep inside she felt a sense of relief. It mentions how much pain Mrs. Mallardwas in when she had heard the news and that she even locked herself in a room to distance herself from everyone and take some time. While she was in the room, Mrs. Mallard is able to process everything that has happened in her mind and is now realizing that her whole life has changed and that things will now be different for her. One would think that these thoughts would be a great bother and horrible reminder of the recent ‘tragedy’ but in fact she’s seeing it in a whole bright new light.Now, there would be more freedom, capable of making one’s own decisions and not having to really work under another person’s authority. At the beginning of the story it tells the readers that Mrs.Mallardsuffers from heart problems and that they needed to break the news to her gently asmuch as possible. What is so ironic is that not only did her husband die but she did as well. She took in so much all at onceand it was probably all too overwhelming to bare; her husband dead, her grief for him, and how this freedom that she obtained within. Her heart was simply not strong enough to contain allofthe events and emotions that came right after another.
Although this story was very short, it has a good amount of detail. It also includes the ironic death of a housewife after the alleged death of her husband in a mine shaft explosion. Upon first hearing of the "death" of her husband, Mrs. Mallard was understandably very upset. However that emotion quickly changed to a sense of relief and happiness as she went alone to her bedroom and realized that she was finally free of her husband. She would be able to live the rest of her life for only herself, not having to worry about making someone else happy ever again. This thought was exhilarating for her, although she knew that she would be sad again as soon as she saw her dead husband's body. The feeling of happiness and freedom went away when she heard the door opening, and she saw her husband walk through the front door. Nobody could believe that he was there and, upon seeing her husband alive and well, Mrs. Mallard died, supposedly of "joy that kills".
In the short story The Story of an Hour written by Kate Choplin, I enjoyed how it immediately got right to the point of what was going on. I found it was sad that once Mrs. Mallard found out that her husband had passed away, she thought of how sad it would be that she would die alone. This is a very sad thought and I feel like a lot of people as they get older start to have a fear of how lonely they become. Reading further into the story it seems that the death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband was a weight lifted off of her shoulders. She did not seem to love him at him. The last line of the story was interesting. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills.” It is a little unclear to me what happens at the end. I assumed that Mrs. Mallard died due to her heart problems and previous heart conditions. It seems though, that Richards wife was the one that died. I am not really sure as to what happens at the end of the story. If Mrs. Mallard did die though, it sad that she died because she was so happy that her husband died. The only thing that I could really take away from this story was that Mrs. Mallard seemed to be pretty thankful that she could live her life on her own without having to be held back by her husband.
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin was surprisingly short yet, gave the reader a lot to think about. I think because the story was so quick and to the point it made it easier and more enjoyable to read. It starts off with the main character Mrs. Mallard finding out about her husband who had passed away in an accident. She immediately begins to grow into a deep sorrow and isolates herself from everyone who surrounds her. Although she grows depressed about this, it also gives her time to think and allows her to understand that she is now free which I believe makes her feel content. It appears as if she had never really loved her husband and it is as though a weight is lifted off her shoulders when she receives the news of her husband. At one point in the story, she mentions seeing trees and connecting it to new spring life. Spring normally symbolizes a new beginning whether it pertains to a human life or even plant life in a more literal term. This leads me to believe that it foreshadows her new life that she is about to begin without her husband. At the end of the story, we come to find that her husband is not actually dead when he appears in the doorway of the room Mrs. Mallard is in. He does not seem to be injured in any way and does not even recall being in an accident. She quickly gets tangled up in emotions and becomes overwhelmed. With all of the emotions and thoughts rushing over her, she ends up passing away due to her heart disease “of joy that kills”.
In the beginning of the short story “The Story Of An Hour”,young Mrs. Mallard is broken the news by her sister gently that her husband has died in some sort of train reck. At first she is sad and begins to cry. She remembers all the memories that she had with him. After a minute, she suddenly realizes that she is free. Free to say what she pleases and do what she wants. A sudden calm passes over her and she finds herself wishing for a long life instead of the short life that she has been wishing for for so many years. She feels liberated. However, her family is worried about her and asks that she comes out of her room. The ending was confusing to me. Her husband walks through the door unharmed. Mrs. Mallard is so shocked that she has a heart attack and dies. The doctors note says that she was “killed with joy”, however, I believe that when she saw her husband her freedom was once again taken away and she becomes so sad all at once that her heart gives out.
Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour" while brief, goes through a lot of back and forth. It starts by mentioning that Mrs. Mallard has heart troubles and this gives the reader a sense of "why does this bit of information matter?" Her sister breaks the news of Mr. Mallard's passing in a tragic train wreck gently to her, and this sends Mrs. Mallard into a great sorrow and depression as was to be expected. When she goes away to her room alone, she sits in the arm chair by the window and comes to a realization that while this news is very upsetting to her, she couldn't be happier to be a free woman. She was not happy in her marriage, and was now a free body and a free soul. The mention of "the years to come that would belong to her absolutely" tells the reader that she was excited to not belong to anybody anymore, especially to someone whom she did not love. Mrs. Mallard's sister was begging to come in to comfort her before she made herself ill, but Mrs. Mallard was doing the exact opposite. When the sisters had returned downstairs, Mr. Mallard appeared through the door not recalling there even being an accident of any sort. He was alive and well; when Mrs. Mallard realized this, she most likely went into a state of shock and then passed away. While the doctor's note says "died of heart-disease- a joy that kills" I believe that the "joy" that killed her wasn't her husband returning home, it was the fact that she was happy that she believed he was dead so that she could get on with her own life. Her heart disease was not an actual medical issue, it was the fact that she was burdened with living a life she was not content with.
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, while fairly short has a lot that happens. The story start off with Mrs. Mallard receiving the news of her husband’s death. Her friend Josephine comes to deliver the news. She must deliver the news carefully because of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition. He died in a railroad disaster. At first, Louise is upset and saddened by his death. I found this normal because her husband had just died. When she goes upstairs she realized that she is actually happy about her husband’s death because she is finally free. She felt oppressed in their marriage. She though that all marriages contained oppression. I think that while this is weird, that she has the right to be happy if she was in an oppressive marriage. Josephine comes upstairs to check on Louise and to tell her to come downstairs. When they go down, Louise’s husband, Brently, comes in through the door. They are so shocked. Louise dies of an apparent heart attack due to “joy”. I do not believe that Louise died due to joy but rather her heart actually broke. She was so happy that she finally got to be free from her husband that when she saw her husband, she became very disappointed. That disappointment caused her to have a heart attack. Though very short, I liked this story. It was interesting and I think people could relate to it in some ways.
I enjoyed this story, “The Story of the Hour”; although a quick read, there was a lot of detail and literary elements. The story began with the news to the main character, Mrs. Mallard, of the death of her husband in an accident, and during this, she was having heart trouble. In this situation, any wife would mourn the death of her husband and not want to talk to anyone. This was shown in the third paragraph. “Exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul,” really symbolizing the meaning of death. There was a tonal shift going into the fourth paragraph was when the speaker says, “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.” That rest of the paragraph explains spring, which is a symbolism of a new beginning or life. Further in the reading implies that her and her husband seemed to have a rocky relationship and that, because of his death, she was free from him. “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” Mrs. Mallard is opening her arms to the new life that she is going to have. While she did love her husband, she still felt that it was time to be on her own and not be controlled by someone else. It was a complete shock to me at the end when the reader finds out that Mrs. Mallard’s husband did not even die; he came in the door and was unaware that there was actually an accident. As a result at the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard “died of heart disease—of joy that kills.” It was her happiness of new-found freedom that took her life away. This can symbolize that in order for her to be completely free, she had to die and go to heaven.
ReplyDeleteAfter Louise Mallard gets news about the death of her husband, her initial reaction is a feeling of deep sorrow. She weeps hysterically and wishes to be alone. After she cries herself dry, the realization that she is now a free woman becomes relevant. This shows that although Louise is upset about her husband passing, she was never truly happy in her marriage and thought of it as more of a restriction rather then a fulfilling relationship. With this new found realization that her possibilities are endless and there is nothing, nor no one to hold her back, her heart becomes over-filled with joy. This overwhelming feelings of freedom and happiness is too much of a strain on her heart which is weak (physically) to begin with that she ends up dying herself. That's what is ironic about this. The reader would assume that Louise would die from a broken heart after hearing the news of her husband but instead dies from the excitement of this opportunity to have the independence she had longed for all her life.
ReplyDeleteI really like this short story, it was short but still had so much to tell. Back in the day, women were considered to be “owned” by men so I understand why Mrs. Mallard was both happy and sad about the death of her husband. Once she found out that he had supposedly died in an accident, she cried and shut herself away from the rest of the people around her. However, as she looked out the window she saw a new life for herself as she looked at the new spring life. She realized that she could do so much more than just stay home and live the life she was told to live by her husband. I think some marriage roles came in to play where she was expected to stay home to cook and clean. But since she was without a husband, she felt free to do whatever she chose to do as if it was the beginning of a whole new life. Yes she was upset her husband had passed away and she would mourn at his funeral and cry but after that day, she knew she would be free to live a more independent life. I think that all the different emotions played a trick on her heart and led to her death. She started out the hour in great grief and sorrow and then became so joyful at the realization of her freedom. She was happy that she would be that happy and free for the rest of her life then to have that all ripped away all those different emotions torn from her, it just caused her heart to stop. Because she was so happy for the new life and because it got ripped away so suddenly and it happened all so fast, the author said she died “of joy that kills.”
ReplyDeleteI feel as though this short story leaves a lot of interpretation open to the reader. There are three stages that Mrs. Mallard undergoes and each can be interpreted multiple ways. The first stage is her reaction to finding out that her husband died. She immediately weeps. The question necessary to determine the interpretation of her reactions is: Does Mrs. Mallard really love her husband? If so, the crying truly is her sadness. If not, the crying may just be an act Mrs. Mallard is putting on for her sister and husband’s friend. This is possible because initial denial or shock of the issue may be more natural than immediate crying. The first step to overcoming an issue is admission that there is an issue which doesn’t always happen so quickly. The second stage of Mrs. Mallard’s reaction is her apparent madness while she is sitting alone in her chair. If Mrs. Mallard really did love her husband, this madness may be a coping mechanism to deal with the extreme and sudden loss. The unfortunate news could have driven her to insanity. If she does not really love her husband, this could be true elation. The third stage is Mrs. Mallard’s death after finding out that her husband is actually still alive. Mrs. Mallard either died of love or devastation. It all depends on whether the reader thinks she actually loved her husband or not. It seems as though Mrs. Mallard did not really love her husband, however that could be just one side of the story.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot happening in this short story. First of all my biggest question is why did Mrs. Mallard feel free once she had heard her husband had died? This leads me to think that her relationship with her husband was broken, or that they have grown apart to some extent. This still is a very strange way to take a death of a person who you have been close to for a good portion of your life, even if you do not love them anymore. My first thought of why this could be is the setting takes place in a time where women are viewed as someone who should stay at home and take care of her husband and kids, and she no longer wanted to care for him. The story never talks about mistreatment of Mrs. Mallard, but that could be another reason why she felt free. I was very surprised at the ending of this story when Brently Mallard walked through the door. I was confused about when Mrs. Mallard died. Did she die as he opened the door, or before? What I found most interesting about this story was that her sister and her husbands friends wanted to break the new to hear slowly because they knew she had a heart problem and they didn’t want her to have more troubles because of this and in the end her over joy eventually cause the death of herself. Lastly I want to know how the information was mixed up and Brently was nowhere near the accident.
ReplyDeleteThe short story ‘The story of an Hour’ starts off about Brently Mallard being killed in in a railroad accident and Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, told Mrs. Mallard the news. Then the story illustrates Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to this news. And at the end the reader is surprised that Mrs. Mallard actually died and Mr. Mallard was alive. I noticed a lot of foreshadowing while I was reading this. The lines “ But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.” This is kind of foreshadowing and hinting to the reader something is going on. When I read this I though she was dying from being so heart-broken about the news. Also, the lines “And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.” This made me picture Mrs. Mallard as an angel. And when she was looking out her window at the patches of blue sky was Mrs. Mallard looking up to Heaven. The last sentence is the most powerful sentence in the story obviously. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” Mrs. Mallard was clearly miserable with her husband. She was dying and was saying the word ‘freedom.’ That shows the only way Mrs. Mallard could escape her husband was to die. When the story talks about her being independent, living for herself, and no one having power of her shows the reader how ‘excited?’ Mrs. Mallard is to be gone and escaped her husband. So what makes this story so ironic is heart disease- of joy that kills, is Mrs. Mallard was so over joyed to have finally escaped her husband it kills her.
ReplyDeleteThe story, “The Story of An Hour”, has got to be one of the saddest stories I have ever read. I had previously read this story in high school and was hoping that my opinion on it would change the second time around, but sadly no. The poor woman in this story had all her hopes and dreams ripped away from her in a matter of seconds. That’s like someone telling you that you hit the lottery and won a billion dollars and they watch you sit there and plan out all the things you are going to do with the money, then afterwards tell you it was all a joke. I feel really bad for the woman because the whole time she was with her husband she felt controlled, like she couldn’t be herself, she was in a way his little prisoner. Then she finally finds freedom in his death and in those few seconds that she is convinced he is dead, she finally finds true happiness in her life and begins to envision a better future for herself. When she has a heart attack in the end, I feel like she was just overwhelmed with the thought of her dreams being killed that her heart just couldn’t take anymore.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that this was a very good short story! I like how it had that twist at the end and how the whole story basically contradicted itself. I want to say it was ironic but I don’t know if that is technically the right term to use? Anyways when I first started reading this short story “The Story of an hour” I thought either one of two things was going to happen. At first I thought Mrs. Mallard was going to get possessed by her husband’s soul and end up jumping of a ten story building and kill herself. Something around those lines because all of the pass messed up stories we have read. Then I thought that Mrs. Mallard was realizing that she did not really like her husband that much at all and now that she is a free woman she was going to go look around for a new man. Kind of disturbing both ways if you think about it so either or I was pretty much expecting. Then once I got to the ending I had to read it about three times over because this was a big twist in the short story! All I have to say is that her sister and her husband’s best friend really messed up with this one. I mean you would think that they would double check and make sure Mrs. Mallard’s husband was dead because they both knew she had a week heart. In the end it was a real heart breaker to find out that Mrs. Mallards husband actually did not die, but instead her herself ended up dead.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the story because it was short and straight to the point. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to hear husband’s death puzzles me. At first Mallard is upset and cries over her husband Brently Mallard. Though later Mrs. Mallard envisions a positive outlook on what her life will be like without her husband. This led me to infer that there was a massive age difference between the Mallard couple and that Mrs. Mallard was with her husband for the money. With this inference, I believe that Mrs. Mallard visualized all the thing that she could do with her deceased husband’s money. The fact that Brently Mallard is alive destroys Mrs. Mallard’s dreams of receiving all of his fortune.
ReplyDeleteThe short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was a story that I actually enjoyed; it was short, sweet, and caught me off guard. The main character, Mrs. Mallard finds out that her husband dies. Like most wives, their reaction is to cry, and that is what Mrs. Mallard does. She isolates herself from her friends and family, crying about the death and wanting to just be alone. While she was alone, thoughts ran through her mind. “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death” indicates that she realizes death is approaching and she opens up her arms to it. “’free, free, free!’” Mrs. Mallard cries out these words, realizing she is free: free from her marriage? Free from her husband? These questions ran through my head wondering why she believed she was free because her husband. As the story went on, the narrator said that Mrs. Millard “loved him-sometimes”. She obviously was not deeply in love with her husband. So I believe her tears were not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy and freedom. “Free! Body and soul free!” Now that her husband was dead , her soul was able to release. What caught me off guard was that Mrs. Mallard ended up dying. What was ironic to me was that Mrs. Mallard didn’t die of a broken heart, but of joy that she was free from her husband. Then, out of now where, Richard, her husband, comes walking through the door; he never actually died and had no idea that his wife was dying. When the doctors came, they said that his wife died of a heart attack- of joys that kills. Because Mrs. Mallard was over joyed that her husband “died”, she died herself, from the joy that is so powerful, it can kill.
ReplyDeleteThe short story “The Story of an Hour” was very interesting. I enjoyed it more than the last few stories because it was short and to the point. The main character, Mrs. Mallard, whom suffers from a heart condition, finds out that her husband has died in a tragic accident. After being told the news by her sister and her husband’s best friend, she begins to cry hysterically and runs to her room and locks herself in. After spending a few moments gazing out her window, her whole mentality changes. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life.” That line in the story marked the point of relief for Mrs. Mallard. She begins to think of all things she could now do without being under her husbands control and becomes overly happy. Her happiness after her husband’s death is strange to me. If she didn’t want to be with him so badly, why did she stay with him? Shortly after her happiness comes for her new life, her husband knocks on the door, not even knowing about the train accident. When Mrs. Mallard sees this she instantly dies of heart disease, her heart was broken when her dreams of her new life were crushed, “Of joy that kills.”
ReplyDelete“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is the oddest and most rapidly changing short stories I’ve ever read. It starts out with Mrs. Mallard, a regular woman who finds out that her husband, Brently, has died in a railroad accident. This is very hard to tell her too because of her heart troubles. Once she’s told of the news, she immediately weeps (as anyone would do) and runs upstairs to be alone. At first, she mourns the death of her husband, but overtime, she starts to realize how much of a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. Isn’t that just awful? Her husband just passed away and she was over it that quickly? Anyways, she now says that she is “free”, meaning she has no more obligations towards Brently and can now do what she pleases. Mrs. Mallard found that she has become more independent with this experience and is now fine being a widow. Then things take a total left turn. As she leaves the room and comes back downstairs, Brently waltzes through the door, completely fine. In fact, he didn’t even hear about the railroad accident that took place. In result, Louise dies of a heart attack from “joy that kills”. Now the real question of the story is this: what was her reaction that caused her to die? Was it one of happiness to see her husband alive and well, or one of sadness that her independence was taken away from her in that one second? That’s what I liked about this short story. You can argue either side. I believe that it was one of sadness. For half the story, it talked about how she was going to move along with her life and that she was free of her marriage. It even said that there was no greater feeling, not even love, than knowing she regained her own self-assertion. I feel that that was the joy that killed her. She didn’t expect him to be alive, so she was happy knowing she could get along with her life all by herself.
ReplyDeleteThe short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin surprised me. At first, I thought the main character, Mrs. Mallard, was so upset that she was going to take her own life but that all changed as I read on. I never would have expected for her to see her husband's death as an opportunity to be free. It seems as if their relationship looked perfect on the outside, but clearly she was feeling like something was wrong. It's as if she felt sheltered from the rest of the world while she was married to Mr. Mallard. I actually think it's really depressing that she lived her life this way. No one should have to feel isolated from all the other opportunities that are out there. The ending is what really caught me off guard though. The author described the process of being told about her husband's death in detail, and then her husband walks through the door. I was not expecting that. In that split second, all of Mrs. Mallard's dreams shattered. The last line of the story is so powerful. "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-- of the joy that kills" it's like she was feeling too many things at once and died from that, from my perspective. She was sad due to her husband's "death" but also excited because of the freedom she could experience. But then her husband walks back into her life and her whole world just comes crashing down all over again.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this story, one of the aspects that stood out to me was the irony of what the news of Mrs. Mallard’s husbands death did to her verses what her sister and her husband’s friend Richard thought it would do to her. They thought that the news would kill Mrs. Mallard and what it actually did was it made her feel much better; it seemingly freed her from her heart problem. While I was reading this, this was surprising to me because as the author was describing Mrs. Mallard’s feelings as she was in her room, it seemed as though she was describing the process of dying, but it turned out she was experiencing relief and happiness. The other piece of irony that I found interesting was what actually killed Mrs. Mallard. That her sister and Richard were so worried that the news of her husband’s death would be too much for her heart to handle but it turned out to be the news that he was not dead that was too much for her heart. This led me to believe that her marriage was not very good at all and that she still loved her husband even though he probably didn’t love her: when she is in her room, she is relieved that her marriage is over but is sad that her husband is dead. In this aspect, the story is quite tragic because most people when they find out that their spouse is actually alive after thinking that he or she was dead would be overjoyed. However in this case, her marriage was so bad that she couldn’t deal with the thought of having to return to it after the prospect of being free from it. Because of this, I thought that her heart condition was a representation of her bad marriage and that it was her marriage that ended up killing her.
ReplyDeleteThe very short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a very quick read with many events that happen in a short amount of time. I think that the title has a lot to do with the plot as a person or life can change dramatically in an hour. At the beginning of the story Chopin reveals that the main character Mrs.Mallard “was afflicted with a heart trouble” and not long after she reveals that “she was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. I find that is a very strange combination, as at the beginning when she reveals her heart problems I thought that she was an older lady, only shortly after to find out that she is young. It was strange that a young person had the troubles and features of an older aged woman and now after analyzing the story I think it had a lot to do with the unhappiness she felt while her husband alive and the life she was stuck in. Mrs.Mallard spends under an hour processing the news of her husbands death and in that hour she grieves and then quickly moves to thinking about her dreams and freedom as she whispered “free, free, free!” and “Free! Body and soul free.” She was now feeling a questionably joy because of the news that she had received of her husbands death. Mrs.Mallard response to all the life changing news was not that of a typical wife's reaction to their husbands death and that concluded me to think that she was trapped in a unhappy marriage. I think that she may have been stuck in a marriage that she could not escape or was either to scared to leave on her own. Shortly after in receiving the news of her husbands death as she was already beginning to look forward to her dreams of a brighter future, she walked downstairs to find her husband, Mr.Mallard standing their alive. I believe that she died from a heart attack because her potential for unhappiness was still alive(her husband).
ReplyDeleteThe short story The Story of an Hour was a nice easy read and was actually still filled with a lot of detail. It’s funny though how I assumed that by the end of the story, someone was going to die or something weird was going to happen. Anyways, I think it is very weird that Mrs. Mallard was upset at her husband’s death for only a short while and then under her breath kept repeatedly saying free to herself. In my opinion, it shows that Mr. Mallard and Mrs. Mallard were having some issues and problems in their relationship and I believe that for Mrs. Mallard, being married was almost like a burden. I feel like she felt held down by the fact that she had to be with this one man only and she wanted to go experiment and see if she liked any other guys. The story takes an unexpected twist when Mr. Mallard walks through the door because his friend had received not one but two telegraphs stating that he had passed away in the railroad accident. Something about this story just isn’t right. I don’t get how they could be so sure that Mr. Mallard was dead and then the next minute he walks through the door and Mrs. Mallard with her heart condition screams and then dies from seeing him. It still disturbs me that she was not upset all that much when she received the news that her husband died and that she kept telling herself that she was free.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this short story. Mrs. Mallard seems to be a very complex person emotionally. She did not react in the way that I expected to the events of the story. I felt that her emotion when she found out her husband had died was natural but the fact that she died when she found out her husband was still alive puzzles me. It made me question whether she really wanted her husband around and if she was really in love.
ReplyDeleteThe short story The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin begins with the protagonist Mrs. Mallard finding out about her husband’s death. Everyone is scared and nervous the break the news for her husbands death to Mrs. Mallard. She is sad and tired after hearing about the news of her husband’s death and wants to be left alone. Although, Mrs. Mallard is really sad about her husband’s untimely death she starts to realize that perhaps her husband dying isn’t the worst thing for her. She loved her husband but most of the time she didn’t love him “ Often she had not”. She starts to realize that for the first time in her life she is finally free; “ Free, Body and soul free”. She doesn’t have a husband commanding her anymore and she can make her own decisions. That realization brings the most joy to Mrs. Mallard and she is excited about her life now. However, her poor heart isn’t able to handle so much happiness and she dies due to a heart attack caused by happiness. This was a sad and strange story to read because a woman is so repressed or unhappy that she is joyful that her husband died and she has a heart attack because of being happy. I hoped that her journey hadn't ended so soon because she had dreams that she could finally achieve if her heart was strong enough.
ReplyDelete"The Story of an Hour" is a short story by Kate Chopin that is about a woman who suspects her husband has died in an accident. Mrs. Mallard was informed by a friend that her husband died in a railroad disaster. The way Mrs. Mallard reacted to the news was strange since it was a significant other that she was losing. The story explained how Mrs. Mallard was happy that she wouldn't have anyone to live for and how she was finally free. However, I think Mrs. Mallard was somewhat a cruel person because she was happy that her husband had died. It just seems cruel to wish death upon someone or to be happy that someone is no longer living. I think the moral of the story might be that we should be careful how we treat others. Mrs. Mallard's husband never showed much affection to her and this could be the reason why Mrs. Mallard wasn't grieving with sadness. She didn't have the affection that usually occurs in a marriage and she could have become bitter toward her husband. In the story she mentioned that she loved her husband sometimes but not often. Maybe she thought that it was just a burden to be with someone that didn't want to reciprocate her love. Also I thought it was weird how Mrs. Mallard's pulse started to speed up and she just became overjoyed with the news of her husband's death. Then the overjoy that she experienced actually caused her death. It's so unrealistic that she died from happiness and joy. Although it was interesting that she thought her husband died but instead she is the one who ends up dieing. This part of the story leaves me wondering how her husband reacted to her death.
ReplyDeleteFrom Jessica:
ReplyDeleteThe short story “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin is mainly focused on the main characters reaction. Mrs. Mallard, hearing told that her husband was killed in a railroad disaster. She has her sister and friends around her to help cope with his death but all she wanted was to be left alone. Mrs. Mallard begins grieving through sadness but then turns to relief and freedom felt. Some people may say Mrs. Mallard reaction was strange, but I believe everyone is different and we all have our own way of coping with events that occur in life. Unfortunately the over whelming freedom and excitement was to much for her poor heart and she dies. Her dyeing hours were filled with excitement toward her future, and for that to be the last emotion she has then I think it was an amazing way to go. I am not saying she didn’t love her husband because she did, however the release of emotions was her own was of grieving with the loss of her husband. In addition I do feel bad for the husband, as everyone thought he had died and then to discover his wife had passed way is unfortunate.
From Jae:
ReplyDeleteEven though the short story “The Story of an Hour” was quick to read it was quite confusing and off for me. It actually took me a second read through to completely understand what was happening. I knew that her husband had passed, however I was not completely sure if she was truly hurt or if it was just her emotions arousing at the moment when really deep inside she felt a sense of relief. It mentions how much pain Mrs. Mallardwas in when she had heard the news and that she even locked herself in a room to distance herself from everyone and take some time. While she was in the room, Mrs. Mallard is able to process everything that has happened in her mind and is now realizing that her whole life has changed and that things will now be different for her. One would think that these thoughts would be a great bother and horrible reminder of the recent ‘tragedy’ but in fact she’s seeing it in a whole bright new light.Now, there would be more freedom, capable of making one’s own decisions and not having to really work under another person’s authority. At the beginning of the story it tells the readers that Mrs.Mallardsuffers from heart problems and that they needed to break the news to her gently asmuch as possible. What is so ironic is that not only did her husband die but she did as well. She took in so much all at onceand it was probably all too overwhelming to bare; her husband dead, her grief for him, and how this freedom that she obtained within. Her heart was simply not strong enough to contain allofthe events and emotions that came right after another.
Although this story was very short, it has a good amount of detail. It also includes the ironic death of a housewife after the alleged death of her husband in a mine shaft explosion. Upon first hearing of the "death" of her husband, Mrs. Mallard was understandably very upset. However that emotion quickly changed to a sense of relief and happiness as she went alone to her bedroom and realized that she was finally free of her husband. She would be able to live the rest of her life for only herself, not having to worry about making someone else happy ever again. This thought was exhilarating for her, although she knew that she would be sad again as soon as she saw her dead husband's body. The feeling of happiness and freedom went away when she heard the door opening, and she saw her husband walk through the front door. Nobody could believe that he was there and, upon seeing her husband alive and well, Mrs. Mallard died, supposedly of "joy that kills".
ReplyDeleteIn the short story The Story of an Hour written by Kate Choplin, I enjoyed how it immediately got right to the point of what was going on. I found it was sad that once Mrs. Mallard found out that her husband had passed away, she thought of how sad it would be that she would die alone. This is a very sad thought and I feel like a lot of people as they get older start to have a fear of how lonely they become. Reading further into the story it seems that the death of Mrs. Mallard’s husband was a weight lifted off of her shoulders. She did not seem to love him at him. The last line of the story was interesting. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills.” It is a little unclear to me what happens at the end. I assumed that Mrs. Mallard died due to her heart problems and previous heart conditions. It seems though, that Richards wife was the one that died. I am not really sure as to what happens at the end of the story. If Mrs. Mallard did die though, it sad that she died because she was so happy that her husband died. The only thing that I could really take away from this story was that Mrs. Mallard seemed to be pretty thankful that she could live her life on her own without having to be held back by her husband.
ReplyDeleteThe Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin was surprisingly short yet, gave the reader a lot to think about. I think because the story was so quick and to the point it made it easier and more enjoyable to read. It starts off with the main character Mrs. Mallard finding out about her husband who had passed away in an accident. She immediately begins to grow into a deep sorrow and isolates herself from everyone who surrounds her. Although she grows depressed about this, it also gives her time to think and allows her to understand that she is now free which I believe makes her feel content. It appears as if she had never really loved her husband and it is as though a weight is lifted off her shoulders when she receives the news of her husband. At one point in the story, she mentions seeing trees and connecting it to new spring life. Spring normally symbolizes a new beginning whether it pertains to a human life or even plant life in a more literal term. This leads me to believe that it foreshadows her new life that she is about to begin without her husband. At the end of the story, we come to find that her husband is not actually dead when he appears in the doorway of the room Mrs. Mallard is in. He does not seem to be injured in any way and does not even recall being in an accident. She quickly gets tangled up in emotions and becomes overwhelmed. With all of the emotions and thoughts rushing over her, she ends up passing away due to her heart disease “of joy that kills”.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the short story “The Story Of An Hour”,young Mrs. Mallard is broken the news by her sister gently that her husband has died in some sort of train reck. At first she is sad and begins to cry. She remembers all the memories that she had with him. After a minute, she suddenly realizes that she is free. Free to say what she pleases and do what she wants. A sudden calm passes over her and she finds herself wishing for a long life instead of the short life that she has been wishing for for so many years. She feels liberated. However, her family is worried about her and asks that she comes out of her room. The ending was confusing to me. Her husband walks through the door unharmed. Mrs. Mallard is so shocked that she has a heart attack and dies. The doctors note says that she was “killed with joy”, however, I believe that when she saw her husband her freedom was once again taken away and she becomes so sad all at once that her heart gives out.
ReplyDeleteKate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour" while brief, goes through a lot of back and forth. It starts by mentioning that Mrs. Mallard has heart troubles and this gives the reader a sense of "why does this bit of information matter?" Her sister breaks the news of Mr. Mallard's passing in a tragic train wreck gently to her, and this sends Mrs. Mallard into a great sorrow and depression as was to be expected. When she goes away to her room alone, she sits in the arm chair by the window and comes to a realization that while this news is very upsetting to her, she couldn't be happier to be a free woman. She was not happy in her marriage, and was now a free body and a free soul. The mention of "the years to come that would belong to her absolutely" tells the reader that she was excited to not belong to anybody anymore, especially to someone whom she did not love. Mrs. Mallard's sister was begging to come in to comfort her before she made herself ill, but Mrs. Mallard was doing the exact opposite. When the sisters had returned downstairs, Mr. Mallard appeared through the door not recalling there even being an accident of any sort. He was alive and well; when Mrs. Mallard realized this, she most likely went into a state of shock and then passed away. While the doctor's note says "died of heart-disease- a joy that kills" I believe that the "joy" that killed her wasn't her husband returning home, it was the fact that she was happy that she believed he was dead so that she could get on with her own life. Her heart disease was not an actual medical issue, it was the fact that she was burdened with living a life she was not content with.
ReplyDelete“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, while fairly short has a lot that happens. The story start off with Mrs. Mallard receiving the news of her husband’s death. Her friend Josephine comes to deliver the news. She must deliver the news carefully because of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition. He died in a railroad disaster. At first, Louise is upset and saddened by his death. I found this normal because her husband had just died. When she goes upstairs she realized that she is actually happy about her husband’s death because she is finally free. She felt oppressed in their marriage. She though that all marriages contained oppression. I think that while this is weird, that she has the right to be happy if she was in an oppressive marriage. Josephine comes upstairs to check on Louise and to tell her to come downstairs. When they go down, Louise’s husband, Brently, comes in through the door. They are so shocked. Louise dies of an apparent heart attack due to “joy”. I do not believe that Louise died due to joy but rather her heart actually broke. She was so happy that she finally got to be free from her husband that when she saw her husband, she became very disappointed. That disappointment caused her to have a heart attack. Though very short, I liked this story. It was interesting and I think people could relate to it in some ways.
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