Kate Chopin's Short Story Of An Hour

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Kate Chopin is a writer whom focuses her work primarily on women and their positions in society. An example is, The Story of an Hour, which is a short story that provides its readers an outlook on a female character named Louise Mallard. In this short story, we visit Louise in a specific hour of her life through the eyes of a narrator, whom is not introduced. Even though the short story is written in the present moment, the readers are provided with enough information to create interpretations of her past and present, which may contribute to understanding why Louise undergoes what she encounters in her life, especially within this particular hour. In the following close reading, I focused on the character, Louise Mallard, to understand Chopin’s view of women. I provided an analysis explaining my interpretations of why Louise said that she was “free”; how her death was foreshadowed; and as well, why Louise died from joy, rather than surprise or sadness. At the time Chopin wrote this short story, it was common for men to be more dominant, and to take responsibility in taking care of the women. In the short story, Louise was young, fair, and was loved by her husband. We also learned that she experienced heart problems, and that her husband was declared dead. After hearing about the death of her husband, she locked herself in a room, where…show more content…
This is an indirect indication that the marriage, between Louise and her husband, may have been lacking a sense of freedom. She uses the word “free” frequently, which could most likely mean she’s ‘free’ from her husband. This lack of freedom, in my opinion, could possibly be due to Louise’s heart condition, therefore, showing that she was a fragile individual who needed to be taken care of, thus resulting in her lack of
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