This presentation is an analysis of Kate Chopin’s short story
called “The Story of an Hour.”
“The Story of an Hour” is a very short story
which is set during the present day at the time it was written,
1894, during the Victorian Age,
over the course of one hour
in an upper middle-class American home.
It is a famous feminist short story in which the protagonist,
Mrs. Mallard, reflects upon her marriage
during the hour in which she believes her husband
has been killed in a tragic train accident.
And instead of reacting as society would
have expected — with grief —
she feels an unexpected “monstrous joy” in being set “free,
free, free” from her marriage.
Her marriage is a typical Victorian marriage
in that her husband is not unusually cruel toward her,
as she says, “she had loved him — sometimes,”
and yet the thought of becoming a widow
makes her “spread her arms out to them” —
meaning the years ahead of her — “in welcome,”
for “There would be no one to live for [her]
during those coming years;
she would live for herself ”
and “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.”
Thus, she clearly has felt repressed and dominated
in her marriage to the point that the thought of
becoming a widow makes her feel as though
“she was drinking in a very elixir of life.”
Being that her husband is not abusive
or especially cruel in that he has “the face
that had never looked save with love upon her”
shows that the author is not just
telling of one unhappy marriage
but is criticizing the institution of Victorian marriage in general.
Dynamic character.
The protagonist, Mrs. Mallard,
is dynamic in that she undergoes profound change
in the short hour in which she looks out the window.
Some of the imagery the author uses to
reveal the change in Mrs. Mallard are springtime,
awakening from sleep and child-like imagery.
In the hour that Mrs. Mallard looks out
the window contemplating the significance of
what she believes is her new status as a widow,
she changes dramatically in her outlook towards life.
She emerges from the room feeling
like “a goddess of Victory” who is now looking forward to
a life she had once dreaded.
Spring imagery.
As Mrs. Mallard looks out the open window,
she sees signs that it is springtime
with “the tops of trees that were all aquiver
with new spring life”
and “The delicious breath of rain was in the air.”
Springtime is the time of year associated with new life,
new beginnings and youth,
which is appropriate
in that she feels hopeful about her new life as a widow,
free of the restraints of marriage.
Chopin writes, “But she saw beyond that bitter moment
a long procession of years to come that would belong to
her absolutely …
she would live for herself …
She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.
It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder
that life might be long.”
The imagery of springtime parallels the new beginnings
and new life that Mrs. Mallard looks forward to,
now that she believes she is no longer restrained
by marriage.
Awakening.
“The Story of an Hour” describes Mrs. Mallard
awakening from a sleep,
with the sleep symbolizing her awakening
in independence or coming of age, if you will,
through gaining this new freedom
from her repressive marriage.
Before coming fully aware of the significance of
her husband’s death in that it would free her
from the confines of marriage,
she is described as if she were asleep:
“She sat with her head thrown back upon
the cushion of the chair, quite motionless”
as she heard the story of her husband’s death
“with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance,”
and she felt “a physical exhaustion that haunted her body
and seemed to reach (into) her soul.”
Additionally, Chopin writes,
“there was a dull stare in her eyes”
which “indicated a suspension of intelligent thought”
as if she were asleep,
her realization of her new freedom
as a widow comes to her “creeping out of the sky,
reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents,
the color that filled the air” almost like a dream.
These dream-like and sleep-like images suggest
an eventual awakening in Mrs. Mallard later
as she comes to realize her intense desire
for independence which,
in this time period,
only was offered to women who were not married,
in her case, upon becoming a widow.
Child-like imagery.
Chopin also interweaves images of Mrs. Mallard
being like a child in her lack of control over her life
as a married woman, suggesting that women
were treated like children rather than equals
in Victorian marriages.
She is described to be “as a child who has cried itself to
sleep” and “continues to sob in its dreams”
and her hands are described as “powerless.”
In a sense, the protagonist grows up or matures
in her brief new belief that she is free of marriage
and independent for the first time in her life.
Irony.
The story is ironic in that Mrs. Mallard
looks forward to a long life,
but with the sudden shock of seeing it was
all a big misunderstanding and her husband is
in fact not dead, she is killed instantly.
The story is ironic in that the doctors say
she died of “joy” in seeing her husband is still alive,
when the audience knows the joy
that she felt over thinking he was dead
and then realizing he is actually not is what kills her.
Conflict and climax.
The internal conflict in the story is Mrs. Mallard’s
desire to do as society expects of her to
grieve in the loss of her husband versus her true feelings
of relief and even joy in the freedom she
gains through his death.
This conflict is resolved when she gives into her feelings
of relief and joy when she says,
“free, free, free!”
After this point she no longer fears or tries to
fight off this elusive feeling that comes to her upon
hearing of her husband’s death.