Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer; than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.

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The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
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"Perhaps it is better to wake up after all,even
to suffer than to remain a dupeto illusions all
one's life."

• Kate Chopin

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• Kate Chopin's "The Story of An Hour" deals
  realistically with the possibilities of life,
  individual consciousness and choice, and the
  serendipity (chance) by which so much is acquired
  and lost that we value.
• Set in the late 1800's on a southern plantation,
  "Story's" main character, Louise, faces the news
  that her husband has died suddenly and the
  resultant possibilities about the kind of life
  that she, as an unmarried woman, can now live.

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Why is this plot so important?

• Chopin experienced married life on a plantation,
  the sudden deaths of her husband and father and
  mother, and the inspiration of family stories
  told by her great grandmother. The setting and
  events of this story derive more from her
  experiences and observations than her imaginative
  fiction. These details, and other experiences
  inform an understanding of "The Story of an
  Hour."

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Setting, Theme, Point of View

• Always refer to the text through specific examples

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Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a
heart trouble, great care was taken to break to
her as gently as possible the news of her
husband's death. It was her sister Josephine who
told her, in broken sentences veiled hints that
revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend
Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who
had been in the newspaper office when
intelligence of the railroad disaster was
received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the
list of "killed." He had only taken the time to
assure himself of its truth by a second telegram,
and had hastened to forestall any less careful,
less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
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• The reader is introduced to Louise Mallard as a
  devoted young wife who has been told the news of
  her husband"'s unfortunate death.
• Mrs. Mallard is afflicted with a heart trouble,"
  which permanently tags her with both emotional
  and physical weaknesses. Her sister is at
  Louises house when the news comes and tells her
  like one would tell a child. The reader gets the
  idea her sister has hovered over her whole life.

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Heart Trouble

• Louise is sickly and weak. She must be
  protected however, Chopin delves into Louises
  thoughts and feelings, and they surprisingly
  contradict her initial description of her.

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She did not hear the story as many women have
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 have no one
follow her.
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There stood, facing the open window, a
comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank,
pressed down by a physical exhaustion that
haunted her body and seemed to reach into her
soul.
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She avoids the marital bed, which is a symbol of
her husbands dominance

• She sinks into the roomy chair, which envelopes
  her as a husband should

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• Kate Chopin also uses setting to juxtapose the
  themes of entrapment and liberty in. Symbolic
  elements of the setting reflect shifts from
  entrapment into liberty, and then from liberty
  back into entrapment.
• These themes are established through the doors
  and the windows of the home, the stairs in the
  house, and the newly awakening spring milieu.

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She could see in the open square before her house
the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the
new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was
in the air. In the street below a peddler was
crying his wares. The notes of a distant song
which some one was singing reached her faintly,
and countless sparrows were twittering in the
eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing
here and there through the clouds that had met
and piled one above the other in the west facing
her window.
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The freedom and feeling of rebirth that Mrs.
Mallard experience while in her room are also
strongly backed by and intertwined with the
setting. Outside her open window.
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In contrast with the assumed bleak, cold, and
lifeless winter preceding this time of year, the
newly opening spring season mirrors the revival
of Mrs. Mallards realization of freedom and
life. As she sits in her roomy armchair, Mrs.
Mallard studies the sky in deep detail. The
piles of clouds represent the years of powerful
wills forced upon her by her husband. As she
gazes thoughtfully at '"'one of those patches of
blue sky'"' , she begins to recognize her
self-determination. The lively and vivid spring
setting suggests Mrs. Mallards renewed life,
free from her domineering husband. It is an
awakening, a rebirth, from the bitter and grim
atmosphere of lifelessness that accompanies
wintertime.
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• Doors and windows are either opened or closed,
  and this reflects the ideas of bondage and
  freedom that Mrs. Mallard experiences. She sinks
  into '"'a comfortable, roomy armchairfacing the
  open window'"' She begins to drink in a very
  elixir of life though that open window in
  fervent anticipation of the life before her,
  released from her husbands oppression and
  control. Clearly, the open window denotes her
  yearning and near-attainment of freedom.  

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The shadows of freedom this is what she is
glimpsing.
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She sat with her head thrown back upon the
cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except
when a sob came up into her throat and shook her,
as a child who has cried itself to sleep
continues to sob in its dreams. She was young,
with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke
repression and even a certain strength. But now
there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze
was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches
of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection,
but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent
thought
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There was something coming to her and she was
waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did
not know it was too subtle and elusive to name.
But she felt it, creeping out of the sky,
reaching toward her through the sounds, the
scents, the color that filled the air.
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Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was
beginning to recognize this thing that was
approaching to possess her, and she was striving
to beat it back with her will --as powerless as
her two white slender hands would have been. When
she abandoned herself a little whispered word
escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it
over and over under her breath "free, free,
free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror
that had followed it went from her eyes. They
stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and
the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch
of her body.
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She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a
monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted
perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion
as trivial. She knew that she would weep again
when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in
death the face that had never looked save with
love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she
saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession
of years to come that would belong to her
absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms
out to them in welcome.
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There would be no one to live for during those
coming years she would live for herself. There
would be no powerful will bending hers in that
blind persistence with which men and women
believe they have a right to impose a private
will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or
a cruel intention made the act seem no less a
crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment
of illumination.
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And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she
had not. What did it matter! What could love, the
unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this
possession of self-assertion which she suddenly
recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

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Josephine was kneeling before the closed door
with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for
admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg open
the door-- you will make yourself ill. What are
you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the
door." "Go away. I am not making myself ill."
No she was drinking in a very elixir of life
through that open window.
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The sister pleads with Louise to come out of her
room saying, '"'You will make yourself ill.'
 They are truly worried about the emotional
dependence she has on her husband and the
physical toll the news will have on her. This
clarifies the way Louise has always been treated
by those around her, even her husband, because of
her heart defect.  
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Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead
of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all
sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed
a quick prayer that life might be long. It was
only yesterday she had thought with a shudder
that life might be long. She arose at length and
opened the door to her sister's importunities.
There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she
carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of
Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and
together they descended the stairs. Richards
stood waiting for them at the bottom.
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Open doors ruin her dreams and desires of
independence. Succumbing to her sisters worried
pleadings to '"'open the door! I beg open the
door!'" ,Mrs. Mallard rises from her seat in
front of the window, and '"'opens the door to her
sisters importunities.' Then another door
opens, bringing disaster and tragedy. Her husband
enters through the front door, and Mrs. Mallard,
her soul crumbling from giddy heights of newly
discovered freedom back down to familiar and
unpleasant oppression, dies. Contrary to the
freedom that carries itself alongside the open
windows of Mrs. Mallard"'"s room, the open doors,
ironically, only bring entrapment.  
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The stairs in the Mallards"'" home represent the
contradictory elements of up versus down, rise
versus fall, to further heighten the changes in
theme from coercion to self-assertion and then
back again. As Mrs. Mallard ascends the stairs to
her room, she enters her own world of freedom and
independence. When she opens the door and meets
her sister at the top of the stairs, her eyes
hold a '"'feverish triumph'", and she '"'carries
herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory'"'.
When the two women clasp each other and arrive
at the bottom of the stairs, back into the grasp
of men and their oppressive ways, Brently Mallard
returns, resulting in Mrs. Mallards death. The
placement of Mrs. Mallards room and sanctuary
upstairs is vital to the theme of the story, as
the staircase that separates her from cruel
reality marks the bridge and transition between
subjugation and self-sufficiency.
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Someone was opening the front door with a
latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a
little travel-stained, composedly carrying his
grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the
scene of the accident, and did not even know
there had been one. He stood amazed at
Josephine's piercing cry at Richards' quick
motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
But Richards was too late. When the doctors
came they said she had died of heart disease --of
the joy that kills.
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Her life has spiraled within one hour of time.

• The stairs are a symbol of her life her
  ascension to freedom her decline into misery.
  She never is able to leave the stairs she dies
  three steps from the bottom.

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Chopin illustrates how within only one hour of
time, a woman can move from mournful grief over
her dead husband, to delight and ecstasy for her
newfound liberty, and then plummet to her death
when she is once again entrapped by her husbands
return. Setting plays a fundamental role in
'"'The Story of an Hour'"' by echoing the moods
and thoughts of the protagonist through symbols
of repression and free will.
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Characters

• Louise Mallard a woman who has been controlled
  and conformed to the norms of society. She has
  apparently given her entire life to assuring her
  husband's happiness while forfeiting her own.

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Mrs. Mallard

• She lives a very lonely life and has a desire to
  find out who she really is and also what she is
  capable of becoming. Until then, her life had
  been shaped and molded to conform to their
  husbands' wishes.

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The 1890s

• At the time these stories took place, it was
  basically unheard of for women to assert their
  beliefs or to act upon their ideas. As a result,
  Louise was forced to succumb to the role of an
  obedient wife, in order to abide by the norms of
  society.

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It is hard for us to think of a time when women
were treated as second class citizens, especially
since we have only known freedom compared to our
ancestors.Women today are extremely assertive.
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However, in order to understand a characters
drive, we must examine and comprehend her/his
environment, background, and setting.
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Analyze reactions and words to determine persona
and situation

• Notice the way Louise reacts when she learns of a
  false rumor regarding her husband's sudden death.
  While in deep thought, and staring out the window
  by herself, she has a sudden realization of
  complete happiness and total freedom. As she
  tries hard to repress these fresh, new feelings,
  she speaks the words, "free, free, free"! These
  words help us understand the repression she has
  been forced to withstand for many years.

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She feels sudden exhilaration as she reflects on
what her new life will bring her.

• Louise's thoughts continue to build as she thinks
  to herself "There would be no powerful will
  bending hers in that blind persistence with which
  men and women believe they have a right to impose
  a private will upon a fellow-creature"

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• He has held her back from expressing herself as a
  person and has forced his strong will upon her
  with which to obey.

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• Louise resorts to the entertainment of dreams to
  bring her joy. She finds fulfillment when
  dreaming of the new life she will soon find
  without her husband.

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Upon learning of her husband's death, she loses
herself in a mirage of hopes and dreams that
promise to free her from her restricted
lifestyle. She suddenly envisions a "long
procession of years to come that would belong to
her absolutely"
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She begins to feel a strength she has never known
in the years with her husband. She begins to feel
alive when she realizes that "There would be no
one to live for her during those coming years
she would live for herself"
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It seems as though Louise feels she has no other
recourse but to conform to her husband's wishes
and live a doomed life. In her mind she recalls,
"It was only yesterday she had thought with a
shudder that life might be long". The sudden
breath of freedom she experiences happens only
after she learns of her husband's death and would
probably never have occurred had it not been for
this life changing message.
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She does not seem to have the strength or will to
leave him on her own. This is why she suddenly
has a heart attack at the end of the story. She
cannot envision herself leaving this man
willfully in order to obtain freedom for herself.
Therefore, it must be the face of death that is
responsible for their separation. Her will is
simply not strong enough to make such a drastic
change.
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This story gives the audience insight into the
life of a woman obviously lost and in need of
some self-identification and freedom. She has
lived only for the pleasure and fulfillment of
others and not at all for herself. Louise never
gets the opportunity to pursue any freedom from
her husband's restrictive hold. Death is the her
only recourse and indeed is her trial attempt at
absolute freedom.
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Louise is never able to discover her inner
strength. She represents many women, whether from
the past or present, who have given themselves to
others and as a result have given up their most
precious rights in life, their rights as
individuals.
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The Themes of Awakening vs. Repression

• Upon the death of her husband, she is free to
  live for and to be herself.
• This knowledge or awakening is manifested in Mrs.
  Mallard as her pulse beat fast, and the
  coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of
  her body
• She tries to resist, but finds that when she
  abandons herself a little whispered word escaped
  her lips. Her experience can only be described
  by one word free.

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• Although Mrs. Mallards husband apparently loved
  her, and she may not have been physically or
  emotionally abused, her bondage was her own
  inability to see herself as anything but a wife.
• She admits that she would miss her husband,
  however she could see beyond that bitter moment
  a long procession of years to come that belong to
  her absolutely.And she spread open her arms to
  them in welcome.

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• She goes on to reveal her perception of
  relationships, which illustrates why she was
  repressed
• There would be no powerful will bending hers in
  that blind persistence with which men and women
  believe they have a right to impose a private
  will upon a fellow creature.A kind intention or a
  cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime
  as she looked upon it in that brief moment of
  illumination.

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Mrs. Mallards awakening is the realization of
why, before her husbands death, she had thought
with a shudder that life might be long. She
suddenly realizes that power over herself would
now be in her own hands. It is not that she is
cold, or frigid, or that she has never loved her
husband, because she admits that she had loved
him sometimes.Often she had not. Up until
this point, love and marriage had been what she
had been told, by society, by the male
structures of power, to live for. She says,
What could love- the unsolved mystery, count for
in the face of this possession of self- assertion
which she recognized as the strongest impulse of
her being.
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Thus it is self -assertion that Mrs. Mallard is
feeling. It is only through his death that she is
free.The fact that she now believes she is free
illustrates her past imprisonment within the
relationship.
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Irony

• The most tragic aspect of The Story of An Hour is
  that when Louise Mallard awakens, she cannot
  live to enjoy the years of freedom she
  envisions. She realizes that, if her husband is
  still alive, then she cannot be free.The
  relationship negates her identity as wife.Death
  becomes the only avenue for emancipation. Mrs.
  Mallard cannot exist in her newly awakened state
  once she realizes her husband is alive.

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• The fact that instead of disbelief, sorrow, and
  grief, Kate felt hope, happiness and freedom is
  ironic. We would expect Kate to show signs of
  deep regret over her husbands death, when she
  actually exhibits the opposite emotions.
• She begins noticing the little things, which she
  had previously taken for granted, things as
  simple as the view out of her bedroom window.
  Kates happiness is not due to her husbands
  death exactly, but more of her rebirth, she is
  now not only free of his reign over her life, but
  also free of her duties as wife.

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• When Kate is finally coaxed out of her room, her
  husband enters through the front door. Kate dies
  suddenly of heart disease, '"'The joy that
  kills.'"' The main irony in the story is that
  everyone assumes that Kate is overjoyed to see
  her husband alive, where she is actually overcome
  with sadness. Kate is once again, and for the
  last time, greatly misunderstood.  

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THE END