“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.