LITERARY ANALYSIS – KURBAN ARUJAN THE STORY OF AN HOUR The short story that is going to be analyzed is called “The story of an hour”, published in 1894, was written by Kate Chopin. Kate Chopin was famous for her short stories, as majority of it were written when she was living in Louisiana and most of her works were based on her personal life in Louisiana, and also her analysis and ideas of Southern America society in 19 th century. Kate also wrote many realistic short stories about marriage and women’s point of view. As an example, her famous short stories include “The Storm”, “The Awakening” and of course, “The Story of an Hour” that we are going to talk about. So, basically, the plot of the story is about Louise Mallard hearing the news of her husband’s death in a railroad crash, Brently Mallard from her sister Josephine and Brently’s friend, Richard. She reacts with immediate grief and heads to her room to be alone and mourn about incident. However, after a while she comes to a realization that she is happy about her husband’s death as she is now “free”. Later, when Louise goes downstairs, she witnesses her husband is alive and has absolutely no idea about the incident. Due to shock at the sight, along with her heart disease, she dies in instant. Doctor’s include that it was “from the joy that kills”. The short story and the exposition begins with the description, of how Mrs. Mallard has a trouble receiving the news, because of her heart disease. Perhaps, it was Josephine and Richard, who thought to deliver the news as gentle as possible, as they had the knowledge of Louise’s condition. We can understand that the story does not follows the chronological events, as we are given a short flashback of how Richard learning about the incident: “It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message”. As Louise hears of her beloved husband’s death, she immediately rushes to her room in tears and thinks of this incident. This is where we see the complication of the story – how Louise is going to live after what happened? The future seems gloomy and very pessimistic to her at the moment. She thinks through it for a while and comes to a very unexpected to the reader conclusion – she is happy and joyful about Brently’s death. The reason is, as she says, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”. In short, she is happy, because nothing holds her back from being “free” in her life ever again. However, the real climax comes, when Louise, accompanied by her sister Josephine, goes downstairs to witness her husband, Brently, alive and well, knowing nothing about the railroad crash at all. Louise, Josephine and Richard react differently, although being in shock altogether, reader learns that Louise died from the heart attack. In the end, we do not have any denouement, because the last sentence we read is doctor’s saying: “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” The story ended right at the climax, leaving the reader and, I think, Brently, in a big confusion. Although, I guess, the reader would rather feel sad, because Louise did not accomplished her biggest desire: to be free. Let’s move on to the perspective or point of view in the story. Despite the fact that the story goes from third-person narrative, the narrator mostly focuses on Louise, as they describe her character, along with her actions and feelings. It might be just my personal thought, although the story is told in third-person narration, sometimes it feels like first person-narration, specifically the moments when we have access to Louise’s feelings and thoughts. And talking about her Louise, let’s talk about characters of this short, but interesting story. There are four characters presented here: the protagonist and also the major character, Louise, the minor characters being Josephine, Richard and finally, Brently. The people in this tale are not shown from all sides, especially the minor ones, as we observe them from only one angle, that is – anxious, in confusion and very upset. So we can put them to flat characters. But even so, Louise is not entirely the flat one, because we see her from different perspectives, when she cries, when she is happy and when she is upset. She is a round character. Moving on to what we can call – the problem of the story. The story is concentrated in Louise’s internal thoughts, how she is upset, but mostly happy that Brently died in that accident. It has an internal conflict, because the main protagonist does not really know how to feel about this situation and is very confused of her happiness. She is torn between her thoughts, when she finally chooses herself. The story does not contain an antagonist, as Louise only fights with herself. Overall, talking about characters again, the author describes them not directly, but we get to know them through their actions and behavior. The author used indirect characterization, so the reader could judge Louise, if she is right to be that way or not; if she can be described as the protagonist, when she is filled with joy as an antagonist; can she have that pity and be described as sensitive, if she seems vicious? It will solely depend on the reader. Louise, from what we can see from the story, is a very sensitive woman, given the fact that she burst into tears right away after hearing the accident. And this also indicates the fact that Josephine and Richard are very concerned, whether they could tell the happened incident delicately, without making Louise’s heart to be troubled. Would I be in her place, I would do the same thing, honestly. We are never told what kind of relationship she had with her husband, Brently, because it is not an everyday reaction of a woman, being happy over her dead husband. It does not mean that they had a bad relationship, as Louise tells him in her thought that she loved him, but sometimes not and mostly not. Personally, I would not change the characters’ behavior, if I were the writer. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS – KURBAN ARUJAN This is a list of stylistic devices I have managed to find. The story has much more of them, but unfortunately, I have too little knowledge for recognizing all of them. Epithet Broken sentences Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes Simile She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams. and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. Personification Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air. Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. Hypophora What was it? She did not know; Repetition She said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" Repetition (Anaphora) There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. Repetition (Diacope) "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering. Aposiopesis Open the door--you will make yourself ill. Coming to the very end to the analysis, let’s speak about the setting of this story. We, as a reader, are not given specific information on where the story is happening and even the railroad crash does not tell anything, as author never tells what kind of railroad it was. So, it leaves only the house that the very story happens. But we have a bit of information about the outside of Louise’s house, as if showing her the new life that she is going to face: “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves”. And even then, the author is mostly focused on characters. At least, we do know that this happened around the exact time, as when Kate Chopin was living: the telegraph is the evidence of it. The atmosphere or the tone of this tale changes throughout the story: at first, it is very depressing, everyone is upset and unhappy, but later on it becomes a bit cheerful, full of inspiration and excitement. But the end cuts it very suddenly, when we learn that Louise dies from a heart attack. Concluding with the message and theme, we see that Kate Chopin, supposedly, was referring the women of her time; that many freedoms that they desired were denied to them because of the repressive nature of marriage and, more broadly, society. The themes are very similar to the message, where we have the forbidden joy of independence and the inherent oppressiveness of marriage. In the end, I liked the story, although I was really surprised at Louise’s sudden change of attitude. I did not expect her to be joyful about this whole situation. Maybe the reason might be unhappy marriage, where neither of them had affection to each other. If I were Louise, for example, I would not really cry so fast, but would be in shock for quite a while. Not every day you lose your husband, after all. But I cannot imagine myself being happy of it, nor being too upset, given the fact that I did not really love them. Maybe, the indifference and a little bit of loneliness are what I would feel. Coming to the conclusion I do like the story, however, I must admit, I quite disliked the end of it, when Louise suddenly dies. If I were a writer, I wouldn’t end her fate so tragically and short after just giving her the reason to be happy. But on the other hand, it is the best for her to die rather than shatter her happiness and fill her life with despair ever again. After all, she did have only one hour of happiness in her life.
