Kate Choplin's The Story Of An Hour

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The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Choplin in the late 19th century. The stories plot focuses on a woman with a potentially lethal heart condition and how she reacts to learning of her husband’s unfortunate death. Mrs. Mallard, who is suffering from sort of heart ailment, is told of her husband’s death and immediately becomes distraught. In a fit of tears and sadness, Mrs. Mallard finds her way up a flight of stairs and into a room where she locks herself in. While in the room, Mrs. Mallard endures a rollercoaster of emotions. At first, she is weeping over the news of her husband’s passing, but the longer she stays in the room the happier she starts to feel. At this very moment it becomes apparent that there are underlying…show more content…
The idea of marrying the love of one’s life is something everyone has wished for at one time or another. The idea of a marriage of two people that love each other can be associated with feelings of genuine happiness amongst the two, and from these feelings comes true unconditional love. Although this idea is generally known, Kate Choplin vehemently disagreed, and wished to bring to light the true nature of marriage behind closed doors. Kate Choplin argued that all marriages foster feelings of hate and mistrust, and from these feelings arise more sinister and dark feelings towards their lover. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard was a particularly repressive/oppressive relationship that ultimately fell apart in one tragic hour. On the outside looking in, one could infer that the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Mallard was like any normal relationship. After learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard can’t help but break down and cry like any loving wife would…show more content…
Mallard’s subsequent feelings on the matter of her husband’s passing can be seen as fairly extreme and starkly out of character. She experiences a shift from weeping to pure ecstasy that could be viewed as irrational and or sick in some psychological manner. It is generally unlike anyone to feel so happy about the supposed death of another person whom they were ‘in love’ with. This extreme outburst of raw emotion presented by Mrs. Mallard does in fact help the reader to understand what exactly she may be going through. This outburst shows a true nature of human beings, always wanting the freedom to do whatever and say whatever. This in turn allows the reader to grasp Mrs. Mallard’s true emotions and can ultimately sympathize with her. On the other hand however, a reader could deduct that Mrs. Mallard is unstable, and is in fact “sick in the head” to some degree. In this particular case however, we see Mrs. Mallard as a new woman after learning of her husband’s supposed death. Mrs. Mallard now radiates life and happiness as she finally leaves the locked room and heads down stairs. In essence, Mrs. Mallard has evolved into the woman she’s longed to be ever since she got married. Only once this evolution of becoming the woman she’s always wanted to be is complete is her newfound perspective on life shattered by the sight of her very alive husband. The sight of Mr. Mallard is too much for Mrs. Mallard’s weak heart, and she dies on the spot. Mrs. Mallard’s true thoughts

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