“A Story of an Hour”. Continuation.

The protagonists of the story are: Mrs. Louise Mallard. She is introduced as being “afflicted with a heart trouble”, which is why great care is taken in telling her of her husband's death. It was also mentioned that: “pressed down by a physical exhaustion”, “quite motionless”, “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky”. The narrator of “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin relates what she observes in simple prose, but when her emotions are described, the words are vibrant and powerful. This suggests that Louis has a deep inner-life that is not connected to the outside world of her husband or friends. We see that she was sick and tired of all her life, and after she her husband had died, she realized, she was hopeful, she was on the verge of a new free life and asked God to give her a long life. In spite of the fact, that women had less rights, that men had, she was repressed by her husband, and the author gives the slight hint on woman’s emancipation and becoming more free and respected in the society.

Mr. Brently Mallard is the husband of Louise Mallard. He was: “little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella”. It is clear that her husband loved her when his face is described as “the face that had never looked save with love upon her.” He is assumed dead until the end of the story, when it is revealed that the news of his death was a mistake, but there is still the mystery: why wasn’t he in the place where he must be and where he was?

Josephine is Louise' sister. Following Richards' advice, she tells Mrs. Mallard of her husband's death. She was very touching and caring about her sister: “Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for admission”.

Richards is Mr. Mallard's friend and is the first person to hear of Brently's supposed death. Richard was very tender and didn’t want to hurt Louise, so he: “to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram”, “hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message”.

“The Story of an Hour”

“The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin on April 19, 1894, and originally published in Vogue on December 6, 1894 as "The Dream of an Hour". It was first reprinted in St. Louis Life on January 5, 1895 as "The Story of an Hour."

The setting is common to many short stories by the author. The setting of the events in the given story is realistic and is presented in a detailed way. It provides a background for action and contributes to the understanding of the characters.

The title of the story is rather symbolic, because it refers to only one hour when all the events take place. The title partly shows also one of the main ideas of the work: how many fatal accidents can happen during one hour.

The main theme of this short story is family relations between a man and a woman; the discrepancy between her current emotions and what she “must feel” about it.

The idea of the story is that marriage without love is doomed to failure; the point is not in marrying a man, whom can you live with, but without whom you can’t leave. I’d like to add, that people in marriage should be united by their souls, all the problems should be discussed, and solved by mutual consent, in other way it would be a repressing marriage.

From the viewpoint of contextual type, it is a narration with the elements of description, presented from the 3d person. In such a way the author gives the impersonal description of the events that happen, sounds more objective. It is interesting, that the author uses both nature (but not as a background), (e.g. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.) and character description (e.g. She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength) in order to show that the nature, as a symbol of life, is as gorgeous as Louise is. Louise is free from the burden of wedding oath, promises and duties.

Literary themes

Her prose style is unique and rather “making-difference” as she is considered to be one of the first authors, who displayed a powerful insight into the world of women, expressing strong feministic approach. She herself wasn’t a conventional housewife, but exhibited a strong personality and had an unconventional view on the rights of a woman in the society. Her soul ached to be more free and feminized. The novel by her “The Awakening”, which was published in 1899, caused a great scandal and won her a reputation of a skillful author. The novel portrayed a strong woman involved in an adulterous affair, that’s why it caused a great splash in the literary world. An interesting fact is that Kate Chopin really wasn’t an ordinary woman at that times and that “expected-to-be” women social behavior, as she drank and smoked heavily, behaving like a man. I can assume, that she in some way wanted even to portray personal traits of character and her unwillingness to behave as somebody wants. Her husband didn’t mind such behavior and appreciated her way of living and unconventional style of writing.

Her main topics are: women rights, marriage, and choice in life, which every person must face . She always displayed a non-traditional approach towards such themes, making her characters to chose between what society expects them to do and what they really desire; it’s clear that her characters commonly decide to follow their own paths. What’s more, in her fiction the author explored such forbidden themes as sexual relationships, stating that women commonly need simply sex and furthermore, women are desperately looking for independence and self-realization. All of the abovementioned themes are explored in her last novel “The Awakening”, which caused a great deal of controversy, because critics praised her style on the one hand and accused her of writing immoral novels on the other hand. Nevertheless, her novels and short stories are still considered to be masterpieces, which give a strong insight into women’s rights, independence, sexuality and express a strong feministic approach.