Book Report on The Story of an Hour The Story of an Hour is a short novel written by Kate Chopin and selected from Cassill, R. V. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (4th Edition). The story mainly tells us about physical changes and emotions of Mrs.
Mallard after being informed about the death of her husband. Chopin (1851—1904) was born in St. Louis. She married her husband at twenty in New Orleans. But it was after the death of her husband that she started her literary career. In her noverl she often repeated the same theme: the problems facing women in a male dominated society.
First I would like to tell you the breif introduction about the story. Because Mrs. Mallard's was afflicted with heart trouble, everyone basically tiptoes around her and treats her carefully. When her sister and family friend discover Mr. Mallard got killed in an accident, they take time to tell Mrs.
Mallard gently that her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard cries her eyes out, then goes to her room alone and locks the door. Inside, she seems terrified of some feelings that are coming to her and finally realizes that it is her freedom.Even though she and her husband loved each other, and she's truly saddened by his death, she feels liberated and free for the first time.
She looks forward to the days ahead instead of dreading them. While Mrs. Mallard is having this epiphany, her sister keeps trying to check on her. Finally, Mrs.
Mallard comes out of her room, newly resolved, and she and her sister start to go downstairs. Suddenly, Mr. Mallard comes in. When Mrs.
Mallard sees him, she has a tremendous shock and dies. Ms. Mallard is the main character of the story, she lives a happy life in other people’s eyes.Her husband is gentle and considerate, so they are considered to be a perfect couple. However, in her deep inside heart she feels much confined.
No one know her spiritual demands. The death of Mrs. Mallard is not only an individual tragedy but also a true reflection of the common fate of women in the 19th century. Because society in 19th century expected women to keep house, cook, care for parents, bear and rear children and encouraged them to follow the rules and principles what men wanted them to do.
And no one would care about their real demands.Mrs. Mallard was one of the victims. The theme of the story is freedom and equality between men and women. At first, freedom seems like a terrible thing to Mrs.
Mallard, who is restricted in lots of ways: through her marriage, by her bad heart condetion. On the other hand, however, she has considerable freedoms as an upper-class, married lady. She can tell freedom is coming for her, and she dreads it. Once it arrives, it fills her with an overwhelming joy. Yet, she experiences this mental and emotional freedom while being alone in a room.
As soon as she leaves that room, the freedom she had only just barely begun to understand is taken away from her. Mrs. Mallard finds freedom in the false belief that her husband is dead, and dies when she faces the truth. By dying at the end of the story, Mrs.
Mallard fulfills her earlier fantasies of freeing herself from her boring, yet pleasant married life. Then I would like to share my own opinions with you. May be annoy the girls, but I do not mean to offend them. To be honest, I did not know this story before writing this paper, and after reading this short story, I feel uncomfortable.
We all know that the author has strong feminine consciousness, and I think it is not a plesent story for a man to read. In the story, Mrs. Mallard seems to be a victim of the male dominated society and deserves our sympathy. But I just want to say hehe to describe my present feelings.
In 19th century the American society expected women to keep house, cook, care for parents, bear and rear children and encouraged them to follow the rules and principles what men wanted them to do. At that time it was the fate of most of the women.And then here came the movement for women's rights, women began to free themselves from every aspects. For example, they did not listen to their husband’s words and be loyal to them, they did not do the housework and bring up the children with patience, they called for freedom and equality between men and women,they wanted to play the important roles and wanted to create a gender free society. Many women including the author appeal for the equality between men and women, and they naively think one day they can achieve the goal.
In my opinion, the equality between men and women is impossible, just like the communist society will never come true. We all know that there are differences between men and women, both physiologically and psychologically. The social division of labor requires men and women play different roles. So it is impossible to make men and women equal.
In the end, I want to appeal to those feminist be realistic, we live in a male governed society, the society is of the males, by the males, for the males.
