Critical Essay on Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"

Introduction

Kate Chopin's story, "The Story of an Hour", illustrates the conflict between the roles Victorian women played on the social scene and their inner selves within their thinking process. The unusual behavior and consciousness of Mrs. Mallard challenges preconceived notions about conventional behavior. The story's texture is rich in symbolism and foreshadowing elements that add to the interplay of the real and the imagined.

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The story centers on the widow's reaction to her husband's sudden death. She feels loud grief and then elation at the unexpected freedom. Her husband returns home, but she is still traveling. But the shock end comes with her shocking death. Roberts, the husband's friend and Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, act as foils to the female protagonist. Their behavior is appropriate for the time and age while Josephine, the widowed woman, is deviant from the Victorian norm. Kate Chopin portrays Mrs. Louise Mallard's psyche within the walls of relationships. Relationships were for the protagonist a burden of expectations, obligations and responsibilities. In reality, her husband's death was a release from the social and emotional chains that bound her soul. Her husband's return alive is a shocking breakup of her freedom dreams, the shards which have pierced her heart fatally.

The story's title foreshadows what lies ahead. "The Story of an Hour" aligns with the classic unities of place, time and action. It also anticipates that the unpredictable events to come will begin and end within an hour. This includes the news of her husband's passing to the reaction and then the unexpected death of Mrs. Mallard. The story of a lifetime is presented and packed in a mere hour. The conclusion is foreshadowed by the opening line - "Knowing Mrs. Mallard had a heart problem, great care was taken not to shock her with the news of her husband's passing" (Chopin 3,). It is clear that the protagonist's weak heart makes her sudden shock at seeing her husband alive make her death plausible. This concludes the story.

The reaction of the widowed woman to the news of her husband's death was not typical. Instead of being dumbfounded, she broke down into loud grief and cried so much that it made her feel exhausted. She then went into her room, where she hid from the world. Many of the symbols Mrs. Mallard uses to express her inner self and consciousness are housed in the room. The closed door to the outside world signifies her isolation from social expectations and her private space of truth-seeking and self-study. The window represents the freedom she seeks from the life she was forced to hide in her marriage. Chopin's fascinating inquiry into the complex inner world of the Victorian woman is made possible by the societal pressure placed on her, which imposes rigid virtues and morals on her. The widow is a symbol of male support and control, and thus a figure of sympathy. The way Mrs. Mallard shuts the door and walks towards the window is symbolic of her insecure society, and her soul's longing to escape to the colors and spring of summer.

It is possible that the marital bond between Mr. Mallard's wife and his apparently deceased husband is a symbol of patriarchal control. "It was only yesterday that she had thought with an eerie shudder that her life might be short" (Chopin 4, Chopin 4). Chopin's iconoclastic observation is what makes her see the relationships that form the foundation of human society as symbiotic claims for rights and duties.

She felt beckoned by the world outside her window with new abandonment and a fresh spring spirit - the scent of rain, the azure skies amidst the clouds, litanies from peddlers, and the joyful sounds of sparrows. She felt "aquiver with new life." (Chopin 3). After winter's cold and dark days, spring is the beginning of new life. In Mrs. Mallard’s case, this symbolized her freedom from the constraints of her relationships and into unbound freedom, which opens up endless possibilities and promises for the future. "There were patches and blue sky that showed through the clouds that had met and piled over the other in the west-facing her window" (Chopin 3). The clouds represent the oppression in her marriage, while the blue sky indicates the freedom and choice she has now, and the new vistas to independence before her eyes. . Her once-incessant loud cries for her death news morphed into intermittent sobs. This was more out of habit than emotion. Her young, fair face was a reflection of her calm, determined strength. The description of her face foretells her freedom - the "monstrous joy", (Chopin 4), that captured her senses and overpowered her with ecstasy. This "joy" foreshadows what is actually the "joy that kills", an ironic reverse which in reality was the fatal cause.

The widow of an hour is used to being subjugated for years and is now too comfortable in her mental prison. The concept of liberty is represented as a powerful force that enters her world almost against her will . Although the idea of freedom and the ability to choose how life should be lived seemed frightening at first, she was unable to resist the temptation of such thoughts. However, the power of the elation that warmed her whole being made it impossible for her not to scream at the possibility of her own freedom. It is interesting that Chopin only gives Mrs. Mallard her first name, "Louise", at the moment of illumination. This is as if the removal of the social label of the wife opened the door to the self-asserting woman. Kate Chopin remarks on the "goddess Victory" emerging from the room (Chopin 5), a symbol of her power to emancipate.

Conclusion

Kate Chopin's complex vision of life and her insights into the intimate space of the woman's soul, particularly her view of the inner world of the woman, often "portrayed women seeking spiritual and sexual freedom within the restrictive norms of nineteenth-century Southern Society" ("Chopin Kate: Introduction") Through the use of symbolism, foreshadowing and symbolism throughout "The Story of an Hour", Chopin's message of contradiction between the real and interpreted reality is clear.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Perfection Learning: 2001.

"Chopin, Kate: Introduction". Feminism in Literature http://www.enotes.com/feminism-literature/chopin-kate.