What Conclusion Can You Draw About Why The Narrator And Her Family Move So Often?

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"The Story of an Hr": Student Responses, 1996

Students of Ann Woodlief, Virginia Commonwealth University

When I get-go began reading "The Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard seemed to me an erstwhile woman and equally we are told in the very first line, �afflicted with a heart problem.� I was surprised in the eighth paragraph when Chopin tells us that "She was young," only even more than interesting to me that she is described equally having �a off-white, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression� which depicts her every bit beingness former for her historic period. The description of this repression is backed up when Chopin gives us the reason for Mrs. Mallard�s �monstrous joy� which reads thus �There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they take a right to impose a private will upon a swain-creature.�

Afterwards reading through this story the first fourth dimension, I had many questions and many conclusions. For instance, it seems as if Chopin is showing us a social situation of the times with the woman as prisoner of her husband. It is common cognition that marriages are non ever nearly mutual love betwixt two people and during the time that Chopin was writing, this was more often the case. Marriage was every bit much most monetary comfort, social status and acceptance as information technology was most possible dear. There are no children mentioned in this story which makes me wonder if at that place was a sexual relationship betwixt the Mallards. It seems from the clarification that Mrs. Mallard has been trapped in this marriage for a long time fifty-fifty though we know she is young. How young is she? Even though I say she is trapped, do non misunderstand me: I exercise not think this union is arranged, instead that she has been coerced by her lodge to marry despite what she may desire to do in her heart and soul. I believe she does love her hubby, just it is possible to love a human and not be married to him. This was not her case; if she were able (significant a human would concur with her decision) and she did engage in a loving relationship with a human being who was not her husband, she would have certainly been looked down upon. Is her middle status purely concrete or is it also psychological and emotional? Nosotros know the stereotypes, as Chopin did, that women are hysterical, timid, weak, irrational. Could it be that her heart status is created by those tip-toeing around her in conjunction with her own emotional weaknesses?

I find it interesting that her first name is only told to u.s. after she hears of her husband�due south expiry and when she feels the most complimentary. Before this indicate she is referred to as Mrs. Mallard or �she,� and afterward this bespeak when her husband returns habitation, she is referred to as �married woman.� Chopin is pointing to something very interesting hither which leads me dorsum to the title of woman as �wife.� When Louise marries Bently she becomes Mrs. Mallard; she loses her identity and assumes a new and strange one. While it seems very normal and average for a wife to assume her husband�due south name in marriage and in that fourth dimension, to put it harshly, become the property of him, it cannot be ignored that a sure part of the cocky is lost. This adult female is very in melody with this loss and even though her love for her husband keeps her from it, the freedom she feels when she thinks he is expressionless becomes unavoidable and enjoyable.

Chopin wrote the story and has given united states a narrator who, if it is not Chopin personally, I believe to still be female. The descriptions and insight we are given into the character of Louise come from someone who understands her state of affairs and is forgiving. We see Louise every bit she finds happiness out of her married man�s death and yet, past the narration, we see her struggle with guilt and overcome it. From the female perspective, information technology could exist argued that her death was really an ultimate liberty from her unhappy wedlock. If we assume that the narrator is male, could it be that her expiry was a punishment for her happiness at the death of her husband? It is not as farfetched as it seems and raises many more questions every bit to the goal this story sets out to achieve.

Kristene B.

�The Story of an Hour� at first reminded me of �A Very Short Story� in the manner that it leaves out details that that the reader needs to fill in the gaps and easily understand the plot of the story. It�south this �Swiss cheese� consequence that makes the story and then interesting; by allowing the reader to �plug in� his/her ain details the story takes on varied connotations. An example of this is the first paragraph where the reader gets the impression that this woman is going to be extremely upset that her husband has died in a train accident. The people closest to her accept gone to nifty lengths to cushion the blow of her husband�s death; however, we are not given whatever details equally to the relationship they had in the past or any relevant information. Past doing this the author allows the reader to class his/her own false estimation of how this woman is going to react. Nosotros come across this technique used early into the story and we, every bit readers, are strung along until nosotros hear the woman utter the words �costless, free, gratuitous� which really throws the reader off the rail he/she expected to follow. The rest of the narrative begins to twist the story to the verbal opposite of what the reader was waiting to have happen. We find a adult female who instead of beingness upset and centre-cleaved over her husband'south death is experiencing complete joy over the death of another human. Which, of form, now gives us the impression that she has been mistreated in this relationship and that, perchance, this death is for the best. All this makes the reader justify the mode the woman reacted, but in the terminate it's Mrs. Mallard who dies upon seeing her husband alive and well. This ending definitely conjures upwards some questions that are hard to respond.

Ron B.

This was a great story. I similar Chopin fifty-fifty though she is an ardent feminist. Through the first read several things stood out. Starting time y'all will observe how the woman of the story is but referred to every bit Mrs. Mallard--an appendage of Brently Mallard---then when she is costless she is referred to equally Louise, her get-go name. Chopin is trying to say that marriage represses women and "bends the will." Fifty-fifty if marriage does bend the volition Brently Mallard was still a good man, and his confront never looked upon her with anything only love. She knows that this man loved her, but that is not plenty for her to feel any love for him. Chopin does non seem to call back that a man�s plans and intentions are aptitude for a relationship. Personally, I take never seen a working relationship that was totally one-sided. Information technology is swell that such a brusk little story could raise so many questions about the nature of relationships and what they mean to a woman like Chopin. She considers whatever intention that bends the will a crime, even if it is kind. In that location could be a thousand years of philosophical argue on that one point.

In the style of characters I think Richards was an interesting character. His function seems so modest, perhaps intentionally and so. Chopin is trying to evidence that women tin get along but fine without having men interfere. The major theme of the story represents a disdain for the way that women are treated in some relationships, and to a sure extent in society as well. It is hard for a male to give concrete examples of a female'south place in social club having never dealt with that stereotype. The tardily eighteen hundreds were a crude time for women and in that location weren�t the options, similar divorce, that are at present available to women. Nonetheless in this story in that location is and then much repression. You would think that this woman had been locked in a basement and fed bugs by Brently.

Travis C.

This is the story of a woman who finds out her hubby has died in a train wreck. She reacts with sadness at first, but then realizes in a blitz of emotion & relief that she is �Complimentary! Body and soul gratis!� She views the world with a fresh outlook--one where she will be her own person, answering only to herself. She is ready to begin this new life when her husband--who apparently wasn�t on the train afterward all--comes dwelling. The woman (Louise) dies from center failure on the spot.

I loved this trivial story--it takes a couple of twists and turns that makes the ending ironic and unobvious. The twelvemonth the story was written (1894) is included, and this adds interest to the content of the story. The fact that Louise recognizes her oppression from the male-dominated social club of the time is interesting to me. For some reason (I don�t know why) I haven�t read much work in which a woman of the fourth dimension menses speaks of feeling that a long life with her husband is undesirable. But when she realizes her husband is dead, Louise�due south view of a long life changes from dread to hope.

Louise is plain the character of interest--through her we come across the social repression that women felt at the time. Louise represents all women of the time. They were locked into marriages that were probably loving--at least Louise says her married man �never looked at her save with love�--but were oppressive in their treatment of women.

The language of the story does a skilful job at carrying the emotions and feelings of the characters. Although Louise represents all women, she is different. Being told of Brently�s (her hubby) decease, she �did not accept the news equally many women have.� The choice of many is interesting. It shows that many women accepted (perhaps blindly) the situation of being controlled in their lives by their husbands.

After existence told the news of his death, Louise goes to her room and looks out the window. The language here foreshadows the ironic happiness that she feels at being set free. Instead of being gloomy and dark (the manner weather is usually symbolized at the mention of death) the heaven shows patches of blue (from between white, non black) clouds; birds are singing and there is a �delicious breath of rain� in the air.

I can�t help but recall that when Louise�s sister is calling to her through the door--�open up the door--you will make yourself sick�--that she would believe Louise had fabricated herself sick with all the talk of freedom. When she finally opens the door and walks out �like a goddess of Victory� I would think that her sister would notice and wonder why.

When Brently returns, Louise drops expressionless. We know that she had a weak heart--it was explained that the train accident was explained advisedly in order to prevent an adverse reaction--and the doctors assume that she died at his sight from the �joy� of seeing him. �The joy that kills� they called information technology. Those doctors, undoubtedly men, were unwittingly describing Louise�southward marriage likewise.

Mark D.

Chopin describes for u.s.a. here a story of keen irony. She introduces to u.s.a. Mrs. Mallard; we know she is a woman with a centre condition and that she is unaware of her husband�s death. Nosotros and so meet her sister, Josephine, who is reluctant to be the bearer of bad news. And also her married man�south friend Richards, whose significance in the story seems very cryptic to me. We learn that there has been an accident, a railroad disaster, and that Mrs. Mallard�southward husband, Brently, was deemed �killed.� At that place had been 2 telegrams affirming this, thus eliminating the possibility of an error. She immediately begins to grieve with �wild abandonment,� shortly after she seeks solitude. In her solitude, we find her to be acutely aware of her environment and her senses, almost as if a dark cloud has been lifted from her soul and she can now live life to its fullest potential. For moments, nosotros can see through her eyes, experience her chest heaving and hear the birds chirping. She feels something that she has forgotten she could feel. She is feeling the clouds beingness lifted from her soul, she is illuminated, she is free. She is overwhelmed with freedom, opening upward her artillery to welcome information technology, letting it envelope her body and her soul. She remembers her husband with kind memories, memories of time, memories that are now of the past. She is in the present and she is free! Her sister is concerned with her solitude and inquires of her well existence. We larn that her name is Louise; she is no longer Mrs. Mallard, she is Louise, she has her own identity considering she is complimentary. She is reveling in her freedom, thinking of her freedom today and tomorrow, longing to have a lengthy life of her own. She opens the door to her sis with a sparkle in her eye and a new sense of herself. They descend the staircase together, meeting Richards at the lesser. Someone is opening the door. It�south Brently Mallard, unharmed and completely composed, unaware of the transformation that has occured with his absence. We hear a scream from Josephine and see Richards effort to muffle the living dead from the view of the centre patient. But it is besides belatedly. She is dead. Mrs. Mallard�due south heart stopped. Her life stopped. She had everything and nothing all in the same moment.

This is a wonderful story, then well written and descriptive that we can be Mrs. Mallard. The omniscience of the narrator allows us this. We tin see through her eyes, breathe through her lungs. We desire what she desires. This makes the story. The setting is perfect. She ascends the staircase to freedom, everything changes at the top of the stairs. We descend the staircase with her and everything is taken away. She dies of the joy that kills, irony to the stop. Magnificent!

This short story grabbed my attention from the moment I finished the first sentence to the cease of the story. During the start few paragraphs I thought that she was very depressed and saddened from hearing about her husbands expiry. Of course as shortly as she whispers the words �free, free, costless!� I knew that she felt happy about her husband�south expiry. I notice that no one else knew of these feelings of contempt for husband just herself, or she would not have kept these feelings within of herself.

In the fifth paragraph, subsequently just being told of her married man's death, she is very descriptive of everything that she sees at that moment, as if she wants to think every detail of this moment. But why would one bespeak out �delicious breath of rain,� �notes of a distant song,� and �sparrows were twittering in the eaves� at the fourth dimension of their spouse'south death? When I think of these things that she is describing they are happy scenes, scenes of repose. This was my start inkling that there was more going on in this story than just someone who lost her husband.

Throughout the story you go the feeling from the wife that she was probably controlled by her husband and that their marriage was not a happy one at all. �The kind, tender hands folded in death�; this statement shocked me at offset when I read it. Because I didn�t get the impression from her other comments that he was a kind and tender man, as a matter of fact I idea the exact opposite of him. But her next statement--�... the confront that had never looked save with dearest upon her, fixed and grey and dead�--this was more of how I pictured this human to exist. The words that she uses to describe him are very strong-- �fixed,� �grayness,� �dead�--these words are very harsh. It was in the next couple paragraphs of her describing her freedom that I began to feel very happy for her that he was out of her life.

I call up that it was very ironic for them to apply the word �joy� in the concluding sentence of this story, because it was actual joy that she felt when she realized her husband was dead, and hurting and then great that killed her when she saw him walk through the door.

Shajuana I.

The first fourth dimension I encountered this story, it was read aloud to me in a class that I took this autumn. I thought it was most unusual, and I am glad I have the opportunity to read information technology at present. The story has many surprises, twists and turns, and in the end I had nearly forgotten the poor dead husband, as I was happy for Mrs. Mallard�south release from such an unhappy beingness.

The first words that struck me as wonderful in this story were in lines iii and 4: �veiled hints that revealed in one-half concealing.� What a beautiful fashion to describe breaking bad news. The words �veiled� and �concealing� are used in a wonderful way in the same judgement. I also like the clarification of the �tempest of grief� Mrs. Mallard experiences. Weeping with �sudden, wild abandonment� is such an apt description of this emotion. So far I have not suspected that there is annihilation awry with Mrs. Mallard�s reaction to the news of her hubby�s death. Subsequently all, each and every human being has an intense range of emotions that are neither right or incorrect--they simply belong to that detail individual. I also found nada suspect in Mrs. Mallard retreating to her room--also perfectly understandable. Hither, withal, alone in the privacy of her room, is where the story started to plow for me.The description of what she saw when looking out her bedroom window hitting me equally odd--I call back times in my ain life when overwhelming grief or shock has seized me. Nothing in the world looks correct--certainly non happy or pleasant. However, there were �trees that were all aquiver with the new leap life. The delicious breath of rain . . . sparrows . . . patches of bue sky . . . � These things tell me that she is seeing her life every bit now having a new look, and information technology seems to parallel the fresh, new, earthy and upbeat sights out of her bedroom window. I like the description of her emotional release when she sabbatum �with her caput thrown dorsum upon the cushion of the chair . . . � The sob described here really indicated emotional intensity--was she crying for joy, albeit guilty joy? �There was something coming to her....� this passage almost says �fasten your seatbelts, readers.� Mrs. Mallard has succeeded in gaining my sympathy here, as she is definitely resisting her feelings--feelings that are coming upon her similar a tidal wave. I feel that she is really a decent, moral adult female and wants to do the right thing-- she wants to take THE CORRECT GRIEF REACTION. Finally she accepts this reaction as being truthful--after all it has come upon her and so powerfully, how could it be anything but an honest feeling? It was refreshing to see that her reasons for feeling this way were not because she was an driveling and mistreated wife--not even because she hated her husband (I call back she had tender feelings for him): she merely wanted time to herself! GO MRS. MALLARD! I have the feeling that Mr. and Mrs. Mallard had been married a while, and that she had felt �bound� by the restrictions of being in a human relationship and this was an �out� that was dropped into her lap, so she�s gonna run with it. After all, she didn�t kill the man--it was Divine Intervention! The last line of paragraph 14 is �A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that cursory moment of illumination.� This says that information technology doesn�t affair that her married man probably didn�t intend to be so controlling and needy--but the effect upon her was the aforementioned.

I relate to this story not in that I am a widow, but I have been divorced for 5 years afterward ten years of marriage. I too reacted with grief when my marriage ended, and I went through an incredible range of emotions. At present, nonetheless, I revel in my freedom and independence. Not that I had a horrible marriage, but I did accept to be part of a �couple� and there are responsibilities that go on with that which do infringe upon i�southward freedom to establish her own identity. I was really sad that Mrs. Mallard did not get the take chances to do this. She was swimming in it--she was in overdrive imagining the possibilities about being �gratuitous, gratuitous, free!� I don�t recall she felt guilty about it, nor should she have. She had loved him, yet what could love have practise do with the feeling she was having now? So what if she loved him--he was dead but she was alive as she�d never been before . . . maybe even on the road so wrapped up in this fantasy, planning the rest of her life without her �ball and chain,� that when she saw this �ghost� walk through the forepart door, it hitting her x times harder than it might have had she not been afloat in her joy of being �suddenly single.� This besides tells me that both Mr. and Mrs. Mallard must have been older people--there was a lot of history between them, a lot of years, and I imagine that her centre might have withstood the stupor had she been a bit younger.

[Later response, same person (the side by side semester in a women writers form)]: I understand and at times tend to agree with the argument that the author�south biographical information should stand up apart from the piece of work itself. In the case of Chopin, however, I do observe it necessary, perhaps imperative, to contain her life experience into the meaning I gather from her work. I believe the events in her life greatly influenced her writing--from her father�s death in a railroad accident, when she was five years old, to the fourth dimension after the death of her own husband. Chopin died immature (44), yet she had twelve years of married life and twelve years of widowhood packed into those xl-four years. I find that interesting, and I feel it gave her a fair perspective of life equally the �other half� in a marriage, and life as a woman lonely. Chopin was some other of the �pioneer feminists,� daring to write that women could actually exist, thrive, sans a human. She is credited with having the nervus to explore the sexual, emotional, and intellectual needs, or the very beingness of these needs of women. That she had the fortitude to write virtually these �taboo� issues with great integrity in a time when women could only daydream about equality, etc. is inspiring.

Mrs. Mallard�south heart trouble is surely ii-fold--no doubt a concrete defect exists, possibly exaggerated emotional strain--heart trouble, the intangible variety, unhappiness, misery, the deplorable state of one�s lot in life. Mrs. Mallard�s heart trouble may take been psychological as well as biological--one can literally make oneself ill from worry, depression, etc. People exercise dice of a broken heart.

Mrs. Mallard �did not hear� the story as other women might--this shows how ane-dimensional, clone-like women of Mrs. Mallard�s time were: there was an expected, acceptable emotional response for every life situation. Chopin makes an interesting commentary here nearly the necessity for women to express themselves as individuals--in times of joy, grief. I believe at that place was even a prescribed manner in which women were allowed to �swoon�--not a drop-dead faint, merely a slow, feminine form of collapse.

Lynda R.

The things that I marked in the story were the references to Mrs. Mallard�due south heart condition. The very start paragraph informs the reader of her eye trouble, and how her loved ones were and so conscientious and cautious while breaking the news to her of her husband�s death. In paragraph eleven, where Mrs. Mallard cries out �free, free, costless!� her eye condition is no longer an outcome (to herself) since her husband is dead. Her trunk is �warmed and relaxed.� At the stop of the story, I plant it ironic how Mrs. Mallard�s loved ones took spontaneous and startling means to protect her from the realization that her husband was indeed alive. They took fiddling care and caution regarding her delicate center condition. I thought these portions of the text were significant because at that place was some reference to Mrs. Mallard�due south heart status throughout the text. Maybe I missed the answers to these questions within the text, but I hope non. Why did Mrs. Mallard dislike her husband and so much, that she could rejoice and feel reborn in his death? I guess that my reading feel could be categorized as emotional. In the first few paragraphs, my feelings were those of sympathy and pity for the sickly wife who just lost her married man. Effectually the eighth paragraph I experienced a little confusion, �Is she happy that her husband is dead?� At the eleventh paragraph I felt relief along with Mrs. Mallard. I felt her liberty. At the beginning of the side by side to the concluding paragraph, I felt nervous, anticipating the worst for Mrs. Mallard, that information technology would exist her married man opening the door. I could feel the thwarting when the person opening the door was Mr. Mallard. After my first reading of the text, I idea of a grapheme in a very pop novel, Celie of Alice Walker�southward The Color Purple. When Celie was young her father impregnated her and driveling her. When he died, he left her his land and his business firm. Celie mourned for the benefit of those around her, but when they were gone and she was in the driveway of that house, she smiled and danced for joy. This is quite like to the reactions of Mrs. Mallard.

Monique Grand.

My �outset� response to this story is �I similar information technology.� That is considering it is non my first fourth dimension reading information technology. The get-go time I read this story I was shocked by the ending and disappointed with her view of matrimony. At the time of my first reading of this story, I was newly married and �high on love� and then to speak. Therefore, I couldn�t mayhap believe that someone could wait at love and wedlock in such a negative light.

On reading the story this fourth dimension around I run into a much more positive side to the story. I probably also run into it a piffling more than objectively now. There are many signs of life in the story that represent a re-nascence of this young woman. Prior to her husband's death she dreaded each day and was �pressed down by a physical burnout that haunted her torso.� At present that he is dead she sees the potential for life (her life) with phrases like �new spring life, jiff of pelting, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.� Most of the story deals with her quick accepance of her married man's death and her quick acceptance of the new possibilities for her own life and soul. The title of the story would seem to reinforce this idea of quick acceptance. It indicates that her important transition took identify within ane curt hour. Normally people take months to fully come to terms with the decease of a family unit fellow member. Mrs. Mallard, however, is quick to put it all into perspective.

I think the location she has called to deal with this transition is important. She is in her chamber in a comfortable armchair, which would seem to signal she felt safe here. She seems to accept plant a remedy to life, which is her husband'due south death. The ending this time around is more ironic than shocking. She died because her potential for unhappiness was still live (her husband).

Jacqueline K.

This story is both humorous and is valuable in a historical perspective. Information technology is first a commentary on the feelings that a woman trapped into matrimony during this time period may have experienced. Spousal relationship may take seemed to exist an interminable �trap� and the only �honorable� way out for a woman may have been through death of her married man. This story is ironic in that the narrator's expiry is attributed to existence overcome with great joy, when in fact she died of a combination of shock and disapointment. I liked this story, and I retrieve that despite the time that the story was written, it is very easy to relate to. Information technology besides presents the way death can encourage many different feelings at in one case. The narrator admits that she will probably miss her husband, only she tin as well see the years of liberty stretching into the future.

Sunita R.

I take read this story earlier then my outset reading is really a second or 3rd reading. If I remember correctly my first response to it was amusement at the irony of the whole matter. I tin can sympathize how a woman can feel free from the married man that she has been with for a long fourth dimension. He wasn�t bad to her, but all she was known every bit was Mrs. Mallard. I noticed that everyone had a first name at the outset of the story except for Mrs. Mallard. Information technology was not until her husband's supposed expiry that we observe out her name is Louise. It�due south like a spiritual freeing of the woman that was caged behind the human. Evidently she felt gratuitous because she said it over and over. �And all the same she had loved him--sometimes. Frequently she had not. What did information technology matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized every bit the strongest impulse of her beingness! 'Free! Body and soul free!' she kept whispering.� There were certain words that I saw that lent themselves to the mood of the story. �She did not hear the story as many women accept heard the aforementioned, with a paralyzed inability to have its significance. She wept at in one case, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister'southward artillery. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went abroad to her room solitary. She would have no one follow her.� The storm of grief that overcame her somewhen led to �a physical exhaustion that haunted her trunk and seemed to reach into her soul.� I recollect that everyone has experienced the feeling of being totally emotionally drained after dealing with something that was probably too much to handle in the first place. Later yous relax for a flake, at that place is a peaceful at-home that slowly takes over your body and you lot experience totally at ease. At least I exercise. I call up the mere fact that the state of affairs is over lends itself to the feeling of freedom and the feeling that a terrible burden has been lifted off your shoulders. For Louise, being Mrs. Brently Mallard was a burden. Many women feel oppressed and overshadowed by their husbands. It is not necessarily something that the married man has done, it is simply the personality of the woman who cannot be caged. Her storm of grief turned at-home and all of a sudden �Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Leap days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. Information technology was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.� The blue sky peeked through the storm and turned into the longing for days filled with sunshine and light. She wanted to live long and prosper on her ain when just the day before she didn�t really want to prolong her life. I can throw some Emerson in here too because she was totally content within herself. She was gear up for a long and happy life by herself. When her married man was live, these feelings of hers were dead.

Stephanie R.

I�ve read a few other things past Kate Chopin, and �The Story of an Hour� fits into the body of her work very neatly. She foreshadows the end of the story blatantly, and if you�re at all familiar with her work, the ending is no surprise. Information technology would exist plumbing equipment that her supposedly dead hubby�s return (safely) to the house would trigger her death, since she is, after all, �afflicted with a centre trouble.� Once she�s got her heed assault being �free� from her husband, she is completely unprepared to deal with being imprisoned behind him once again. Some words that caught my attention were especially in the 2d paragraph, with �broken,� �veiled,� �revealed,� and �half concealing.� Another item that caught my eye was that her husband was �leading the list of �killed�,� when he was, in reality, �far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know that at that place had been one.� Things that surprised me: she�southward �young� but �afflicted with a centre trouble.� If she�southward young, would she take had time to even feel imprisoned by her marriage? �And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had non. What did information technology affair! What could love, the unsolved mystery . . . � If she�s young, why did she marry him if not for love? I suppose there isn�t room to address all of these issues in one short story. Perhaps Chopin is addressing the fact that non everyone at this time married for love--�The unsolved mystery�--is information technology unsolved because the woman doesn�t know what information technology is? She hasn�t felt it. She seems to never accept loved this man that is her hubby. She loves her new-institute hour-long liberty, just not her own married man? Finally, �eye disease--of the joy that kills�--what�s that all almost? Joy that kills? She�s happy to have him dorsum? Is that what the doctor thinks? She�south heartbroken because her liberty was all imaginary, only an hour long. Is that what killed her? That�s been bothering me e'er since I read it, which is, I suppose, the author�due south intent.

Caitlin South.

Every bit I read this story, I noticed there was a definite juxtaposition of adult female and man. I constitute the character of Richards unnecessary. Elementary exposition through Josephine could have easily explained the accident. While I�thousand on the bailiwick of Richards--why was he �near� Mrs. Mallard? I don�t recollect it was entirely innocent considering he had waited to �assure� himself of the married man�s expiry. What odd wording. The passage with Mrs. Mallard staring off out of the window of her room was the most significant in my stance. The reason why is because the natural globe (i.due east., the blue patches of sky peeking out through the clouds, the tops of trees all aquiver, the jiff of pelting, etc.) mirrors Mrs. Mallard�s feelings. The globe breaks open with new, spring life, just every bit Mrs. Mallard�s new life is about to begin. The phrase �a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips� is wonderful. �Gratis� is a very appropriate discussion to �escape� one�s lips. When Mrs. Mallard and Josephine descend from the top of the stairs to encounter the 2 men, I couldn�t help but express mirth. It seems that the women had to come downwardly to the level of the men . . . kind of a descent into hell sort of thing . . . maybe I�m reading likewise much into it . . . did anyone else selection up on that? A major gap that I picked up on was the husband�s reaction to his wife�south decease. I keep thinking that if Chopin had showed us a petty more in that scene, that perhaps he, too, would experience �free.� I noticed, also, that Richards, who thinks himself the virtually tender, careful friend, doesn�t help out while Louise is upstairs. It�s her sister who helps her. Richards is downstairs twiddling his thumbs . . . yea, real tender, careful guy . . . so conscientious in fact that he fails in his terminal try to shield the sight of the husband from Mrs. Mallard. Besides, the husband�south expiry was mentioned in 1 paragraph, but Louise�s journey of freedom took up the majority of the story. Definitely a woman-power story (for lack of a better term).

Leigh W.

I have read this story before. It�s 1 of my favorites. I don�t view Louise�s reaction to her husband�s death as a wrong fashion to react. Of course back in the 1800�s, the cultural �norm� was for a woman experience tremendously grievous, and distraught over the death of her husband. Dorsum in those days a adult female�s worth was primarily based on who she was married to.

I don�t call up Louise was necessarily happy her husband died. At the offset of the story after she learned of his death information technology says, �She wept at once with sudden, and wild, abandonment in her sister�southward arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room solitary. She would have no one follow her.� That doesn�t spell out joy to me. I think she went into her room not knowing what to feel. While she was in in that location �soaking in� her environment she began to realize certain things. One monumental thing was that life was moving on despite her husband�s expiry. When I say that, I�m referring to the mentioning of �the new spring life, the delicious jiff of rain, the street caller, the open window, the open foursquare.� Ultimately she decided to view her married man�s death as an opportunity to get a role of that life in ways that she never had before.

Well, as we all know, Louise�s husband did not die. I remember the irony of the ending is what ties the story up so well. She didn�t have a middle attack when she heard of his decease, she had one when she saw him alive. The narrator wants the reader to believe that she died of thwarting at seeing her husband live. I�m going along with that. I also don�t think she died of joy either. It�s obvious that the narrator believes that the other characters idea she died of the �joy that kills.� Chopin does an excellent job at convincing the reader that the other characters were clueless. She died of shock. Can you lot imagine finding out that your spouse is dead, and accepting it 1 way or the other, and and so seeing that they are actually alive? Regardless of your feelings for them, it'due south going to affect y'all tremendously. Unfortunately, Louise�due south heart could not handle the shock.

Simply out of curiosity. . . does anyone have whatsoever ideas nigh what the title of the story suggests? What near the idea that Louise may take died of guilt? Peradventure she thought her husband was actually a ghost. She did scream when she saw him.

Megan One thousand.