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Analysis of “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin Melissa Hillard Eng 125 Instructor Terri Hennessy February 9, 2012 “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a short story, written in 1894, about a woman who is told that her husband has died in an accident, and the emotional journey she takes as a result upon hearing the news. The purpose of this essay is to analyze what about this story catches the reader’s attention, and then to analyze this story using one analytical approach found in the text book, and finally to evaluate and analyze the meaning of this select piece of work using the analytical approach found in the text book. Kate Chopin catches the reader’s attention with the title of this story. “The Story of an Hour” lets the reader know that the story is about events that happen within the span of one hour and leads to believe that lives will be forever changed because of these events. In the first two lines, “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.” the reader develops an idea of what the story will tell. Louise is the main character in the story, and as such, she represents the oppression that women of this time felt in marriage. A way of making this evident is the way that the wife in the story is only referred to as Mrs. Mallard, indicating that she is just an extension of her husband, until she is relieved of her husband, then she is referred to as Louise, a person with her own identity. Kate Chopin shows that there was affection in the marriage by describing Louise thinking of her husband as, “never looked at her save with love”. Louise is not portrayed as a cold hearted wife; instead she is imagined to be a good wife. Upon hearing of her husband’s death, “She wept at once with sudden, and wild, abandonment in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room alone.” It is only after accepting the death of her husband that she realizes that her life is not over, but she now has opportunities that she never had before. It shows her strength as a woman during this time when a woman’s identity was nothing more than a reflection of who she was married to and their social status in their community. “The kind, tender hands folded in death”; expresses Louise’s affection for her husband, but, does not change the oppression of women in this time once they were married. When it is used in literature, persona refers to the person who is the narrator in a story or the speaker in a poem. In other words, the main voice in a work of fiction or poetry is usually not the author's voice, although it may reflect the author's views. (Clugston, 2010). The formalist critic identifies the literary tools and techniques that the writer chooses and shows how they are used to make the intent of the writer and the significance of the literary work evident. (Clugston, 2010). In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin uses a narrator to tell the story. This allows the reader to experience everything going on with all of the characters. The use of a narrator is strongest at the end of the story when, ironically, after Louise embraces her newfound freedom, her husband Brently Mallard walks through the door and Louise dies of heart failure. The characters mistake this as “of joy that kills.” Instead, when Louise saw her husband walk through the door she realizes that her life will remain the same, and that she had just lost her newfound freedom. This is a well written story that takes the reader on the emotional ride that Louise Mallard, upon hearing of the death of her husband, takes as she experiences grief, acceptance, relief and then joy. It is a wonderful example of what most women went through during this time in history. Today if a woman is not happy in her marriage she can get a divorce and move on with her life, in 1894 once a woman was married she was married for life. It could be assumed that in her death Louise was finally released from her marriage, it could also be assumed that her death was punishment for finding joy in her husband’s death. Kate Chopin may have been reliving the emotional journey she experienced when her own husband died. Indeed, Chopin makes clear that to simply observe the world through ones rational faculty is nowhere near as powerful as observing it with the vibrant, vigorous, acute and heightened awareness that emotion makes possible. Jamil, S. (2009). It falls to the reader to decide and interpret their own opinion of what they read. That is one of the most wonderful things about reading any piece of literature. The reader is able to interpret his or her own opinions and assumption about what they are reading. References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford. Jamil, S. Selina. 2009. "Emotions in the Story of an Hour." Explicator 67, no. 3: 215-220. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost edu/books