review on the story of one hour

Review on the Story of an Hour

Nowadays , American women in society are quite free .Freedom is not only to perform the generally unenviable social functions hitherto reserved to the male ,but also freedom to exercise the more pleasing privilege of pursuing dreams .However ,American women in 19th century were prisoners of that society ,and their lives revolved around their families their husbands ,their children . W hen Women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, they wanted to stand up and speak out their inner voices .The author of the story of an hour,Kate Chopin ,gives us a description of the series of emotions Mrs. Mallard endures after hearing her husband’s death and reflects the helplessness and depression of women in that time through a unexpected ending .

This story reveals women’s desires to freedom by series detailed mental changes of Mrs. Mallard. At the beginning, as Louise knew her husband’s death ,“ like a sudden storm , her tears broke out . She cried loudly in her sister’s arms.” And later, when she went to her home alone, “ she sat quietly ,but a few tears still fell ,”and “ her eyes show nothing .” From the description s of facial expressions, we could know that Louise feel utterly desolate when hearing the loss of her husband. But it's just a first emotional reaction to the news, without deep comprehension of what had happened and how it would change her life. She comprehended the news only later, and author showed us little by little how she comes to realize it .When the freedom first came to her mind , “ she was waiting for it with fear “ ,or even “she wanted to fight against it .” As for her, the idea of freedom and liberty from marriage never occured to her before, so it frightened her when she picked it up. However , when it was inhaled through the air ,when it runs her blood like oxygen , when she finally came to understand it , “ a sudden feeling of joy excited her .”and “she say her freedom clearly .” From now on ,she would be a free person, touch a completely new life ,and go with her own will. At this time ,this spiritual conception of freedom is gradually deep in her soul ,and “she understood that freedom is stronger than love.” The sentence “After a while she got up and opened the door,” showed us that Louise is full of joy and well-prepared to embrace her new life.

Death is also a important hint of this story .At the beginning of the story, we knew that Louise has a weak heart, which paved the way for the ending of Louise‘s death. The death of Mr. Mallard represented the end of body and mind constraint and the freedom for Louise. For Louise, life seemed to be long and bored before her husband’s death ,and she admitted that she was satisfied with her current life but most of his time not .But now, death ended her marriage ,which brought her relief and freedom. But to Louise’s death , it resulted from the heart disease , as the doctor diagnosed the heart disease from “the joy that kills” .Ridiculously ,everyone thought that Louise ‘s death is because of seeing her husband alive. In fact ,when Louise dreaming about her bright future ,she saw her husband in front of her .Her grand and gorgeous dream was broken ,and she was fallen down from heaven to hell . she died .This unexpected and cruel ending revealed the fact that women tried to fight against the dark world but failed at that time .They didn’t have the freedom that they deserved .They lived life of prisoner without the way out.

One hour is so short compared with a person’s lifetime ,but it can be a long time to the process of relief to death .In this hour ,a women was awaken to pursue her own new life .In this hour , a woman was dead without seeing her bright future .From this character , we can see the women ,at that time, made every efforts to the new life ,to the bright future .and to the freedom of body and mind.