Free World Literature Thesis Example

The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, is a masterpiece. It would be difficult to interpret what went through Chopin’s mind when she wrote this short story in the late nineteenth century. There are a lot of possibilities that can be charted from the story, but the first sentence is a give-away, and clearly reflects that Mrs. Mallard (Louise) had a heart problem, and that was why Josephine, her sister-in-law, and Richards, her husband’s friend, didn’t want her to know about Brently’s tragic death. Similarly, the ending sentence of the story also tells that this short story is about the dying moments of Louise Mallard’s life, and the title of the story appropriately describes it as the last hour of her life.

There are many ways of interpreting this short story. Britannica defines allegory as

“A symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a meaning not explicitly set forth in the narrative, and which may have a meaning on two or more levels that a reader understands through an interpretive process” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Thus, The Story of an Hour gives readers the opportunity to explore hidden meanings.
If a reader was to go by the assumption of what was written by Kate Chopin, it would be obvious that Louise, who is Brently Mallard's young wife, has heart problems, and so, to mitigate her from the shocking news that could kill her, Brently’s sister Josephine, and his friend Richards, convey the tragic death of her Brently in a relatively incomplete manner. A shocked Laurie slowly walks off into an isolated room with the promise that she wouldn’t do anything in haste. She walks up to a window in the room after locking the bedroom door behind her, and stares at the sky through the window. She sees a number of things but what catches her attention is a patch in the blue sky. Initially she doesn’t understand what it is, but gradually, as the thing comes down towards her, the fright that gripped her turns to calm and uncanny warmth. At this point, a reader would believe that the ‘thing’ that was approaching her was Brently; as she recognizes the figure and begins to talk about her life with him. When she utters the word ‘free’ thrice, it resonate her acceptance to welcome the figure, which could be that of the spirit of Brently. As she recollects her short time with Brently, she does say that; “yet she had loved him – sometimes” (Chopin), meaning that there was a love-hate relationship going between them. However, with the approaching figure now offering her eternal solace, she thought, that there was no point in understanding what love was, when she was all but ready to “face this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (Chopin). This meant that she wasn’t going to cry over something she never experienced, but was sure that she could experience it herself now that she was bound to be alone, and without external pressure. She consoles herself, and gathering enough strength, walks up to the door, and along with Josephine and Richards, who were waiting for her outside, open the house door to see a ‘travel-stained’ Brently standing outside. Therefore, the reader is forced to believe that the story end in happiness.
On the contrary, Chopin, by writing The Story of an Hour in this peculiar style, presents readers with the opportunity to assimilate it a manner they feel vindicates their thoughts. In introspecting the author’s mood and reason, there is a far more depth reading into the mind of the character. Chopin shows the mind of a young, fair woman, who, with visions of a happy married life, finds herself robbed of her pleasures only to be with a man who showed little remorse. Right at the beginning of the story, the first line hints on what is going through the mind of the author. “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin), clearly tells the reader that Louise has a heart problem. By including the subject of Brently’ tragic demise, Chopin adds an alibi by introducing an element of suspense, and Brently’s tragic death is shrouded in a cloud of mystery behind Louise’s deteriorating health. It would be hard to not think that Louise was in the last hour of her life on earth, and that Richards and Josephine were there at her bedside as she struggled to stay alive. It was in that last hour of her life that Louise recollects her good and mostly bad times with Brently. The part where Louise walks into a room to be on her own, is a reflection of her mind, as she shuts herself from the people around her and looks towards the heavens to look for that signal that she was now welcome there. In writing; “It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought,” Chopin is making it obvious to the ‘reflective’ readers that Louise, by looking at the blue sky and uttering “free, free, free” was in fact wholeheartedly anticipating the inevitable. The window was her only solace, and the path to freedom, and she knew that it wasn’t going to be long before she became free from the clutches of those “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” (Chopin). The trees quivering, the delicious breath of rain in the air, the peddler crying his wares, and the countless sparrows twittering in the eaves” (Chopin) added a refreshing thought in her mind, as she looked heaven ward for solace. It is true that Louise was never happy as a married woman, and the news of Brently’s tragic death only reinforced her view about Brently. At the end, when she is being carried off, she says, “Brently Mallard entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella,” thereby exonerating herself from the guilt she must have felt for ‘killing’ a living person.
Louise believes that now that she is liberated and free, she will be on her own and will not be forced by people around her to do things their way. The window through which Louise looked skywards symbolizes escapism. When she says that she closed the door behind her to grieve Brently’s death, what Chopin wants her readers to acknowledge was that she had shut herself away from earthly contacts forever.

References

Chopin, Kate. 'The Story of an Hour'. N.p., 1894. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
Encyclopaedia Britannica,. 'Allegory | Art and Literature'. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.