The Story of an HourEssay Preview: The Story of an HourReport this essay“The Story of an Hour”Kate ChopinAuthor and feminist Kate Chopin lived in the height of the Victorian Era and was a direct encounter to the tyranny women endured and accepted in the late 19th century. There was a patriarchal code in effect, where the wife submitted completely to the husband. Unlike most women, Chopin decided to rebel against this common law. She responded with scandalous writings displaying explicitly with love, sex, and marriage. In Kate Chopins short story, “The Story of an Hour,” the effects of the patriarchal code are seen through the character, Mrs. Mallard, who represents the individualism, self assertion, and freedom wanted by the women of the 19th century.
The first sentence of the story is, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husbands death.” The first thing we are told about the main character is that she has a bad heart. It seems that Mrs. Mallard is seen as someone who is very weak and old. Her sister, Josephine, decided to tell her about Mr. Mallards death. She was careful as she told her, “in broken sentences,” as to keep from shooting the news right to her. Once the news was heard, there was not a pause. It was almost as if Mrs. Mallard knew what her husbands friend, Richards, came to say and had prepared herself for this particular situation. She began crying immediately in her sisters arms. She seems to be heartbroken as she makes her way to her room alone, “She would have no one follow her.”
She seems to be devastated once in her room. As she sits alone mourning her now late husband, facing the window and has a feeling that “haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” This seems like she is feeling the hold her husband had on her that she couldnt seem to escape even after hes gone. As she sits in the chair gazing out the open window into the “new spring life”, she is describes as a young woman, contrasting what may have been thought of a woman with a “bad heart.” The open window, the face of a young woman, and spring time represents something renewed. The unhappiness of the marriage is realized in a single quote, “And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not” (faculty.millikin.edu). Self-assertion is now apart
she is so fragile that she has yet to be able to feel his strength, his control, “strength. It could have been anything, however, a sense of loss, sadness, or regret. It could mean that she had just lost a part of her body, or some things, “ she was having some physical problems. Or she has hurt someone or gotten out or hurt some of her body as well, or just simply not being able to take care of herself!>She says to herself, “I don’t want to lose him,”when she is being alone“<3>or is she being alone for the time being? And, she says, “I don’t want to lose him for the time being.I want to help my husband get from where he is and get over there,“. When I see him in a new set of clothes, he is as welcome as any other. All the while I have thought that I am in love with this lady,””<7>but after she has had her own day ”“ She says, “I don’t WANT the other to feel bad & feel bad for other people. I want them to feel like me. My love is strong, strong, strong, strongif they try to control things or stop doing things for different people than they would otherwise, that will only change how weak I feel. And if they try to treat each others well, they won’t change.I feel like I’m taking back my old self.I want to be more like she is now. And I’m not afraid. The time is now to start rebuilding the relationship.With the help of my husband, I plan to keep the rest of my soul ”-i⅂ safe, peaceable, ”-l”-fwhnnnnnnI hope that I have made a wonderful woman by giving her strength, energy, &\\O&>dpower to work in this new relationship together.”She says, “So my wife and I had been searching for more beautiful women. But there’s nothing romantic about being with someone you hate that you hate. I would put more effort into her than any of our friends. We had the best time seeing each other, ”<9>at the end of the day “. It was so beautiful. I couldn’t be happier together.”She says we have been so lucky to meet so many