The Story of an Hour Book Review

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin and published in 1894. The story describes the series of emotions Louise Mallard endures after hearing of the death of her husband, who was believed to have died in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart problems and therefore her sister attempts to inform her of the horrific news in a gentle way. Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room to immediately mourn the loss of her husband. However, she begins to feel an unexpected sense of exhilaration. “Free! Body and soul free!” is what she believes is a benefit of his death. At the end of the story, it is made known that her husband was not involved in the railroad disaster and upon his return home Mrs. Mallard suddenly dies. The cause of her death is ambiguous and left for analysis as it can range from her known heart problems to psychological factors. We can ask ourselves if the real reason for the death was known that she wouldn’t be free after she sees that her husband isn’t really dead.

From the beginning of the story, we can catch some rough information about the characters. There are four characters in the story: Mrs. Mallard, Josephine, Richards and Mr. Mallard. And Mrs. Mallard is the main character among the four.

The story mainly narrates the changing emotional feelings and the renascence of Mrs. Mallard’s spirits, after having heard the news of her husband’s death. But the story end up with Mrs. Mallard’s death instead of her husband’s. It is a surprising ending.

In her article, “Emotion in ‘The Story of an Hour,’” someone argues that Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard’s perception of her husband’s supposed death as fostered by emotions, rather than by rationality. He claims that up until that point, Mrs. Mallard’s life had been devoid of emotion to such an extent that she has even wondered if it is worth living. The repression of emotion may represent Mrs. Mallard’s repressive husband, who had, up until that point, “smothered” and “silenced” her will. Therefore, her newfound freedom is brought on by an influx of emotion (representing the death of the figure of the repressive husband) that adds meaning and value to their life. Though Mrs. Mallard initially feels fear when she hears of her husband’s death, the strength of the emotion is so powerful that Mrs. Mallard actually feels joy (because she is feeling). Since, this “joy that kills,” ultimately leads to Mrs. Mallard’s death, so that one way of interpreting this is that the repression of Mrs. Mallard’s feelings is what killed her in the end.

In the same article, he shows that the repression that Mrs. Mallard faces as a wife. She realizes how after her husband apparent death that she was “free, free” This shows how her life would change and she is now a new person and removed from the repressed life she faced before. No evidence and freedom is enough. .This repression of herself that she dealt with she was now removed from and would be able to free.

Although the story merely happened within an hour, we can find some valuable information from it, which is related to the people and the society at the end of the 19th century. In Kate Chopin’s times, the male were in the dominated position while the female were in a humble position. And also the American main stream society ignored women’s values and imposed constraints on spiritual freedom. It was extremely difficult for women to seek the independence or freedom of their own. Kate Chopin is a good example of an American realist. All her novels depict some special experience related to women’s love, marriage and family, which intend to reveal the women’s constraints given by the traditional conception.

We can get more information when comes to the story itself and its characters. From the whole story, we can easily conclude its theme: freedom and death. Conflict between freedom and life has disturbed Mrs. Mallard, a traditional housewife, for a long time, the awakening of her selfhood was suddenly spurred after hearing the news of her husband’s death. She can have her own freedom for the rest of her life. She refreshed herself and opened the door of her room, which was full of symbolism. The door of her room is a strong symbol of freedom; she can get the freedom of her own and start herself the new life after walking out the door. But the ending is out of readers’ expectation. Both the language and the ending have a sense of irony. At the begging of the story, we can see that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart disease, and she died of her heart disease in the end, At then, her husband returned safe and sound. But it is her intense joy of her freedom rather than her intense sorrow about her husband’s death carried her life off. It is a cruel reality which women can only pursue the freedom at the cost of their lives.

It is a wonderful story which has a suspense plot and a dramatic ending, revealing its theme with the ironic language and ending, and its symbol. It is a successful novel, which explore how human experience and social life are vividly reflected in it.

 

第二篇：Review on The Story of an Hour

Review on The Story of an Hour

Abstract: The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. It is a story about the reaction of an elderly woman, named Louise, to the news that her husband was killed in a train wreck. Louise's sister comes to her with the news of her husband's demise. Both her sister and her husband's friend expect her to be devastated by the news, but instead she is excited at the thought of being alone and living her life. As Louise and her sister are walking down the stairs Louise's husband comes through the door causing her to have a heart attack. In this paper, through analysis the plot and irony in the story to show that the women in the 19th century were reduced to the victims of the then social and marital systems. Yet still they had to repress their own desires to cater to the patriarchal society. And no one would care about their real demands. Mrs. Mallard was just one of the victims.

Outline :

Ⅰ.Introductionou

Ⅱ.The narrative method of the story

Ⅲ.The main characters in the story

Ⅳ.The irony in the story

Ⅴ.Conclusion

The short story describes the series of emotions Louise Mallard endures after hearing of the death of her husband, who was believed to have died in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart problems and therefore her sister attempts to inform her of the horrific news in a gentle way. Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room to immediately mourn the loss of her husband. However, she begins to feel an unexpected sense of exhilaration. "Free! Body and soul free!" is what she believes is a benefit of his death. At the end of the story, it is made known that her husband was not involved in the railroad disaster and upon his return home Mrs. Mallard suddenly dies.

Ⅰ.Introduction

In the story of The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard lived a happy life from the point of traditional view. She loved her kind and tender husband, and other relatives and friends. Her husband was gentle and considerate, so they were deemed to be a perfect match.However, deep inside her heart she felt much inhibited. No one knew, including her husband, of her spiritual demands. Yet she had to make others believe that she was happy and lucky. She had to act the traditional role as a virtuous wife, not for herself, but for others. She lived a two-faceted life. She lived in disguise to hide her real feelings and intentions. The women in the 19th century were required to learn all the social graces (The authoress herself was also required to do so in her puberty.) and encouraged to follow the rules and principles as men wanted them to do. Most women were reduced to the victims of the then social and marital systems. Yet still they had to repress their own desires to cater to the patriarchal society. And no one would care about their real demands. Mrs. Mallard was just one of the victims.

Ⅱ.The narrative method of the story

The story is told in the third person narration. When a story is told in the third person, you will have more description of the setting and plot but the emotions of the characters are limited.In the opening of the story, there is a short description of Josephine's reaction when she first heard the news of Mr. Mallard's alleged death. The description only tells us that she uses broken sentences. If this was written in the first person, we would only see phrases separated by ellipses . We see that Mrs. Mallard collapses in her sister's arms as she learns of the news of her husband's death. When she looks out her window, the reader is given a description of the outside world. We know that it is spring, the green top trees are visible, and there are patches of blue sky. Also we learn that a peddler is on the street and someone is singing. Again, if this story was told in the first person, she wouldn't have described the scenery outside.A description of Mrs. Mallard is given and how she reacts to the news while alone in her room. If Mrs. Mallard was telling the story, the reader would not have a full description of what she looked like. They would have to imagine how she looks, the expression on her face, and the emotions that she experiences.When Mrs. Mallard says, "Free! Body and soul free!", we experience the full effect of her reaction.We find out that she is also ready to experience life without a husband. If this story was written in first person, we might have known what Mrs. Mallard's thoughts were on the subject of her husband and her true feelings were toward him. It would have been nice if Mrs. Mallard have told us why she thought of freedom in her grief.The narrator tells us the events of Mrs. Mallard's sudden death at the sight of her husband at the door. We do not if she died of a heart attack or a broken heart due to the lost of her new found freedom. If this story was written in the first person, we might have found that out.There seems to more of a description of the place and the events of the story when told in the third person. Readers do not get a full insight of the characters insight or feelings when the story is written in third person. I would have liked to know more of Mrs. Mallard's thoughts and feelings of why she wanted to be free.

Ⅲ.The main characters in the story

The protagonist of this story is Louise Mallard. The entire story is centered on her life and the events that occur. Her character type is a dynamic character. She is a dynamic character because in the beginning she was kind of hurt that her husband died, but she slowly started to change her mind and realize she could finally live on her own. Her role of helping the story continue is that she is the main character in the story, and her change in opinion is what the story revolves around.

The next character is Brent Mallard. His role with the story is very important, although he is only in the story for a couple of paragraphs in the very end of the story. His character type is a flat character because he is not around much in the story, thus, he does not reveal much at all about his character. He is very important to the plot because the plot revolves around his supposed death.

The third character is Josephine; she is Louise's sister. Her character type is a confidante because Louise confides in Josephine about how she is happy that she finally can live her life on her own. She drives the plot of the story because Louise confides into her. Josephine is continually checking on her to make sure that Louise is doing well.

The fourth character is Richard. Richard is Mr. Mallard's best friend. His character type is a static character in my opinion. He is a static character because throughout the whole story he mainly just wants to make sure that Louise is fine. His personality does not change much during the whole story. He drives the plot by being the one that tells Louise the devastating news concerning her husband.

Each character portrays an important role in this short story. They all help in their own ways in contributing to the plot. Oddly one character was not even in most of the story but helped the plot progress more than any other character. This story was very good and also very shocking. I did not see the ending coming at all.

Ⅳ.The irony in the story

   In the beginning of the story, the author said that “knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.” From the statement, we could see that Mrs. Mallard had a heart disease and was easy to be hurt mentally and physically, as a result, “great care was taken”. Although the author did not tell us it was who that took care of Mrs. Mallard, we could still identify that it was the people around Mrs. Mallard, including her relatives and friends. So, we could see that Mrs. Mallard life was protected by others and she could just behave passively like a bird in a cage. Form this point of view, her relatives and friends, including her husband, became the obstacles that restricted her freedom and deprived of her rights. And this statement gave us a hint of Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom.

   In the story, the author showed that after entering the room, Mrs. Mallard generally got rid of the grief, and thought that during the coming years, “she would live for herself” with a “possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being.” However, the change of her feelings did not come easy. Hearing of her husband’s death, “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms.” Then she went into her room, sank in the chair, and was pressed down with a dull stare in her eyes. She felt there was something coming to her and whispered “free, free, and free!” She longed for freedom, but at the same time she did not sure whether “it were or were not a monstrous joy.” What caused her confusing feelings? That was the restriction of social ethics. Mrs. Mallard desired for freedom, but traditional ethics warned her that she could not feel luck to get freedom that resulted from the death of her husband.

   The end of the story was satiric. While Mrs. Mallard was indulging herself in the sweet daydreams, her sister Josephine’s knock at the door took her back to the real world. Josephine had thought that her sister locked herself in the room to vent her grief. She worried about that her sister would drive crazy and probably commit suicide on impulse, so she insisted on her opening the door. However, ironically, Mrs. Mallard still wanted to taste the sweetness of freedom a little longer and even began to make a blueprint of her future carefree life, so she dragged on deliberately to open the door for her sister.When she went out and descended the stairs with her sister, she refreshed herself and ‘she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory’. But her sweet dream was doomed to be fulfilled because that the news of her husband’s death turned out to be a rumor. When she saw her husband came back safe and sound, she was so shocked, and maybe also so despaired that she couldn’t stand the blow brought by the trick God played with her. She was so psychologically weak that her heart disease suddenly attacked her and sent her directly to the no-return road.Interestingly, the doctor arbitrarily declared that she died because of exhilaration, and probably the cause of her death could only be rendered this way. Sadly, even until her death, no one could understand what Mrs. Mallard was thinking about. But her husband Brently Mallard was not in the scene of accident and went home travel-stainedly and composedly. The appearance of her husband leaded to Mrs. Mallard’s death instead. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-- of joy that kills.” The doctors, Mrs. Mallard’s husband and her other relatives believed that it was her excitement of Mr. Mallard’ coming home that caused Mrs. Mallard’s death. But in fact, it was Mrs. Mallard’s despair of freedom after her husband’s coming back that resulted in her death.

All these show that she was no other than a beast in the cage and she had repressed herself for so long. But now, she could at last live a kind of life she wanted. Though sometimes she felt she had love for her husband, she often denied it. Maybe this kind of love was only out of her responsibility as a wife. So this was the so-called happy marriage! Here the authoress elaborated a vivid picture of the working mind of the heroine as if she were directing a movie. She faithfully presented a series of snapshots like montage to her readers. Though she never commented on it from the moral standpoint, we still can draw the conclusion that the superficially lucky and happy marriage is a castle in the air; that is, it might lack nothing but love. Perhaps Mr. Mallard did love her too, but he often ignored her existence as an individual. In another word, he loved and treated his wife as a pet. And then we can imagine that how many women of that day would suffer the fate of Mrs. Mallard!The common fate of women in the 19th century. Simultaneously it is also a eulogy dedicated to them. Although all Mrs. Mallard’s efforts and desires end in vain, she echoes the second women movement in full swing in the United States and provokes more people, especially women to think about their own destinies. Considering the fierce public response to the publication of her Awakening, Kate Chopin must feel much stressed so that she denied that she was a feminist. Sara Parton, one of her contemporaries and the most controversial American woman writer, didn’t admit either that she was a feminist. But they both have made great contribution to the elevation of the women’s social status.

Ⅴ.Conclusion

Short as it is in length, the Story of an Hour affords us much for thought. The author Kate Chopin narrated what happened to the heroine Mrs. Mallard in an hour and showed her pursuit of mental freedom and emotional independence. From the narration, we also could see there were restrictions in women’s pursuit of freedom, such as social environment and ethics. As to the heroine in the story, when she could not get freedom in the real society, maybe a death would help her to gain freedom in the other world.

References:

[1]: 彭贵菊.《真实的束缚，虚幻的自由》.《外国文学评论》,2003年第1期

[2]:Transitivity Analysis of The Story of An Hour——From the Perspective of Functional Stylistics[J];Journal of Hubei Correspondence University;2007-01

[3]: Theme of The Story of an Hour and Its Reception of Contemporary Chinese Readers[J];Tianjin Foreign Studies University Journal;2006-04