The Primary Purpose and Conflicts of the Story of an Hour Essay Example

Introduction

The purpose of this story is to inform, Chopin wrote the story to enlighten us about what we see from outside in a marriage and what is real in most marriages. From what it seems, Mrs. Mallard appears to be in a happy married life with the husband. They are living in a nice house with much of what they needed to have. What she lacked are happiness and freedom. Chopin wanted to express the idea that you cannot tell the truth of a situation without looking beyond what one can see on the surface. Chopin was enlightening us that marriages are full of sadness and torture even though they look happy from outside. The story reveals the agony that married couples live with inside marriage.

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The story is very significant as it sheds light on the state of marriages within society. In a marriage, two persons come together in the union of love. With the same love, they decide to establish permanent companionship. However, the happiness that is deemed to come along with happiness and companionship, it is not always the case, the happiness and freedom start to dwindle (Chopin 2018). Mrs. Mallard seems to seek for something she has not been having for a long time, the control of her life and freedom.

Conflicts in the Story

Conflict is very important in the development of a story. It is important for the plot of the story. Conflict is normally the problem created by the changing situations in a story. It is the situation that triggers events in a story. In this story, there are two situations that create conflicts. One, husband to Louise Mallard's is alleged to be dead and another crisis is that Louis has a heart problem and therefore breaking the tragic news would be problematic to her. She was later to be told by her sister Josephine who broke the news in broken sentences. Therefore, the first conflict to encounter in the story is one that is external; which way they could have delivered the message of the death of Louise husband to her. It is an external conflict because it is not related in any way to a growth of a character.

However, the internal conflict reveals because of the alleged Mr. Mallard's death that is revealed as complexity to this internal conflict. The news triggers a lot and especially the interesting change of attitude of Louise after receiving the news (Chopin 2018). It is revealed that, ironically, she feels a bit elated and have a feeling of freedom as a result of the husband's death. It is beyond pain and agony that befalls one when a loved one dies. When the news comes, we are made to believe of the agony that strikes her, but this change when she reveals how free she will be free without her husband.

There is self versus character conflict. When the news about her husband was revealed to her, she feels so sad. She goes to her room and sits alone. It is from this time that she spent alone that she unexpectedly started feeling free. She realized that she won't have her husband to order her around anymore. She felt triumphant. She felt happy with the knowledge that her life will be reformed in many dimensions. From the way she described the bright day, one could tell her happiness. But on realizing that the husband is not dead, she has much saddened again and got a heart attack that killed her.

References

Chopin, Kate. The story of an hour. Joe Books Ltd, 2018.