Brently Mallard

Before the 1980`s, there was one “ideal woman”, she was seen as desirable innocent, sensual and passive she needed to be alert, patient and a intentive wife and loving mother but most of all obident. The lifes of women were limited they could not own money and were seen as “propertyof men”. The respectable jobs for women were teaching, embroidering and serving. There were two conflicting images of women at this time and these were- the pure,dutiful-help mate and the exciting but dangerous sex object.

If you weren`t catorgrised into theses two images you either lived on the streets begging or sold your self into prositution. Kate chopin the author of “the story of an hour”, was widley read and higly honored, and specialised in feminist work! Kate chopin,had used her own experiencenes in this short story, her husband had died at a young age,so she realated to her characters feelings and uses her true perspective to “represent life the way it actually is lived”.

At this time writers were mainly men!

Thomas Hardy another famous writter, rasied in modest means went on to higher education and worked for solicitors, so contact with industrial women was rare, despite this he went on to journolism writing for women`s magazines, this doesn`t reflect in his story “the arch decevier”. Kate Chopin begins her story letting us know that the main character(Mrs Mallard) is “inflicted” with heart trouble, this gives us a clue of what the story has in store for us, straight away, Kate chopin suprises us with the shocking news of Mrs Mallard`s husbands death.

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Mrs Mallard displays the predictable behaviour we, and her family expected, “she wept at once”, in her sisters arms. Women at this time needed their men to survive. Any respectable woman had a husband or a chaparone, so when this news arrives to,Mrs Mallard, it seems that her life has came to and end. She leaves her company to sit and grief to herself. Kate chopin uses very discriptive language to describe the scenery in which Mrs Mallard sees “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”, the delious “breath of life”.

Towards the end of the eight paragraph we get the idea that Mrs Mallard is thinking positivity of her husbands death, “it was not a glance of reflection, but a glance of supension of intelligent thought”, “she began to recognise this thing that was approching to posses her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will”. We sence from this that she is ashamed of her positive feelings towards her husbands death, “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutley. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

Now we finally know that she is actually looking foward to her future years without her husband. She now realises that, “there would be no one to live for”, “she would live for herself”. She, expresses this by the words “free,body and soul free! “. “And yet she had loved him-sometimes often she had not. What did it matter! what could love , the mystery, count for in face of his poession of self-assertion which she suddenly reconised as the strongest impulse of her being! ” This shows that not only is she just thinking positivily about her husbands death but now she is saying that its the best thing that`s ever happend to her!

The even questions her ever loving him. She is caught up and enjoying this moment of thought so much that when her sister interepts she tells her ebruptley to “go, away”- angry that her sister had ruined her thoughts of happiness she explains to her self that the “days would be her own”. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long,It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long”. This shows that she looks forward to a long life without her husband, but “shudderd”,(hated) the thought of a long life with him, these are very powerful words that kate chopin uses, and they shock us!

When her sister finally gets through to her she places great sympathy upon Mrs Mallard, again showing that this news should be a huge burden to a wife. On the way down stairs Brently Mallard walks in (her husband)We notice here that for the first time in this short story Kate Chopin uses Mrs Mallard Madin name! -“Joesphines piercing cry at Richards quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife”-learning her name just before she dies captures our extreme sympathy for the character we`ve felt we know so much about her, but don`t, leaving us in such mystery and thought, “when the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease….

Of joy that killed,” they say here that she`d died through happiness of knowing her husband was alive, we know that she`d died through the shock and dissappointment of him still living and ruining her dreams, and as pirations. Kate Chopin uses alot of descriptive language and uses alot of emotionand feelings, predictable from a female writer along with the fact that her husband had died did, she feel the same as josaphine? Her experiences of this made her story very realistic.