The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is a short story. I loved reading A Pair of Silk Stockings, so I wanted to explore more of the author’s works. The story follows Louise Mallard, a woman who has a heart condition. Her sister and her husband’s friend come to see her. They gently want to break the news of the death of her husband in a train accident.
Louise Mallard is a woman who has some sort of heart condition, and she lives with her husband, Brent Mallard. One day, her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richard show up at the house to try and gently inform Louise of her husband’s death in an accident. Richard has seen the name of his friend on the list of the dead of the accident, and with Josephine, they want to find a way to break the news to Louise and not shock her, which could affect her health. Louise is overwhelmed with grief and wants to be alone; she retreats to her room alone. Slowly, there is one more emotion that Louise feels, which is freedom. She feels that now she can live for herself. As she feels joy thinking about her life ahead and exits the room, she is shocked to see her husband entering the house.
Kate Chopin explores the themes of identity, gender roles in marriage, and even freedom vs confinement. Louise’s marriage is not miserable; her husband is not awful towards her, but she still has a life that revolves around him. The transformation she goes through from grief to feeling joy of finding freedom after hearing the news shows the confining nature of marriage for women, especially in the 19th century when the story is written. It was a given back then that women’s life is solely considered fulfilled through their role as a wife and a mother. Louise has never really lived for herself, but when she thinks of the freedom, she thinks she will now have what makes her happy, that she can live how she wants to.
The story has fewer details than I would like. It doesn’t go too much into detail about Louise’s life with her husband, and focuses more on her wishes for her life. I think it is on purpose because it makes sense for the kind of ambiguity the story and characters have from the start. The story subtly questions if a sense of individuality for women comes in solitude. For the first time, Louise is thinking about what she would like to do. At the end, when Louise sees her husband alive and she dies of shock. It did seem like a metaphor that she couldn’t escape the societal norms and prison, to live the life she dreamt of just moments ago. I loved how the writing flowed and how it is ambiguous with its theme, and especially the end.
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a wonderful short story. It’s barely five pages, but it is impactful. It mirrors the society of the time, specifically for women, in a subtle yet powerful way. It asks a lot of questions that, as a reader, we need to think about the answers. I enjoyed reading the story.
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