The Story of an Hour
| "The Story of an Hour" | |
|---|---|
| Original title | "The Dream of an Hour" |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short story |
| Published in | United States |
| Publication type | Magazine |
| Publisher | Vogue |
| Publication date | 1894 |
"The Story of an Hour," is a short story written by Kate Chopin on April 19, 1894. It was originally published in Vogue on December 6, 1894, as "The Dream of an Hour". Later it was reprinted in St. Louis Life on January 5, 1895, as "The Story of an Hour".
The title of the short story refers to the time elapsed between the moments at which the protagonist, Louise Mallard, hears that her husband is dead and when she discovers that he is alive after all. "The Story of an Hour" was controversial by American standards of the 1890s because it features a female protagonist who feels liberated by the news of her husband's death. In Unveiling Kate Chopin, Emily Toth argues that Chopin "had to have her heroine die" in order to make the story publishable". (The "heroine" dies when she sees her husband alive after he was thought to be dead.)
The short story describes the series of emotions Louise Mallard endures after hearing of the death of her husband, Brently, who was thought to have died in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart problems; therefore, her sister and her husband's friend attempt to inform her of the horrific news in a gentle way. Mrs. Mallard immediately mourns the loss of her husband; however, as her grief comes to an end she makes way to her room. Mrs.Mallard locks herself inside; a weird feeling came over her. Confusion followed immediately after. She begins to feel an unexpected sense of exhilaration, yelling, "Free! Body and soul free". She began thinking of all the springs and summers she would enjoy without her husband around. Her sudden rush of exhilaration is what she believes is a benefit of his death. Her sister begged Louise to open the door; she was scared Louise would make herself ill. When she sees her husband enter the house, she suffers a heart attack upon receiving the shock that he has not died, and she is stuck in her marriage after all. The story ends with doctors ironically blaming Mallard's death on the joy she must've felt when seeing her husband alive.
Many times many readers ponder what happened for the wife to be relieved that her husband had passed. It was a correlation to both the time period and the way men perceived woman back in the 1800's. The thought of a woman being able to survive without a man was a distant thought among many civilians back in that time. Women were often stuck at home while the husbands went to work. It was thought of between women at the time that the death of their husbands would bring them "freedom" and therefore Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" resonated with a lot of women at the time, but not men.
Bert Bender offers a biographical reading of the text and argues that writing of the 1890s was influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Her understanding of the meaning of love and courtship, in particular, was altered and became more pessimistic. This attitude finds its expression in "The Story of an Hour" when Mrs. Mallard questions the meaning of love and ultimately rejects it as meaningless.
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