kate chopin the story of the hour

Amber James


PERIOD-2

“THE STORY OF AN HOUR”

In Kate Chopin’s writings she always seems to take unexpected turns. This particular story consists of irony, imagery, and plays with the emotions of the audience. Kate Chopin is a wonderful and talented author and I love the way she keeps the audience on their toes. Whatever is expected to happen never happens. You couldn’t even guess what the ending of the story would be because you would be completely wrong.

When Louise hears the news of her husband’s death Chopin uses imagery to give the audience a clear image of her facial expression. Then when she goes to her room the author tells the audience exactly what Louise does so they can visualize it. She gives details from her body language to the gaze in her eyes. She does this so the audience can feel the emotions that the character has. Everything that goes on in the story plays in your head as if you were watching a movie on the television and the details that she gives makes it so realistic.

Usually when a woman hears about the lost of the love of her life she is depressed and very down. Well at first Louise was sad, she even shed tears, but not for too long. While she was sitting in her room thinking about the tragedy that was at hand she realized that she can now do whatever she wanted to do without having to worry about how it affects anyone else. In a sense she was now free. So she begins to become happy and joy takes over her. Her sister is sitting at the door trying to console her, thinking that she was depressed and might do something crazy, not knowing that Louise was the happiest she’s been in a while. The author makes a point that Louise did truly love her husband but she was so used to sharing everything and being tied down that she forget what freedom and doing only for herself was like.

At first she was staring out the window mourning the death of her husband but now she realizes that a new window has been opened: freedom. Louise was so happy and excited of her newly found freedom. Then all of a sudden everything comes tumbling down. Her husband comes home with not even a scratch on him. Everyone thought that hearing the death of her husband would kill her in addition to her heart disease, but ironically finding out that her husband wasn’t dead was the cause of her death. His unexpected arrival killed her and ruined her joy.