STORY OF AN HOUR
BY: KATE CHOPIN
PRESENTATION BY: JENNA LORD AND TUGCE CEYLAN
WRITER’S BACKGROUND
• Experience with losing husband
• Written in mid-1800’s which shows couples living during Industrial
Revolution
• Husband travels for months at a time and leave the wife at home
OTHER WORKS BY THE WRITER
•Kate Chopin uses a feminist writing style. Connecting it to “The
Awakening” that was published in 1899.
•Portraying women in a less than conventional manner.
•She was around in the times where slavery and women not being
treated equally was a big thing. Late 1800’s was when this occurred.
In1894 Story of an Hour was published.
PRECIS
• Mrs. Mallard sister came with bad news.
• Mrs. Mallards husband is killed in a train accident.
• Mrs. Mallard runs away into her room and comes to the conclusion she
is free. No longer in the control of her husband.
• Her sister thinks she is going to do something to herself in the room so
she tries to help her.
• Someone is opening the front door, Mrs. Mallard goes to check and its
her husband.
• Mrs. Mallard dies from a heart disease.
SETTING
• Late 19th Century
• Home of Louise Mallard
• Independent setting; not really needed to make the story what it is
CHARACTERS
• Louise Mallard is the only major character in the story.
• Suffers from a heart problem
• Feels free from husband’s death
• Dies in the end from disappointment that her husband was still alive
POINT OF VIEW
• Limited Third Person
• Story is not told from the point of view of any of the characters
• Only tells what Louise is thinking
• Outside looking in
• Reliable; giving information that would make a reader wonder what is
going on throughout the story
PLOT STRUCTURE
• Initial Situation- Mrs. Mallard has a weak heart
• Conflict- Mr. Mallard dies and Mrs. Mallard's friends have to break the
news to her gently.
• Climax- Mrs. Mallard declares that she is free.
• Rising Action- Mrs. Mallard sees her husband at the door of their home.
• Falling Action- She dies of a heart attack.
• Conclusion- Doctors say Mrs. Mallard died of joy.
THEME
• Don’t count your chickens before they hatch…
• Don’t think something has happened when you are not really sure of it
yet.
SIGNIFICANT QUOTES
• “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
husband’s death”.
• "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of
joy that kills."
• “Free! Body and soul free!"
IRONY
• The fact that joy kills is ironic because she never knew he was really
alive.
• Dying after being happy
SIN OF COMMISSION
• She thought about how happy she was about her husband’s death.
Considering that she thought were sin, we have to think about why
she thought that way. She wanted to be free, and be independent
when it came to her lifestyle. She didn’t want a husband that would
always tell her what to do like she was property.
MALE VS. FEMALE
•Males had a right over their wives in the late 1800’s, which was when
the story was published. Mallard thought that she was a piece of
property when it came to her marriage.
•She thought that since her husband was gone, she would have a
chance of freedom.
•She was a feminist and believed that women should be equal to men.
REASON VS. EMOTION
•She thought she had a reason to be happy about her husband’s
death, even though emotions may still say that she loved him.
•Loving someone doesn’t overcome the reason to want to be your own
person in the story.