Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

The Story of an Hour is a tragic and interesting tale by Kate Chopin that tells of a wife, Mrs. Mallard who that has a weak heart, the joy she feels when she learns of her spouse’s death. That gleefulness was soon shattered though when Mrs. Mallard sees that her husband lives and she dies from the shock. This story is a wonderful example of man vs. self and man vs society conflict and it shows a variety of themes. The Story of an Hour’s main conflict is about man vs. self or in this case Mrs. Mallard vs. herself. When Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband’s death she feels joy from the freedom form her marriage she gained yet she knew she should fall in despair when she had held only a little bit of sorrow. The narrator said, “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death” (Chopin) which shows that Mrs. Mallard did feel remorse towards the death of Mr. Mallard. Yet Mrs. Mallard was “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin) she was free from her chains of marriage that kept her bonded. This internal conflict was the major conflict of the story, when Mrs. Mallard was fighting with in herself whether or not she should feel this contentment about the death. …show more content…
Mallard had to struggle with man vs society. Mrs. Mallard had to face the ideals of the social order. Kate Chopin wrote The Story of an Hour it was in the early 1894. This was a time when women were questioning their role as beautiful house wives and mothers. "Whatever have been the cares of the day, greet your husband with a smile when he returns. Make your personal appearance just as beautiful as possible. Let him enter rooms so attractive and sunny that all the recollections of his home, when away from the same, shall attract him back." (Ewell) The was the society that Mrs. Mallard was living in, a culture where you must be graceful all the time and where the men controlled the

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The Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis