| < HEIGHT=200 WIDTH=five> | "The Story of an Hour": Student Responses, 1996
Students of Ann Woodlief, Virginia Commonwealth University
When I beginning began reading "The Story of an Hr," Mrs. Mallard seemed to me an old adult female and as we are told in the very first line, �afflicted with a heart trouble.� I was surprised in the eighth paragraph when Chopin tells usa that "She was young," but fifty-fifty more interesting to me that she is described as having �a fair, at-home face, whose lines bespoke repression� which depicts her equally being old for her age. The description of this repression is backed upward when Chopin gives u.s. the reason for Mrs. Mallard�s �monstrous joy� which reads thus �In that location would exist no powerful will angle hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a individual will upon a fellow-animal.� After reading through this story the first time, I had many questions and many conclusions. For instance, it seems equally if Chopin is showing u.s.a. a social situation of the times with the woman as prisoner of her husband. Information technology is common knowledge that marriages are non always about mutual dearest between two people and during the fourth dimension that Chopin was writing, this was more than often the example. Wedlock was equally much about monetary condolement, social status and acceptance every bit it was most possible dear. There are no children mentioned in this story which makes me wonder if at that place was a sexual relationship between the Mallards. It seems from the description that Mrs. Mallard has been trapped in this marriage for a long time even though we know she is young. How young is she? Even though I say she is trapped, do non misunderstand me: I practise non think this wedlock is bundled, instead that she has been coerced past her guild to marry despite what she may desire to do in her heart and soul. I believe she does honey her husband, simply it is possible to love a human and not be married to him. This was not her case; if she were able (meaning a homo would hold with her decision) and she did engage in a loving human relationship with a man who was not her husband, she would take certainly been looked down upon. Is her heart condition purely physical or is it too psychological and emotional? We know the stereotypes, every bit Chopin did, that women are hysterical, timid, weak, irrational. Could it be that her heart status is created past those tip-toeing around her in conjunction with her own emotional weaknesses? I detect it interesting that her first name is just told to the states after she hears of her husband�due south death and when she feels the most free. Earlier this point she is referred to equally Mrs. Mallard or �she,� and afterwards this point when her husband returns abode, she is referred to as �wife.� Chopin is pointing to something very interesting hither which leads me dorsum to the championship of woman as �married woman.� When Louise marries Bently she becomes Mrs. Mallard; she loses her identity and assumes a new and strange one. While information technology seems very normal and average for a wife to assume her husband�s proper name in union and in that fourth dimension, to put it harshly, become the belongings of him, it cannot exist ignored that a certain office of the self is lost. This woman is very in tune with this loss and even though her love for her husband keeps her from it, the freedom she feels when she thinks he is expressionless becomes unavoidable and enjoyable. Chopin wrote the story and has given usa a narrator who, if it is non Chopin personally, I believe to all the same be female. The descriptions and insight nosotros are given into the graphic symbol of Louise come from someone who understands her situation and is forgiving. We run across Louise as she finds happiness out of her husband�due south death and yet, by the narration, we see her struggle with guilt and overcome it. From the female perspective, information technology could be argued that her death was really an ultimate liberty from her unhappy marriage. If we presume that the narrator is male, could it be that her expiry was a penalization for her happiness at the death of her husband? It is not as farfetched as it seems and raises many more questions as to the goal this story sets out to accomplish. Kristene B. |  | | �The Story of an Hr� at first reminded me of �A Very Short Story� in the way that information technology leaves out details that that the reader needs to make full in the gaps and hands empathise the plot of the story. It�s this �Swiss cheese� effect that makes the story so interesting; by allowing the reader to �plug in� his/her ain details the story takes on varied connotations. An case of this is the offset paragraph where the reader gets the impression that this woman is going to be extremely upset that her husband has died in a train blow. The people closest to her have gone to great lengths to absorber the blow of her married man�s death; nevertheless, we are non given any details every bit to the relationship they had in the by or any relevant information. By doing this the author allows the reader to form his/her own false interpretation of how this woman is going to react. We run into this technique used early into the story and nosotros, as readers, are strung along until we hear the woman utter the words �gratuitous, free, gratis� which really throws the reader off the rail he/she expected to follow. The rest of the narrative begins to twist the story to the exact opposite of what the reader was waiting to have happen. We find a woman who instead of being upset and middle-cleaved over her husband's death is experiencing consummate joy over the death of another human being. Which, of grade, now gives us the impression that she has been mistreated in this human relationship and that, perhaps, this death is for the all-time. All this makes the reader justify the way the woman reacted, but in the end it's Mrs. Mallard who dies upon seeing her husband alive and well. This ending definitely conjures up some questions that are difficult to answer. Ron B. | | | | This was a smashing story. I like Chopin even though she is an ardent feminist. Through the first read several things stood out. First you lot volition notice how the adult female of the story is simply referred to as Mrs. Mallard--an appendage of Brently Mallard---so when she is free she is referred to as Louise, her first proper name. Chopin is trying to say that marriage represses women and "bends the volition." Even if marriage does bend the will Brently Mallard was yet a good man, and his face never looked upon her with anything but love. She knows that this man loved her, but that is not plenty for her to feel any love for him. Chopin does not seem to think that a man�south plans and intentions are aptitude for a human relationship. Personally, I have never seen a working human relationship that was totally one-sided. Information technology is great that such a short little story could raise so many questions nigh the nature of relationships and what they mean to a woman like Chopin. She considers any intention that bends the will a criminal offence, even if information technology is kind. There could exist a m years of philosophical debate on that one point. In the way of characters I think Richards was an interesting character. His function seems so pocket-sized, perhaps intentionally so. Chopin is trying to show that women tin can get along simply fine without having men interfere. The major theme of the story represents a disdain for the fashion that women are treated in some relationships, and to a certain extent in society too. Information technology is hard for a male to give physical examples of a female's identify in society having never dealt with that stereotype. The late eighteen hundreds were a rough fourth dimension for women and there weren�t the options, like divorce, that are now available to women. Nonetheless in this story there is so much repression. Yous would call up that this woman had been locked in a basement and fed bugs by Brently. Travis C. | | | | This is the story of a adult female who finds out her hubby has died in a train wreck. She reacts with sadness at first, but then realizes in a rush of emotion & relief that she is �Free! Torso and soul free!� She views the world with a fresh outlook--one where she will exist her ain person, answering just to herself. She is ready to brainstorm this new life when her married man--who evidently wasn�t on the train afterwards all--comes home. The woman (Louise) dies from heart failure on the spot. I loved this petty story--it takes a couple of twists and turns that makes the ending ironic and unobvious. The year the story was written (1894) is included, and this adds interest to the content of the story. The fact that Louise recognizes her oppression from the male-dominated society of the time is interesting to me. For some reason (I don�t know why) I oasis�t read much work in which a adult female of the time period speaks of feeling that a long life with her hubby is undesirable. Simply when she realizes her husband is dead, Louise�s view of a long life changes from dread to hope. Louise is manifestly the character of interest--through her we meet the social repression that women felt at the time. Louise represents all women of the time. They were locked into marriages that were probably loving--at least Louise says her husband �never looked at her salve with love�--merely were oppressive in their handling of women. The language of the story does a adept chore at carrying the emotions and feelings of the characters. Although Louise represents all women, she is different. Being told of Brently�s (her husband) decease, she �did not have the news as many women have.� The option of many is interesting. It shows that many women accepted (perhaps blindly) the situation of being controlled in their lives by their husbands. After being told the news of his expiry, Louise goes to her room and looks out the window. The language here foreshadows the ironic happiness that she feels at beingness set free. Instead of beingness gloomy and nighttime (the way weather is usually symbolized at the mention of death) the heaven shows patches of blue (from between white, not black) clouds; birds are singing and there is a �delicious breath of pelting� in the air. I tin�t help just think that when Louise�s sis is calling to her through the door--�open the door--you volition make yourself ill�--that she would believe Louise had made herself ill with all the talk of freedom. When she finally opens the door and walks out �like a goddess of Victory� I would think that her sister would notice and wonder why. When Brently returns, Louise drops dead. We know that she had a weak heart--it was explained that the train blow was explained carefully in club to forestall an adverse reaction--and the doctors assume that she died at his sight from the �joy� of seeing him. �The joy that kills� they called it. Those doctors, undoubtedly men, were unwittingly describing Louise�due south matrimony as well. Mark D. | | | | Chopin describes for u.s.a. here a story of great irony. She introduces to us Mrs. Mallard; we know she is a woman with a heart condition and that she is unaware of her husband�s death. We then run into her sister, Josephine, who is reluctant to be the bearer of bad news. And also her hubby�due south friend Richards, whose significance in the story seems very ambiguous to me. Nosotros learn that there has been an accident, a railroad disaster, and that Mrs. Mallard�s husband, Brently, was deemed �killed.� There had been two telegrams affirming this, thus eliminating the possibility of an error. She immediately begins to grieve with �wild abandonment,� shortly later on she seeks confinement. In her confinement, we notice her to be acutely enlightened of her surroundings and her senses, almost as if a dark cloud has been lifted from her soul and she tin now alive life to its fullest potential. For moments, we can come across through her eyes, experience her chest heaving and hear the birds chirping. She feels something that she has forgotten she could feel. She is feeling the clouds being lifted from her soul, she is illuminated, she is gratis. She is overwhelmed with freedom, opening up her arms to welcome it, letting information technology envelope her body and her soul. She remembers her husband with kind memories, memories of fourth dimension, memories that are now of the past. She is in the nowadays and she is free! Her sister is concerned with her solitude and inquires of her well existence. We acquire that her name is Louise; she is no longer Mrs. Mallard, she is Louise, she has her own identity because she is gratuitous. She is reveling in her freedom, thinking of her freedom today and tomorrow, longing to have a lengthy life of her own. She opens the door to her sister with a sparkle in her center and a new sense of herself. They descend the staircase together, meeting Richards at the bottom. Someone is opening the door. It�s Brently Mallard, unharmed and completely equanimous, unaware of the transformation that has occured with his absence. We hear a scream from Josephine and see Richards attempt to muffle the living expressionless from the view of the centre patient. Simply it is as well late. She is dead. Mrs. Mallard�southward heart stopped. Her life stopped. She had everything and naught all in the aforementioned moment. This is a wonderful story, so well written and descriptive that we tin can exist Mrs. Mallard. The omniscience of the narrator allows united states of america this. We can see through her eyes, breathe through her lungs. Nosotros want what she desires. This makes the story. The setting is perfect. She ascends the staircase to freedom, everything changes at the summit of the stairs. Nosotros descend the staircase with her and everything is taken away. She dies of the joy that kills, irony to the end. Magnificent!
| | | | This curt story grabbed my attention from the moment I finished the first sentence to the end of the story. During the first few paragraphs I idea that she was very depressed and saddened from hearing about her husbands decease. Of form equally soon as she whispers the words �costless, costless, gratis!� I knew that she felt happy about her hubby�south decease. I observe that no i else knew of these feelings of contempt for husband but herself, or she would not have kept these feelings within of herself. In the 5th paragraph, after just being told of her husband's death, she is very descriptive of everything that she sees at that moment, every bit if she wants to call back every detail of this moment. Merely why would 1 point out �delicious breath of rain,� �notes of a distant song,� and �sparrows were twittering in the eaves� at the fourth dimension of their spouse's death? When I call back of these things that she is describing they are happy scenes, scenes of tranquillity. This was my starting time inkling that there was more going on in this story than just someone who lost her husband. Throughout the story you lot get the feeling from the wife that she was probably controlled by her husband and that their wedlock was not a happy 1 at all. �The kind, tender hands folded in death�; this statement shocked me at beginning when I read information technology. Because I didn�t go the impression from her other comments that he was a kind and tender man, equally a affair of fact I thought the exact opposite of him. But her next statement--�... the face that had never looked save with love upon her, stock-still and gray and expressionless�--this was more of how I pictured this man to be. The words that she uses to describe him are very strong-- �fixed,� �grayness,� �dead�--these words are very harsh. It was in the next couple paragraphs of her describing her freedom that I began to feel very happy for her that he was out of her life. I call back that it was very ironic for them to use the word �joy� in the final sentence of this story, because it was bodily joy that she felt when she realized her hubby was dead, and pain and then great that killed her when she saw him walk through the door. Shajuana I. | | | | The offset time I encountered this story, it was read aloud to me in a class that I took this fall. I thought it was most unusual, and I am glad I take the opportunity to read it now. The story has many surprises, twists and turns, and in the cease I had almost forgotten the poor dead husband, as I was happy for Mrs. Mallard�s release from such an unhappy beingness. The starting time words that struck me as wonderful in this story were in lines 3 and four: �veiled hints that revealed in half concealing.� What a beautiful way to draw breaking bad news. The words �veiled� and �concealing� are used in a wonderful way in the same judgement. I as well like the description of the �storm of grief� Mrs. Mallard experiences. Weeping with �sudden, wild abandonment� is such an apt description of this emotion. So far I have not suspected that there is annihilation awry with Mrs. Mallard�s reaction to the news of her husband�s decease. Afterwards all, each and every human being has an intense range of emotions that are neither right or incorrect--they simply belong to that detail individual. I besides found nil suspect in Mrs. Mallard retreating to her room--also perfectly understandable. Hither, even so, alone in the privacy of her room, is where the story started to plow for me.The description of what she saw when looking out her bedroom window hit me every bit odd--I retrieve times in my own life when overwhelming grief or stupor has seized me. Zilch in the world looks right--certainly not happy or pleasant. Yet, in that location were �trees that were all oscillating with the new bound life. The succulent breath of rain . . . sparrows . . . patches of bue sky . . . � These things tell me that she is seeing her life as at present having a new look, and it seems to parallel the fresh, new, earthy and upbeat sights out of her bedroom window. I like the description of her emotional release when she sat �with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair . . . � The sob described here really indicated emotional intensity--was she crying for joy, admitting guilty joy? �At that place was something coming to her....� this passage almost says �fasten your seatbelts, readers.� Mrs. Mallard has succeeded in gaining my sympathy here, as she is definitely resisting her feelings--feelings that are coming upon her like a tidal wave. I feel that she is really a decent, moral woman and wants to do the right thing-- she wants to have THE Correct GRIEF REACTION. Finally she accepts this reaction as being true--subsequently all it has come upon her so powerfully, how could information technology be anything but an honest feeling? It was refreshing to see that her reasons for feeling this way were not considering she was an abused and mistreated wife--not even because she hated her husband (I think she had tender feelings for him): she only wanted time to herself! Go MRS. MALLARD! I have the feeling that Mr. and Mrs. Mallard had been married a while, and that she had felt �bound� by the restrictions of being in a human relationship and this was an �out� that was dropped into her lap, and so she�south gonna run with it. Subsequently all, she didn�t kill the man--information technology was Divine Intervention! The last line of paragraph 14 is �A kind intention or a cruel intention fabricated the act seem no less a offense as she looked upon information technology in that brief moment of illumination.� This says that it doesn�t matter that her husband probably didn�t intend to be and so decision-making and needy--just the effect upon her was the same. I chronicle to this story non in that I am a widow, simply I have been divorced for v years after ten years of wedlock. I also reacted with grief when my matrimony ended, and I went through an incredible range of emotions. At present, however, I revel in my freedom and independence. Non that I had a horrible union, but I did take to be role of a �couple� and at that place are responsibilities that go forth with that which do infringe upon one�due south freedom to constitute her ain identity. I was really sorry that Mrs. Mallard did not become the run a risk to exercise this. She was swimming in it--she was in overdrive imagining the possibilities about being �free, free, free!� I don�t think she felt guilty about information technology, nor should she accept. She had loved him, however what could love accept practise do with the feeling she was having now? So what if she loved him--he was dead only she was alive as she�d never been before . . . perhaps even on the route and so wrapped up in this fantasy, planning the rest of her life without her �ball and chain,� that when she saw this �ghost� walk through the front door, it hit her 10 times harder than it might have had she not been afloat in her joy of being �all of a sudden single.� This also tells me that both Mr. and Mrs. Mallard must have been older people--there was a lot of history between them, a lot of years, and I imagine that her heart might have withstood the daze had she been a bit younger. [Afterward response, same person (the next semester in a women writers form)]: I understand and at times tend to concur with the argument that the author�s biographical data should stand up apart from the work itself. In the instance of Chopin, all the same, I do observe information technology necessary, perhaps imperative, to incorporate her life experience into the significant I assemble from her work. I believe the events in her life greatly influenced her writing--from her father�s death in a railroad accident, when she was five years old, to the time after the decease of her own husband. Chopin died young (44), all the same she had twelve years of married life and twelve years of widowhood packed into those forty-four years. I find that interesting, and I feel it gave her a fair perspective of life every bit the �other one-half� in a marriage, and life as a woman solitary. Chopin was some other of the �pioneer feminists,� daring to write that women could actually exist, thrive, sans a man. She is credited with having the nerve to explore the sexual, emotional, and intellectual needs, or the very existence of these needs of women. That she had the fortitude to write almost these �taboo� issues with nifty integrity in a time when women could only daydream nearly equality, etc. is inspiring. Mrs. Mallard�s heart trouble is surely two-fold--no dubiety a physical defect exists, possibly exaggerated emotional strain--middle trouble, the intangible diversity, unhappiness, misery, the sad state of one�s lot in life. Mrs. Mallard�s centre trouble may have been psychological besides every bit biological--one tin can literally make oneself ill from worry, low, etc. People do dice of a broken middle. Mrs. Mallard �did not hear� the story every bit other women might--this shows how i-dimensional, clone-like women of Mrs. Mallard�s time were: there was an expected, acceptable emotional response for every life situation. Chopin makes an interesting commentary here almost the necessity for women to express themselves as individuals--in times of joy, grief. I believe there was even a prescribed fashion in which women were allowed to �swoon�--not a driblet-dead faint, simply a deadening, feminine grade of collapse. Lynda R.
| | | | The things that I marked in the story were the references to Mrs. Mallard�s heart condition. The very first paragraph informs the reader of her heart trouble, and how her loved ones were so careful and cautious while breaking the news to her of her married man�s expiry. In paragraph 11, where Mrs. Mallard cries out �free, complimentary, gratis!� her heart status is no longer an issue (to herself) since her husband is dead. Her body is �warmed and relaxed.� At the end of the story, I found it ironic how Mrs. Mallard�south loved ones took spontaneous and startling means to protect her from the realization that her husband was indeed alive. They took little care and circumspection regarding her delicate centre condition. I thought these portions of the text were significant considering there was some reference to Mrs. Mallard�s heart status throughout the text. Possibly I missed the answers to these questions within the text, only I hope not. Why did Mrs. Mallard dislike her husband so much, that she could rejoice and experience reborn in his death? I guess that my reading experience could be categorized as emotional. In the first few paragraphs, my feelings were those of sympathy and pity for the sickly wife who just lost her husband. Around the eighth paragraph I experienced a little confusion, �Is she happy that her husband is dead?� At the eleventh paragraph I felt relief forth with Mrs. Mallard. I felt her liberty. At the beginning of the next to the last paragraph, I felt nervous, anticipating the worst for Mrs. Mallard, that it would be her husband opening the door. I could experience the disappointment when the person opening the door was Mr. Mallard. Subsequently my outset reading of the text, I thought of a character in a very popular novel, Celie of Alice Walker�southward The Color Imperial. When Celie was young her father impregnated her and abused her. When he died, he left her his land and his business firm. Celie mourned for the do good of those around her, but when they were gone and she was in the driveway of that firm, she smiled and danced for joy. This is quite similar to the reactions of Mrs. Mallard. Monique M.
| | | | My �offset� response to this story is �I like information technology.� That is because it is not my first time reading it. The first time I read this story I was shocked by the catastrophe and disappointed with her view of wedlock. At the fourth dimension of my starting time reading of this story, I was newly married and �high on beloved� so to speak. Therefore, I couldn�t possibly believe that someone could wait at beloved and union in such a negative light. On reading the story this time around I see a much more than positive side to the story. I probably besides see it a little more than objectively now. In that location are many signs of life in the story that represent a re-nativity of this young woman. Prior to her married man's death she dreaded each day and was �pressed downwardly by a physical burnout that haunted her body.� Now that he is expressionless she sees the potential for life (her life) with phrases similar �new spring life, jiff of pelting, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.� Most of the story deals with her quick accepance of her hubby'south decease and her quick acceptance of the new possibilities for her own life and soul. The title of the story would seem to reinforce this idea of quick acceptance. It indicates that her important transition took place inside one short 60 minutes. Normally people take months to fully come to terms with the death of a family unit fellow member. Mrs. Mallard, however, is quick to put it all into perspective. I think the location she has chosen to bargain with this transition is important. She is in her bedroom in a comfortable armchair, which would seem to point she felt safe here. She seems to have constitute a remedy to life, which is her married man's death. The catastrophe this time around is more ironic than shocking. She died because her potential for unhappiness was still live (her married man). Jacqueline One thousand.
| | | | This story is both humorous and is valuable in a historical perspective. It is first a commentary on the feelings that a woman trapped into marriage during this time menses may have experienced. Marriage may have seemed to exist an interminable �trap� and the just �honorable� style out for a woman may take been through death of her husband. This story is ironic in that the narrator's decease is attributed to being overcome with great joy, when in fact she died of a combination of stupor and disapointment. I liked this story, and I think that despite the time that the story was written, information technology is very easy to relate to. It also presents the style death can encourage many different feelings at once. The narrator admits that she volition probably miss her husband, but she tin can also see the years of liberty stretching into the hereafter. Sunita R.
| | | | I have read this story before so my first reading is actually a second or tertiary reading. If I call up correctly my start response to information technology was amusement at the irony of the whole matter. I tin can sympathise how a adult female can experience free from the married man that she has been with for a long time. He wasn�t bad to her, but all she was known as was Mrs. Mallard. I noticed that everyone had a first proper noun at the beginning of the story except for Mrs. Mallard. Information technology was not until her husband's supposed death that nosotros find out her proper name is Louise. It�s like a spiritual freeing of the woman that was caged behind the man. Plain she felt free considering she said information technology over and over. �And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did information technology matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she all of a sudden recognized every bit the strongest impulse of her beingness! 'Free! Trunk and soul free!' she kept whispering.� There were certain words that I saw that lent themselves to the mood of the story. �She did not hear the story as many women accept heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would take no one follow her.� The storm of grief that overcame her eventually led to �a concrete exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to accomplish into her soul.� I think that everyone has experienced the feeling of existence totally emotionally tuckered after dealing with something that was probably too much to handle in the offset place. After yous relax for a bit, at that place is a peaceful calm that slowly takes over your body and you feel totally at ease. At to the lowest degree I practice. I think the mere fact that the situation is over lends itself to the feeling of freedom and the feeling that a terrible burden has been lifted off your shoulders. For Louise, being Mrs. Brently Mallard was a burden. Many women feel oppressed and overshadowed by their husbands. Information technology is non necessarily something that the husband has done, it is just the personality of the woman who cannot be caged. Her tempest of grief turned calm and suddenly �Her fancy was running anarchism forth those days ahead of her. Leap days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. Information technology was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.� The blueish sky peeked through the storm and turned into the longing for days filled with sunshine and light. She wanted to live long and prosper on her own when just the day before she didn�t really want to prolong her life. I tin throw some Emerson in here too because she was totally content within herself. She was ready for a long and happy life by herself. When her husband was alive, these feelings of hers were dead. Stephanie R. | | | | I�ve read a few other things by Kate Chopin, and �The Story of an Hour� fits into the trunk of her work very neatly. She foreshadows the end of the story blatantly, and if you�re at all familiar with her work, the ending is no surprise. It would be plumbing equipment that her supposedly expressionless hubby�s return (safely) to the business firm would trigger her decease, since she is, afterward all, �afflicted with a centre problem.� Once she�south got her heed set on beingness �free� from her husband, she is completely unprepared to deal with existence imprisoned backside him once once again. Some words that caught my attention were especially in the second paragraph, with �broken,� �veiled,� �revealed,� and �half concealing.� Another particular that caught my eye was that her husband was �leading the list of �killed�,� when he was, in reality, �far from the scene of the accident, and did not fifty-fifty know that there had been ane.� Things that surprised me: she�s �young� but �afflicted with a heart problem.� If she�due south young, would she take had time to even experience imprisoned by her spousal relationship? �And however she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did information technology matter! What could beloved, the unsolved mystery . . . � If she�s young, why did she marry him if not for dear? I suppose there isn�t room to address all of these problems in one short story. Perchance Chopin is addressing the fact that not everyone at this time married for love--�The unsolved mystery�--is it unsolved because the woman doesn�t know what information technology is? She hasn�t felt information technology. She seems to never accept loved this man that is her husband. She loves her new-institute hour-long freedom, merely not her own hubby? Finally, �heart illness--of the joy that kills�--what�s that all virtually? Joy that kills? She�s happy to have him back? Is that what the physician thinks? She�s heartbroken considering her liberty was all imaginary, only an 60 minutes long. Is that what killed her? That�south been bothering me ever since I read it, which is, I suppose, the writer�s intent. Caitlin S. | | | | As I read this story, I noticed there was a definite juxtaposition of woman and man. I found the graphic symbol of Richards unnecessary. Uncomplicated exposition through Josephine could have easily explained the blow. While I�thou on the subject of Richards--why was he �near� Mrs. Mallard? I don�t recall it was entirely innocent because he had waited to �assure� himself of the husband�s death. What odd diction. The passage with Mrs. Mallard staring off out of the window of her room was the most significant in my opinion. The reason why is because the natural globe (i.east., the blue patches of sky peeking out through the clouds, the tops of copse all oscillating, the breath of rain, etc.) mirrors Mrs. Mallard�due south feelings. The earth breaks open with new, spring life, just equally Mrs. Mallard�s new life is about to begin. The phrase �a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips� is wonderful. �Free� is a very appropriate word to �escape� i�southward lips. When Mrs. Mallard and Josephine descend from the meridian of the stairs to run into the ii men, I couldn�t help but laugh. Information technology seems that the women had to come down to the level of the men . . . kind of a descent into hell sort of thing . . . perhaps I�one thousand reading also much into it . . . did anyone else selection up on that? A major gap that I picked up on was the husband�s reaction to his wife�s death. I keep thinking that if Chopin had showed the states a little more in that scene, that perhaps he, as well, would feel �free.� I noticed, too, that Richards, who thinks himself the most tender, conscientious friend, doesn�t aid out while Louise is upstairs. It�s her sister who helps her. Richards is downstairs twiddling his thumbs . . . yea, real tender, conscientious guy . . . so careful in fact that he fails in his final endeavour to shield the sight of the husband from Mrs. Mallard. Too, the husband�s decease was mentioned in i paragraph, only Louise�southward journey of freedom took up the majority of the story. Definitely a adult female-ability story (for lack of a better term). Leigh W. | | | | I take read this story before. Information technology�southward one of my favorites. I don�t view Louise�s reaction to her married man�s death as a wrong manner to react. Of course back in the 1800�due south, the cultural �norm� was for a woman feel tremendously grievous, and distraught over the death of her married man. Back in those days a woman�south worth was primarily based on who she was married to. I don�t call up Louise was necessarily happy her husband died. At the kickoff of the story after she learned of his death it says, �She wept at once with sudden, and wild, abandonment in her sis�s arms. When the tempest of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room lonely. She would have no 1 follow her.� That doesn�t spell out joy to me. I think she went into her room not knowing what to feel. While she was in at that place �soaking in� her surround she began to realize sure things. One monumental affair was that life was moving on despite her married man�southward death. When I say that, I�m referring to the mentioning of �the new spring life, the delicious breath of rain, the street caller, the open window, the open square.� Ultimately she decided to view her husband�due south decease as an opportunity to get a part of that life in ways that she never had before. Well, equally we all know, Louise�s husband did not die. I think the irony of the ending is what ties the story up and then well. She didn�t have a centre assault when she heard of his expiry, she had one when she saw him live. The narrator wants the reader to believe that she died of disappointment at seeing her husband live. I�g going forth with that. I likewise don�t think she died of joy either. It�due south obvious that the narrator believes that the other characters thought she died of the �joy that kills.� Chopin does an excellent job at convincing the reader that the other characters were clueless. She died of shock. Can you imagine finding out that your spouse is dead, and accepting information technology one way or the other, and then seeing that they are actually alive? Regardless of your feelings for them, information technology'southward going to affect you tremendously. Unfortunately, Louise�s centre could not handle the daze. But out of curiosity. . . does anyone take any ideas about what the title of the story suggests? What well-nigh the idea that Louise may have died of guilt? Maybe she thought her husband was actually a ghost. She did scream when she saw him. Megan G. |
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