An Hour of Awakening

 

The author, Kate Chopin, known as a pioneer of feminist literature in the United States, composed the short story “The Story of An Hour” on April 19, 1894, and published it on December 6, 1894, in Vogue magazine. The story talks about the protagonist, Louise Mallard, who learns the news of her husband Brently Mallard’s death in a railroad accident. Louise first reacts with grief and goes to her room, where she discovers a new sense of freedom from the scenery outside of her window. Instead of feeling sorrow for her husband’s death, she is joyful and inspired to embrace freedom. Later, she returns downstairs and sees that Brently has come home. Ms. Mallard is shocked and died of a heart attack.

 

In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin explores the possibility of escaping from marriage and pursuing the freedom to critique the conventional gender dynamics of her time, calling for women’s emancipation from such restrictive dynamics.

 

First, by looking at the title we can get a clue about the general idea of the story. The word story is defined as a fictitious tale that is shorter and less elaborate than a novel. This word here foreshadows that the freedom that Mrs.Mallard is seeking is a fantasy. And the word hour in the title emphasizes the brief moment of awakening of Mrs.Mallard. This title sets the tone for the story to convey the commentary on marriage dynamics.

 

At the beginning of the story, the author portrayed Mrs. Mallard in a particular way that reflects the stereotypical view toward a female in the historical context. “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”(Chopin para.1). Mrs. Mallard’s heart problem symbolizes the vulnerability of the female population and foreshadows the tragic ending of the story. This feeling of fragility is in contrast with the description: “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength”(Chopin para.8). The contrast between signs of youth and poor health situation exaggerates the physical toll that marriage has brought to Mrs. Mallard.

 

During the story, the author employed symbolism to implicitly present the transition of Mrs. Mallard’s mental state. While Mrs. Mallard is locked in a room alone after she has learned of her husband’s death, the scenery outside the window is vibrant, vivid, and free. The view, the sound, and the smell of the “free world” attract Mrs. Mallard: “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 that someone 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”(Chopin para.5-6). The diction used in these sentences creates a delightful tone. The word delicious explicitly presents the subjective view of the protagonist. And the word met is a personification of clouds to render a vibrant atmosphere. The resurgence of new life in nature represents the heroine’s awakening of female consciousness and her longing for freedom. Birds represent freedom, and the peddler represents a new appreciation for human interaction beyond the home. The contrast between the dark and isolated room Mrs. Mallard is in and the outside world implies the life of Mrs. Mallard, in which she has been constrained in a house filled with depression.

 

After depicting the outer world, the author incorporated a series of psychological descriptions to show Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflicts. Initially, Mrs. Mallard senses the joy of freedom that is alien to her, and she reacts to this feeling by repressing it. “Something was 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. 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”(Chopin para.9-10) The personification of the elusive feeling shows the power of freedom and people’s natural tendency to approach freedom even for people like Mrs. Mallard who have long been constrained in her marriage.

 

After the struggle, Mrs. Mallard reaches a moment of epiphany that she embraces freedom and rebels the societal expectations. In the text, the author used repetition of the word free to show the eagerness of Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom, which further reflects the oppressing nature of marriage. In contrast with previous reactions, Mrs. Mallard no longer cares whether the joy is monstrous but she has a clear perception to embrace freedom. This represents the enlightenment of Mrs. Mallard.

 

The author employed an ironic tone in the story to strongly express her pessimistic view of societal expectations at that time. One of the sarcastic scenes is the contrast between everyone’s expectations and Mrs. Mallard’s actual situation. “‘free! Body and soul free!’ she kept whispering. 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” (Chopin para.14-15). Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine worries that Mrs. Mallard will have an accident when she learns the bad news, but in fact, this worry is superfluous. The view of Josephine here represents societal expectations of a female’s behavior. This sarcastic contrast also appeared at the end when Ms. Mallard was shocked and died of a heart attack: “When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease–of the joy that kills”(Chopin para.20). The doctor interprets Mrs. Mallard’s shock as joy, though Mrs. Mallard was horrified that she will still be constrained in her marriage for her future.

 

The narrow time frame and extreme turnarounds in the story portray a fleeting hope. From the title “The Story of An Hour”, the author’s emphasis on time is to reveal the rapidity of change. There are two sudden changes in the text, one is the sudden change of Mrs. Mallard’s mental state in this passage, and the other is the rapid reversal of death and the shattering of illusions at the end. The extreme contrast between the sadness after hearing about the death of Mr. Mallard and the eagerness of embracing freedom symbolizes conventional gender dynamics and a desire for female liberation. The rapidity of the story’s progression helps the author express her worries about the weak and transient hope the female population was eager for under that historical context.

 

Throughout the text, Chopin’s ironic approach to Mrs. Mallard’s emotions and psychology reveals the core message that the institution of marriage at that time have devastating effects on one’s well-being. The female population was marginalized under the societal expectations that a man in the family is responsible for providing wealth and safety whereas a woman plays the role of housewife that is subservient to a man. This unbalanced structure has caused women like Mrs. Mallard to unconsciously ignore their well-being, which deprives their freedom and caused them to suffer from health and mental issues. Chopin’s message inspired later feminist movements and it’s still worth discussing to learn the importance of self-awareness and the responsibility to provide equal social living spaces regardless of gender.

 

Works Cited

 

Chopin, Kate.“The Story of an Hour.” Virginia Commonwealth University, 2022, https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/. Originally published in Vogue Magazine, 1894.

 

 

 

 

Featured image citation:

Nies, Toby. Screen Shot from “The Story of an Hour.” Www.youtube.com, 11 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofAiwejmMqo&t=240s.