Rio Pearl Marie U. Quitain & Maryani Blaise A.

Ibanez 11-Euclid

September 19, 2017

Critique Paper

The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour is a story made by Kate Chopin on April 19, 1894. The tale
revolves around Mrs. Louise Mallard, a woman afflicted by a heart trouble both literally
and figuratively. The story starts with the supposed death of Brently Mallard, Louises
husband in a train accident. Her sister, Josephine and her husbands friend Richard were
the ones to gently break the sad news to her, as to not aggravate her heart condition. At
first, Louise greatly mourned the loss of her husband and she went to her room alone, not
allowing anyone to follow. After her tears subside, Louise begins to look at all of the
beauty in the outside world and suddenly realizes that she is free. Her marriage was
similar to chain that prevented her from doing her hearts desire. Now with her husband
gone, she could go out into the world and be free, free, free. Josephine, fearing for
Louises health, begs her to come out of the room and she does, evidently happy and
feeling victorious at gaining freedom. However when she goes down the stairs, she is
greeted by her husband opening the door, disheveled but alive and well, and unaware of
the accident that supposedly took his life. Josephine screams, and Richards tries
unsuccessfully to block Louise from seeing him which is the cause of Louises collapse.
Later, the doctors arrive and pronounce that Louise died of a heart disease brought on
by happiness.

The story is a tale showing the difference in freedom between genders. In the story,
men are obviously given more freedom than women, as seen in Louises statement,
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.
There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men
and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature and
her constant mantra of the word free. As a female reader, one can understand Louises
longing for freedom especially in a time when society dictates that men are superior to
women. Despite her love for her husband, Louise can be seen as an independent woman,
as seen in the way she handled her grief in her room alone. She must have found her
marriage a bit stifling and thus found freedom upon the death of her husband. Her
happiness in finding freedom is understandable because due to the death of her husband,
she was now free to do whatever she chose and the patriarchal society had no true hold
over her. The return of her husband at the near end of the story tragically signified the
end of Louises newly found freedom. Ironically, Louise does get the freedom that she
desperately wanted at the expense of her own life. Although the doctors proclaimed that
she died because of heart diseaseof joy that kills, the reader is acutely aware that it
was disappointment, not joy, that caused her death considering how badly Louise wanted
to be free and how cruelly it was taken from her in just a span of an hour. This difference
of freedom between genders leads to a bittersweet ending for the characters and reflects
how bias society can be with the difference in treatment of men and women.