The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

The Literary criticism of the

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

In "The Story of an Hour", Kate Chopin demonstrates a woman's struggle with

self discovery and stereotypical roles of marriage. Mrs. Mallard find's herself

confronting freedom for the first time upon hearing that her husband has died. Kate

Chopin had a similar experience as her character, "The shock of her husband's sudden

death in 1883, which left her raising six children, seems to have plunged Kate Chopin

into writing." (Chopin110). Many of Chopin's stories describe how a woman truly feels to

the contrary of what they should feel and what role they should play. In "The Story of an

Hour" Chopin takes you into the mind of Mrs. Mallard's inner most thoughts as she

foresees her future life without her husband. 

There was a railroad disaster and it is reported that Brently Mallard was killed. Brently

Mallard's friend Mr. Richards was the first to receive the news and he tells Josephine,

Louise Mallard's sister. Louise Mallard, wife of Brently Mallard has a heart condition and

with fear of complications Josephine tells her the message lightly. "She wept at once,

with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent

itself she went away to her room." (Chopin516) Mrs. Mallard wants to be alone. She sits

down facing the window soaking in exactly what this means for her and her future. When

she realizes that it's not a feeling of abandonment but a feeling of freedom. "There would

be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women

believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature." (Chopin517).

Josephine knocks on the door to get Mrs. Mallard to come out of the room. With Mr.

Richards waiting downstairs the two sisters make there way down when Brently Mallard

begins to open the front door. He's in fact alive. Mrs. Mallard then falls to her death. The

doctor's had said, "...she had died of heart disease--of joy that kills" (Chopin517).

The beginning of the story has a somber tone when the news of Brently Mallard was

reviled to his wife Louise Mallard. Upon hearing the news Mrs. Mallard felt "a storm of

grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow

her." (Chopin516). From this point on the story begins to become a more positive tone as

we travel through Louise Mallards thoughts in a limited omniscience point of view.

Although Mrs. Mallard is initially grief stricken she quickly seems to realize the

suffocating burden of her marriage was lifted upon her. As she sits facing the window, the

author uses imagery to compare to how Mrs. Mallard is thinking "…the tops of trees that

were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air."

(Chopin516). The author also uses sound stating, "The notes of a distant song which some

one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves."

(Chopin516). Mrs. Mallard was seeing the beauty and freedom in life as if she had never

seen it before. The sparrows were representing her thoughts of freedom that she was

trying to fight back. In society it would not be right to have these thoughts. Mrs. Mallard

was known as a wife and nothing else. Mrs. Mallard finally