An Emotional Hour (Essay assignment)

Analysis of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour



You can't help sighing while going through Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. You may even call it a suspense story regarding the dramatized psychological process within a ‘long’ good hour.

What it feels like for a woman to lose her husband? When the dreadful news was conceived with "veiled hints", Mrs. Mallard acted with "paralyzed inability" and "sudden, wild abandonment" as everyone expected: "wept at once", sank in the armchair, "down by exhaustion". She collapsed in the "storm of grief". The subsequent Mrs. Mallard's psychological symptoms are supposed to be some sweet recollections of their "happy" marriage.

Unfortunately, the scenes viewed from the window by Mrs. Mallard seemed to be too positive to believe: open square, new spring life, delicious breath of rain, distant singing, and twittering sparrows. She even noticed the beautiful picture consisted of "patches of blue sky" and clouds. Until now, same with Mrs. Mallard, you may be confused and uncertain about what was happening, as her feeling of brightness slowly surfaced before she realized the big relief after the years of repression. Something "subtle and elusive" occurred to her mind, yet she was ethically ashamed to speak it out. Still, the strong overflow of joy burst out her pumping bosom, crying "tumultuously" yet "under her breath": "free, free, free!" From then on, Mrs. Mallard's face was no longer blank but brightened. The gay of freedom was great enough to help dismiss the guilty feelings coming along.

So in Mrs. Mallard's case, the unique answer to the question lifted at the beginning should be unpredictably and incredibly full of joy. In the following text, you would conceive that Mr. and Mrs. Mallard's marriage is "fixed and gray and dead". Getting rid of this bind, Mrs. Mallard saw a future "that would belong to her absolutely". Meanwhile, she considered the feeling as an illumination that would help her out of the "sorrow", which was also what her sister Josephine and Mr. Mallard's friend Richards comforted her for.

Mrs. Mallard's nerves continued touching the peak of happiness as her thoughts wandering about the independent life she would soon live for herself. Her perspective about marriage showed up instantly: love, "the unsolved mystery" was nothing compared to the "possession of self-assertion". Holding and pursuing opinions of herself was the meaning of her life. You may sense a declaration of independence from a feminist here. The "feverish triumph" in Mrs. Mallard's eyes implied the underlying struggle of dominance between men and women was won by her in her marriage, though through a coincidental way. The victory kept her walking ahead gayly until the supposed-to-be-dead opened the front door and stood there naively, knowing nothing about her great fresh joy. And before sharing this joy with the supposed-to-be-dead, Mrs. Mallard's heart attack left her a decent ending, which was diagnosed by the doctors: "of joy that kills".

Here's an irony: in one way, it's no doubt that the "joy" was aroused by the death of Mr. Mallard; yet in another, for the people in the story, the "joy" is for that Mr. Mallard was alive, while for you, the reader with multiple points of view, it was the "joy" plus the shock of disappointment that made Mrs. Mallard too emotional and killed her. What a twist of fate!

Yes, the story alone can be viewed as a farce about a long-married couple, whose pathetic relationship was maintained merely by the sense of responsibility; or how was a self-pitied woman's extreme pleasure succeeded by sorrow. And notice how much joy Mrs. Mallard got when she found her out of this bind: to be identified not in the name of Mallard but as an independent woman, is the marrow she longed to seek out of life. In the year of 1894 (this should be taken in credit), Chopin wrote in a tactful language yet detailed psychological depictions to reveal her insights on sexual identity. Though Mrs. Mallard failed with her envision dashing to the ground, a strip of hope shined on female self-assertion and stimulated women to ponder the meaning of their own lives.


Obtain the original story from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_an_Hour