THE STORY OF AN HOUR

Kate Chopin

ARYA RAY

CLASS XII B

ROLL NUMBER - 5

Topic - A Woman’s World Within and Without.

Do you think The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin presents before us

a woman’s complex world within and without?

1. Explanation of the question and reason for choosing the text.

The Story of an Hour presents before us a woman’s complex world within

and without. The main theme of the story deals with how many, if not
most women effectively lived between two worlds. The first- shaped by
society and its interpretation of how a woman must live, and what she
must feels under certain situations. The second- a world which was
personal, shaped by her views and her feelings. When the story was
written, this second world was heavily suppressed, both by society and
how women thought society would view them if they did not. This was
largely true, since anyone speaking up for their own individuality would
have been vilified.
The reason for choosing the text written in the 1890s is due to the
relevance it still bears even in our modern-day society. It serves as an
exemplary tale which shows the that suppressing of one’s emotions and
bottling up of feelings can prove to be dangerous. It not only shows the
way in which the feelings of a woman have time and again been
vanquished by the society but also brings out the fact that the plight and
 fate of women is timeless.

2. Introduction to Kate Chopin and her genre of writing.

Kate Chopin, born Katherine O’Flaherty in St. Luis, Missouri on February

8, 1850, and died on August 22, 1904, in St. Louis, is considered one of
the first feminist authors of the 20th century.

Born to a prominent St. Louis family, she read widely as a girl.

Married in 1870, Katherine followed the conventional path of a housewife
until the untimely death of her husband altered the course of her life.
She belonged to the creole French culture in America, and its impacts are
clear in her works. The greatest literary influence on her style was Guy
de Maupassant, who was her contemporary French short story writer. She
was a revisionist mythmaker who transformed the myths to represent the
people of her society.
Feminism is one of the major themes of her works. In contrast to typical
feminism, she is of the view that both male and female face problems to
fit with their mate and this creates problems in individual life.

3. A summary of the story

Louise Mallard has heart trouble, so she must be informed carefully about
her husband’s death. Her sister, Josephine, tells her the news. Louise’s
husband’s friend, Richards, learned about a railroad disaster when he was
in the newspaper office and saw Louise’s husband, Brently, on the list of
those killed. Mrs. Mallard did not receive the news as many women would
have done- with a paralyzed inability to understand the significance of
the situation. Mrs. Mallard begins sobbing when Josephine tells her of
Brently’s death and goes upstairs to be alone in her room.

Louise sits down and looks out an open window. She sees trees,
smells approaching rain, and hears a peddler yelling out what he’s
 selling. She hears someone singing as well as the sounds of
sparrows, and there are fluffy white clouds in the sky. She is young,
with lines around her eyes. Still crying, she gazes into the distance.
She begins repeating the word Free! to herself over and over again.
Her heart beats quickly, and she feels very warm. Presently, she
became aware of a new kind of feeling approaching her with rapid
intensity. At first, she was scared of this, but as time went on, she
began to accept it. She felt joyful. She questioned whether it was
monstrous to feel joy at her husband’s death, for she did love him-
sometimes. She knew she would cry in his funeral, but she saw
beyond that to long years of complete and utter freedom.
She carried herself out of her room like a goddess of
Victory, and as she came down, someone was opening the
front door with a latchkey. It was Brentley Mallard. He had
not even been near the site of the railway accident, and
was surprised at Josephine’s piercing cry, and Richards’
quick motion to shield Mrs. Mallard from the sight of her
husband. But he was too late, she had died of heart
disease, of what the doctors termed “joy that kills”.

4. The world within Mrs. Mallard

Protagonist of the story, “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin describes Louise

as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and
even a certain strength.” The above line from the text indicates Louise as
a woman who faces repression and trapped in her marriage, and a woman
with an inner strength and self-assertion.

Mrs. Mallard had a world inside of her that was only waiting for the
outside world to reveal it. The spring breeze beckoned as she laid in the
armchair that was clearly her husband's even if she was overcome with
anguish over losing him. Her expression at this precise time displayed
suppression and perhaps even some strength. It was as though the vacant
stares beyond her window had awoken something within of her. She
noticed something as she continued to stare. She initially feared it since
it was elusive and subdued. She struggled against this sensation as she
started to become aware of it. She breathes heavily and tries to resist
before succumbing to this new knowledge, i.e. a feeling of freedom. She
thinks to herself how she will cry when she sees the dead body of her
husband. She is kind of excited about the chance to make her own
decisions and not feel accountable to anyone. She feels even more swept
by the idea of freedom than the fact that she had felt love for her
husband. She focuses on how liberated she feels as it provides her a sense
of breaking free from the clutches of the cage that she was entrapped in.
She fantasized about spring days, summer days, and all sorts of days, and
prayed that her life might be long. It was only the day before she had
shuddered at the prospect that her life might be long.

5. The clash between the world within and the world without

A conflict between the thoughts of a person (the world within) and the
contradictions the society poses to us (the world without) has been
represented through the story. In the story, Chopin suggests that in the
presence of life changing realizations, the passage of time becomes
elastic and flexible. A certain behaviour is expected of women by the
society, some excerpts being, always putting up a humble behaviour,
being sympathetic and surrendering to one’s husband’s will. Mrs Mallard
was no ordinary woman. She was a woman ahead of her times, a strong
and self-asserting woman, she had no way to express herself as she was
trapped in an unhappy marriage. Though she had been affected by her
husband’s death and it was a “bitter moment” for her, but nothing could
compensate Louise for the freedom that she lost by marrying. If she were
to express herself and discuss about her unhappy and failed marriage, she
would have been judged by the orthodox society which always expected
women to compromise, sacrifice and keep everything in together while
men were free to do as they wished. Even though she didn't love her
spouse, society assumed that she did. She thought about this as she sat in
her room. She did love him, but not always. At that time, her inner
universe was ready for liberation. Nobody to live for and nobody to stop
her from leading the life she wanted. All these instances bring out the
protagonist's ongoing internal conflict between her love for her spouse
and her yearning to give herself over to the pleasures of freedom. This is
how the clash between the world within Mrs. Mallard and the world
without has been brought out by the author.

6. Comment on the ending of the story

The story end with Mrs. Mallard collapsing. It is the ultimate

culmination of the struggle Mrs. Mallard had with the world within
and the world without. As she saw Mr. Mallard enter through the
front door, she suffered a heart attack. The doctors who declare
her dead say that she died of joy that kills. They assumed she was
so overjoyed at seeing her husband alive, her weak heart could not
handle it. But the preceding paragraphs indicate that what
happened was the complete opposite of what the doctors thought.

Louise Mallard did indeed die of joy that kills. But this joy was the
joy of freedom. She had longed for this, and she had never thought
this freedom was possible to achieve. It can be inferred that she
was giddy with joy, and the sudden shock of seeing her husband
brought down her carefully constructed fantasies in one fell swoop.
We already knew that she had shuddered at the prospect of
spending a long life with her husband, and that she had prayed that
life might be long after his ‘death’. So, it can reasonably be stated
that she wished nothing more than death at the moment she saw
her husband entering the house, and her diseased heart granted
that wish.

The ending is also an example of irony. One would expect someone

to be overjoyed at seeing her husband alive after he had previously
been thought dead. That’s exactly what the doctors thought when
they pronounced her dead. But in fact, she did not die of
overwhelming joy. She died of the hatred she had for her old life
and to an extent for her husband, which she had previously
endeavoured to forget after his apparent death. Ultimately,
excessive joy at the prospect of life without her husband was
responsible for her demise, as opposed to what the doctors and
everyone else thought.
7. Bibliography

1. Echoes- A collection of ISC Short Stories

2. Workbook on ECHOES-ISC Collection of Short Stories

3. https://englicist.com/topics/the-story-of-an-hour

4.
https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-story-of-an-hour/section
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