In the novel, Louise Mallard is a woman with a heart condition, making her the most vulnerable character. Her relatives understand that she should be carefully told of her husband's passing (Chopin, 2014). Her girlfriend, Josephine, is able to relay the news that her husband was involved in a train accident and died. While Mallard is distressed by the plot, she takes solace in the fact that it provided her with a means of escape. Her husband then appears, and as Mallard sees her, she has a heart attack brought on by pleasure (Chopin, 2014).
An Analysis by Different Authors
Xuemei Wan conducted an analysis on the story (Wan, 2009). In the analysis, he focused on the theme of death and life as brought out by the story. Wan states that a conflict exists between life and death especially among those women who had a higher level of self-awareness in the story (Wan, 2009). He also felt that the individuals with a less social living space experienced the conflict in a great way. Louise began thinking about her freedom when she learnt that her husband had passed on. Her self-awareness began to grow and it became a way for her to comfort herself for the death of her husband. Louise also had a small social living space and those who were closest to her felt that they had to treat her carefully all the time because of her weak heart. Even though they are very keen when conveying the message to her to avoid any deaths, it is conflicting because she later dies from happiness when she sees her husband alive. The turn of events brings out the conflict between life and death because Louise later died although they had tried so much to prevent her from getting a heart attack.
Wan relates the desire for freedom that is experienced by Louise after the sudden death of her husband to the philosophical thought expressed by Heidegger who was an ancient Chinese thinker on the life and death of Zhuangzi (Wan, 2009). Heidegger argued that how individuals behave towards being is crucial in avoiding death. Individuals may find themselves living the life of someone else which Heidegger called ‘they’. When individuals live the ‘they’ life, they are relieved from the burden of freedom as they do not choose to live for themselves. Louise brings out this aspect when she begins to feel that the death of her husband her brought to her a sense of freedom. Louise felt that individuals may sometimes burden each other even though it is done out of kindness. Louise confirms the conflict brought out by death and life as expressed by Heidegger.
Susana in her analysis focuses on the feminism brought out in the story by Kate Chopin (Sustana, 2017). The death of Brantley brings out a lot of issues surrounding the advocacy of women’s right especially in the society of that day. Louise is a woman whose heart is burdened by trouble. The trouble in her heart may have been brought by the oppression of her husband. When Louise is informed of the death of her husband, she realizes that although she loved him sometimes, he used to oppress her. Even though the oppression may have been an act of kindness, Louise’s heart was burdened.
Louise is able to understand that the death of her husband brings to her a sense of independence. She even begins to think about the days that will come and she longs to live a long life. However, when her husband shows up unexpectedly, Louise gets a heart attack and passes on immediately. The joy she had found through the death of her husband suddenly disappears when she sees her husband and ends up giving up on life. Therefore, it is possible that Louise may have passed on from the mixture of feelings she experienced when she saw her oppressive husband. As such, the need to look out for the rights of women and equality of sexes which ensures no oppression is brought out in the story.
Dan shen conducted an analysis on the story and identifies the irony brought out by the turn of events (Non-Ironic Turning Ironic Contextually: Multiple Context Determined Irony in the Story of an Hour, 2010). After Louise has wept in her room upstairs and finds some comfort in the sense of independence, she decided to join Richard and Josephine who are downstairs. The author describes her walking down the stairs like a ‘goddess of victory’. Later, her husband comes in unexpectedly and when Louise sees her, she collapses and dies. The doctor claims that she has passed on from the joy she experienced (Mays, 2016). When Kate describes Louise as a goddess of victory amidst the trouble of her husband’s death she brings out some sense of irony. The irony is later reinforced by the doctor who claims that the joy of seeing her husband alive, killed Louise.
Personal Analysis
The story also brings out the joy of independence as a forbidden act. Louise has suffered a heart problem throughout the book that eventually contributes to her death. She only feels a sense of relief when she learns of the death of her oppressive husband. She even fantasizes about the days that would come and assumes that they will be better than her latter ones. She even longs to live more days. She also repeats the word ‘free’ severally to herself as she seems possessed by the sudden realization of the pleasure she is experiencing. The way Louise reacts to the news of the death of her husband is courageous and brings out the idea that she was not allowed to be openly excited when her husband was alive.
Louise walks down the staircase like a goddess to meet Josephine and Richard. The sense of victory that she displays is because she has finally realized her independence as a woman. However, the independence is still private to her because she cannot share it with Richard and Josephine during this period of her husband. However, the appearance of her husband seems to melt away all the joy that Louise had experienced. Her longing for better days that are full of freedom vanish before her eyes when she collapses and dies. Therefore, the joy of independence that Louise experienced was only private.
References
Chopin, K. (2014). The Story of An Hour. New York: Blackstone Publishers.
Mays, K. (2016). The Story of an Hour. Literature: The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: Norton Publishers.
Non-Ironic Turning Ironic Contextually: Multiple Context Determined Irony in the Story of an Hour. (2010). Journal of Literary Semantics, 23-36.
Sustana, C. (2017). Analysis of “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. ELT Journal, 354-361.
Wan, X. (2009). Kate Chopin’s View on Death and Freedom in the Story of an Hour. English Language Teaching, 1-10.
