Story of an hour Essay

Submitted By Melissą-Gąznabie
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The Forbidden Joy

I enjoyed this story,I felt as Mrs. Mallard was a victim of her inability to control her own life in a repressive male controlling society. She had every right to feel this way.The heart trouble that causes suffering to Mrs. Mallard is both a physical and symbolic illness that represents her indecisiveness toward her marriage and unhappiness with her lack of freedom. In “The Story of an Hour” introduced is Mrs. Mallard, who is a woman “Afflicted with a heart trouble” (Kate 15). The conflict arises out of the news of her husband’s death in a train wreck. Her existing reaction is unusual. Rather than being disabled by the “inability to accept its significance,” (Kate 15), Mrs. Mallard “wept at once, with sudden wild abandonment” (Kate 15). The conflict begins to develop when she goes to her room alone but instead of continuing to cry, she stares out her window at the beautiful spring day with a glance that “indicated a suspension of intelligent thought” (Kate 15). Here the conflict heightens. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully” (Kate 15). As she begins to recognize what it is, “Her bosom rose and fell tumultuously,” (Kate 15) and she tries to “beat it back with her will” (Kate 15-16). She is unable to stop it from coming, and when she “abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped from her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over again under her breath: ‘free, free, free!’” (Kate 15-16) It is at this point that the plot reaches its greatest intensity – Mrs. Mallard’s awakening to her own freedom. She sees beyond her grief to “a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Kate 16). She would be able to “live for herself” (Kate 16) without “a 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” (Kate 16). For Mrs. Mallard, love was not as important as “self-assertion” (Kate 16). The climax of the story, however, occurs when Mr. Mallard returns surprisingly, and Mrs. Mallard dies instantly. Here we realize not only the strength but the depth of her feeling. The resolution has a twist of bitter irony. The doctors attribute her death to “the joy that kills” (Kate 16). Brently Mallard, her sister Josephine, nor Mr. Richards will ever know the truth of how Mrs Mallard truly felt. The characters in this story consist of Mrs. Louise Mallard who is the main character, Brently Mallard is Louise Mallard’s husband, Josephine is Mrs.Mallard’s sister and Richards is Brently Mallard’s friend. I could identify with Mrs Mallard the most because of her wanting independence , she feels bitter-sweet about this situation she is dealing with. This story takes place in Mrs. Mallard’s home within the hour. The use of an omniscient third-person narrator enables the author to tell a complete story that's not limited to the protagonist's
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