Mrs. Mallard, a frail woman in an emotion sense, ultimately dies of "joy." As we look into the context of this short text, we begin to discover Mrs.Mallard's sense of entrapment; she feels trapped by everything and everyone around her, and the moment she finds out about her husband's death, a sudden sense of enlightenment rushes through her veins. It is not a rush of excitement, but a rush of thought and wonder; wonder as to what could be beyond this sort of trap she's been living in, a wonder so far out of her reach the only sort of freedom she actually has are the windows and the doors. But knowingly she cannot get herself to go through these objects of freedom, and instead is trapped in a state of constantly wanting to please her husband before herself, and this ultimately causes the death she suffers from said "joy." Is it really the joy that we all come to know and want though? Or is it merely a figment of her imagination to actually experience a certain type of joy that will bring one step closer to enduring this freedom she's never had the chance to experience. Mrs. Mallard's death in a sense can be considered an untimely death based on her lack of freedom; hearing of her husband's death gave her an hour to think about the freedom she could have, but this hour is torn short the moment her husband shows up at the door and x's out all opportunities of her ever being free to explore everything beyond her eyes. Unfortunately her freedom was short lived, but in a way I can say that her death would have been better than a life of entrapment behind four walls trying to please a man she loves, or for that matter, doesn't love, rather than sit there and wonder what could have been.
I agree that her death is a actually better than having to live in that house with an empty future and a man that supposedly treats her as a servant. It's basically like a prison for her. After tasting what she would call freedom, it would be horrible to have to go back to the regular life that she used to have. It's like a new toy being taken away from a baby or a new cell phone from a teenager who never used to have one. Neither the baby nor the teenager would ever want to revert to the old toy or a life without a cell phone. In the same case, Mrs. Mallard doesn't want her life to be the way it used to be.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Mrs. Mallard had become accustomed to her way of life, almost as a "servant". She is well aware that her husband loves her, but she knows that as long as she is with him she will be entrapped in a sort of routine. When she gets the news that he has passed a sense of freedom and probably a bit of excitement comes upon her. I believe when she first started to feel the freedom she tried to fight back because she almost felt guilty for feeling some joy at the passing of a loved one. In the end when she sees that her husband is actually alive she can not handle the thought of having to go back to her daily routine of serving him. She had absolute freedom for an hour. A freedom she had never experienced before. And as her husband opened the door, all the freedom she thought she had went flying out. This sudden loss was probably too much for her already troubled heart to take.
ReplyDeleteThe last line of Chopin's story really is a twist to an ending. By using the word "joy", it sounds like she died of Happiness. The joy was that she realized she was a free woman: no more living in her husband's shadowing acting like his "slave". During her marriage, everything was a grey blob that didn't involve cleaning the house or making sure there was dinner for the household. When she looked out of the open windown, she began to notice things like patches of blue sky, the "breathe of rain" and the tops of trees in their "new spring life". All these symbols point to one thing, self discovery. It was the start of something new for her, but a little to much for her feint heart.
ReplyDeleteThe last line of the story "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills" interested me the most because, when Mrs. Mallard believed her husband was dead she did mourn however she viewed it as a new opportunity. She would be able to experience life without having her husband to hold her back from accomplishing anything she wanted to pursue. One could say that she died as a result of being over excited to the new possibilities her life would have taken, and that her husband being alive dismissed all those possibilities.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the story, The Story of an Hour, clearly indicates that the sequence of events mentioned all happened in a matter of an hour. In that hour, Mrs. Mallard went through all different kinds of emotions. She goes from grieving her husband’s death to quickly realizing this new freedom she could now have. Mrs. Mallard’s fantasies are short lived when she finds out that her husband is in fact alive. I think that Louise did actually love her husband despite the way it many have seemed. I do not think that she was happy her husband was dead, but once she pictured her life without him, she realized that there was much to look forward to. I think that once Mrs. Mallard imagined what her life would be like as a free women, she realized how much she has been missing and how much more her life can be, other than just taking care of household chores and being a wife. Although I do not know the reason why Mrs. Mallard died, when I read the last line “of joy that kills”, I interpreted it as her dying from too much excitement of being a free women that her weak heart just could not handle.
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing the story numerous times and reading the previous post I've realized that we all can agreed that Mrs. Mallard was living a life that wasn't fit for the kind of spirit she had inside her. To see her grieve over her husband’s death for only a second then experience a sense of joy imagining the freedom she now has just shows how dissatisfied she was with her life. And for her to suddenly just die after learning her husband was actually alive just makes you wonder how bad she really had it?
ReplyDeleteThe first line of the short story "Story Of An Hour" gives the reader great foreshadowing in the very first sentence. "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble" this line gives direct insight to the end of the story. As you read the story it becomes apparent that Mrs. Mallard is confined to a life that she does not desire. With own free will being imposed on she is alive but is not living. When news broke that her husband had apparently died the grief set in however the benefits of his death did also. Once this realization came to light, she for probably the first time, came to life. Even if it were for just a brief period she was alive. However when she found out her husband was alive, all her freedom vanished once again and her new found life along with it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Mrs. Mallard receives the news of her husband’s death, she knew her reaction wasn’t typically how others would expect her to react. Instead of feeling numb, she cries out dramatically and you can tell she hasn’t been able to express herself like that in a long time or maybe even ever. Her husband restricted her and held her back from experiencing life so she grew emotionless because every day was the same for her. Her duty was to cater to her husband so she never had the opportunity to check in with her own emotions. It's only understandable that her feelings of elation of having a newfound independence would overpower her feelings of grief.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lina when she says her death will be a better life for her than actually being alive. Mrs. Mallard lives an unhappy life, being a housewife who does everything to please her husband. She doesn't experience love, a feeling of true happiness that helps cancel out all of the other bad feelings that come with life. Her hour of freedom could have been one of her happiest hours in her life. I believe that the "heart trouble" mentioned in the first sentence of the story is not a physical problem, but an emotional emptiness in her heart.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point- that the joy was a mere figment of her imagination. I believe Mrs. Mallard died of the rush of joy leaving her just as suddenly as it came. She got a glimpse of a life of total freedom, it seemed that her life was just truly beginning. She gained her identity back with the death of her husband, only to have it quickly removed once more. A thought brought up in class that I retained was that Mrs. Mallard's death may not be a literal one. The death may have been the death of her heart, her emotions, or her ability to love.
ReplyDeletei do think, now, that Mr. Mallard's death was just a dream or imagination of Mrs. Mallard, but I think the imagination was something that happened because she was close to her death. Chopin did mention that Mrs. Mallard had a "troubled heart" and i think it was actually physical. She dreamed of what she longed for and her "troubled heart" gave her what she wanted, creating the "dream" showing her a glimpse of what she will be feeling . I believe that her death was a "gift" from heart since she is actually in a better place, finally free from her husband.
ReplyDeleteI think this story shows the importance of happiness. We all have an inner happiness that is meant to be kept to ourselves. Mrs. Mallard let her husband steal away her happiness. Not literally, but in a metaphorical form of sorts. From the beginning she mentions her heart problems and this gives the reader a hint that she is emotionless. When she dreamed that her husband died she felt a sense of freedom but once she realized he was back, Mrs. Mallard's freedom and happiness was taken away from her. This eventually led to her death and which ironically gave her the freedom she was looking for, away from her husband.
ReplyDeleteI think that Mrs.Mallard truly did in fact desire freedom. Even though she lived in this sort of lifestyle for a while, the thought of freedom made her very excited. The second that she realized her husband was not dead, her joy came to a stop. It makes me wonder if in fact she truly was happy being married and living this life. I think she also questions if she really loves her husband because she only seemed upset for a short while. Her husbands return made her backtrack to the life that she apparently wanted freedom from. The thought of going back to her restricted life versus starting fresh with this abundance of freedom scared her to death; literally. Once she had a taste of what it was like to have freedom, even for an hour, she may of not wanted to return back to reality now that her husband was infact not dead.
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