The Story of an Hour

"The Story of an Hour," is a short story written by Kate Chopin on April 19, 1894. It was originally published in Vogue on December 6, 1894, as "The Dream of an Hour". Later it was reprinted in St. Louis Life on January 5, 1895, as "The Story of an Hour".

The title of the short story refers to the time elapsed between the moments at which the protagonist, Louise Mallard, hears that her husband is dead and when she discovers that he is alive after all. "The Story of an Hour" was controversial by American standards of the 1890s because it features a female protagonist who feels liberated by the news of her husband's death. In Unveiling Kate Chopin, Emily Toth argues that Chopin "had to have her heroine die" in order to make the story publishable".^[2] (The "heroine" dies when she sees her husband alive after he was thought to be dead.)

Summary

The short story describes the series of emotions Louise Mallard endures after hearing of the death of her husband, Brently, reported to have died in a railroad accident. Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart problems; therefore, her sister and her husband's friend attempt to inform her of the horrific news in a gentle way. Mrs. Mallard immediately mourns the loss of her husband; however, as her grief comes to an end she makes way to her upstairs room. Mrs. Mallard locks herself inside; a weird feeling came over her. Confusion followed immediately after. She begins to feel an unexpected sense of exhilaration, yelling, "Free! Body and soul free". She began thinking of all the springs and summers she would enjoy without her husband around. ^[3] Her sudden rush of exhilaration is what she believes is a benefit of his death. Her sister begs Louise to open the door; she is scared that Louise will become ill. As Louise and her sister descend the staircase, Brently enters the house. Louise suffers a heart attack upon receiving the shock that he has not died, and she is stuck in her marriage after all. The story ends with doctors blaming Mallard's death on the joy she must've felt when seeing her husband alive.

Analysis

Many times many readers ponder what happened for the wife to be relieved that her husband had passed. It was a correlation to both the time period and the way men perceived woman back in the 1800's. The thought of a woman being able to survive without a man was a distant thought among many civilians back in that time. Women were often stuck at home while the husbands went to work. It was thought of between women at the time that the death of their husbands would bring them "freedom" and therefore Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" resonated with a lot of women at the time, but not men. It also shows that marriage isn't always as happy as it seems. In the article Marriage and The Story of An Hour, it says "in The Story of an Hour, it is shown that marriage is not always what it appears to be and that the journey to freedom can be dangerous. Chopin shows her readers that the love of only one partner in a marriage is not indicative of a mutual relationship."^[4] In the story Louise says that she loves her husband sometimes and in the article it suggests that maybe her husband was cruel so even though she did indeed love him she loved the new found freedom she has from him.

The open window from which Mrs. Mallard looks out of for a majority of the story is a sign of the freedom and opportunities that await her through her new found independence. "She hears people and birds singing and smells a coming rainstorm. Everything that she experiences through her senses suggests joy and spring—new life". Mrs. Mallard can look into the distance and see nothing but a clear bright future ahead of her. ^[5]

Critical responses

Bert Bender offers a biographical reading of the text and argues that writing of the 1890s was influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Her understanding of the meaning of love and courtship, in particular, was altered and became more pessimistic. This attitude finds its expression in "The Story of an Hour" when Mrs. Mallard questions the meaning of love and ultimately rejects it as meaningless.^[6]

Lawrence I. Berkove notes that there has been "virtual critical agreement" that the story is about female liberation from a repressive marriage. However, he contests this reading and argues that there is a "deeper level of irony in the story". The story, according to Berkove, depicts Mrs. Mallard as an "immature egotist" and a "victim of her own extreme self-assertion". He also challenges the notion that Chopin intended for the views of the story's main character to coincide with those of the author.^[7] Xuding Wang has criticized Berkove's interpretation.^[8]

In her article, "Emotions in 'The Story of An Hour'",^[9] Selina Jamil argues that Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard's perception of her husband's supposed death as fostered by emotions, rather than by rationality. Jamil claims that up until that point, Mrs. Mallard's life had been devoid of emotion to such an extent that she has even wondered if it is worth living. The repression of emotion may represent Mrs. Mallard's repressive husband, who had, up until that point, "smothered" and "silenced" her will. Therefore, her newfound freedom is brought on by an influx of emotion (representing the death of her repressive husband) that adds meaning and value to her life. Although Mrs. Mallard initially feels fear when she hears of her husband's death, the strength of the emotion is so powerful that Mrs. Mallard actually feels joy (because she is feeling). Since this "joy that kills" ultimately leads to Mrs. Mallard's death, one possible interpretation is that the repression of Mrs. Mallard's feelings is what killed her in the end.

In the same article, Jamil shows the repression that Mrs. Mallard faces as a wife. She realizes after her husband's apparent death that she is "free, free, free". This shows how her life would change and that she is now a new person and removed from the repressed life she faced before. No evidence is given in the story about how she is repressed, but her reaction to his death and her newfound confidence and freedom are enough. This repression of herself, that she dealt with, has now been removed, enabling her to be free.

In a 2013 article, Jeremy Foote argues that "The Story of an Hour" can be read as a commentary and warning about technology – specifically the railroad and the telegraph. The railroad, he claims, may be the cause of the distance between the Mallards (and many other couples of the time). It allowed for work and home to be very distant from each other, and eliminated opportunities for spouses to spend time together. Foote argues that the reason that Louise Mallard wanted more autonomy was because she and her husband did not spend time together. The alone time that Louise had in the house made her less close to her husband, and made her want her independence.^[10]

The way the telegraph is used in the story can be viewed as a warning about a world in which information (and people) are moving too quickly. Instead of having enough time to think about and process the death of her husband, it is thrust upon Mrs. Mallard, in its entirety, followed within minutes by the shock of seeing him alive. As the title suggests, this is a story about the importance of time. It may not have been the events that happened so much as the speed at which they happened which is so devastating to Mrs. Mallard.

Film adaptation

In 1984, Director Tina Rathbone released a film adaptation of the story titled The Joy That Kills.

Chekhov's "At Christmas Time"

A story by Anton Chekhov has a similar plot to the story. Mrs. Litvinova, having heard suspicions of her husband's death at sea, realizes gleefully that widowhood would finally make her free of him. Chekhov continues the story past where Chopin leaves hers off, but the stories are similar in how they expose unhappy marriages by showing the wife feeling free after her husband's death.

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Story of an Hour

• The Story of an Hour public domain audiobook at LibriVox