The Story of an Hour and its literary elements - Essay Example

6 April Untying the Knot “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin shows her views on marriage and the treatment of women during the nineteenth century. It is a story that happens in an hour only and inside one house, but it reveals the whole identity and experience of Mrs. Mallard. She wept immediately when she hears of her husband’s death, but she soon realizes its importance to her as a woman and human being. The story describes the theme of marriage during the nineteenth century through plot, setting, characterization, and symbolism, when women’s bodies and souls are tied to their husbands’ will and social expectations, and this is valuable, because it helps us understand how death can be the best and only way to untie the knot of marriage.Mrs. Mallard’s body and soul are tied to her husband.

The plot reveals how her marriage is a prison. She marries someone she does not love: “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.” Despite this, she lets Brent have complete control of her soul and body, because women are considered as properties of their husbands. Mrs. Mallard’s name is not acknowledged until the end of the story. She will always be a Mallard, the wife of Brently. Brently Mallard, however, has his full name given at the onset, and this indicates his own individuality, individuality that Mrs.

Mallard and other women were not allowed to have. Furthermore, the setting is within Mallard’s home. It suggests how she is imprisoned by her home life. In addition, spring symbolizes a new life that Louise yearns for. Her new life is so real, she can taste it: “The delicious breath of rain was in the air.” Even the sky reinforces the atmosphere of a new life: “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

” Her husband’s death opens a whole new life for her: “Free! Body and soul free!”Mrs. Mallard is also weighed down by social demands. In the 19th century, women were seen as weak. They are treated with gentleness, and the same handling is given to Mrs. Mallard, though she also has a heart problem: “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husbands death.” She also owns a “comfortable chair,” which indicates how women are creatures of comforts, since they are assumed to be materialistic and weak.

Furthermore, she shows weakness in how she accepted her husband’s death: “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sisters arms.” Society treats women as weak, materialistic, and helpless.Death can be the best and only way to untie the knot of marriage. Louise’s “monstrous joy” vanished into the emotion of devastated grief, when she sees her husband alive. Her freedom is gone again. Her character is fully revealed then in an hour. The “open window” used to be open to her and she drinks the “elixir of life”.

As a trapped woman, she has experienced freedom for a few minutes and she is no longer willing to let go of it. In order to preserve her freedom, she had to let go of her life, so that she can be: “Free! Body and soul free!” The end is the end of all her bondage: “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease --of the joy that kills.” Louise died for freedom.Louise tied the knot with marriage and this knot trapped her. Chopin uses plot, setting, characterization, and symbolism to express how marriage depicts women’s bodies and souls that are tied to their husbands’ will and social expectations.

This is important, because it helps us understand how death can be the best and only way to undo the knot of marriage. First, Louise says “I do” and then after experiencing freedom, she asserts: “I won’t.” And so she chooses freedom, even if it means death.Work CitedChopin, Kate. Story of an Hour. Journey into Literature. By M. Clugston. Ashford Online Edition, 2008.