Students name

Tutor

Course

Date

“The Story of an Hour”Major reasons as to why Kate Chopin in “The Story of an Hour” not allow Louise to rise at any point and speak her own mind completely and clearly, to anyone else, or even to herself is Louise’s own insecurities, fears and worry. She is always reminded of these fears by the thoughts of what others might think or say to her, if they were to learn of her condition. Also there are a couple other reasons that Kate Chopin relates from Louise’s point-of-view that she can’t speak fully and completely when she tries which includes the fear for someone else’s happiness about something that has happened which could possibly cause their misery. This can also be seen in other situations such as losing any individuality, feeling like you are being watched constantly, not having control over your life anymore and not knowing who you really are. In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin leads Louise to this situation by using her insecurities, fears and worries and other points-of-view about the situation. Each one relates a fear that she has about speaking out about her condition clearly and completely.

Signs of Louise having fears and insecurities are clear from the start when she goes through a bit of a shock after hearing that Mr. Mallard had just died which is probably why it took so little time for this news to actually reach her ears. She goes on to say, ” It was all true then…she could not deny it; but she must not believe it yet.”(Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”, pg.1) This is probably why she was so upset about what was said to her about Mr. Mallard’s death. She couldn’t deny that he had passed, but she didn’t want to believe it yet and probably still doesn’t even now. Louise spends most of the short story in a sort of trance as if she can’t comprehend what has happened from her thoughts because she doesn’t have all the facts that fit together into one coherent thought. “And so with a dazed feeling, and yet a feeling of relief, she continued to put on her dress.”(Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”, pg.

This is the very heart of the oppression that she experiences, an oppression so complete as to deny the victim a full sense of her own predicament. The title of the story “The Story of an Hour” relates to the fact that she has just heard the news of Mr. Mallard’s death and is shocked at first but once she understands what this means she reacts differently than what others might expect her to react. This short story takes place in probably about a one-hour period but it feels like more because she has so much time to think about what she has just learned that it seems like a longer time because of all the things going on in her head (Berkove, 154). The time in which this short story takes place represents that Louise is trapped in her own mind and can’t get out from all these thoughts going on in here head.

Various moments where Louise seems on the verge of that kind of recognition or utterance are cut off or overridden by the narrator, through what seems like her own internal dialogue. Louise’s own doubts and insecurities are used by the narrator to keep Louise from having a fully realized, independent action of her own.

In other situations like not being able to speak out about one’s feelings or thoughts that relate to something that has happened is because you are worried about how others might think or feel about it especially if it happens to be about someone else. The first time this happens in “The Story of an Hour” is when she learns of Mr. Mallard’s death and she says, “…it became natural for her to think of her husband, only a short time dead…

Works cited

Berkove, Lawrence I. “Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin’s” The Story of an Hour”.” American Literary Realism 32.2 (2000): 152-158.

Chopin, Kate. The story of an hour. Joe Books Ltd, 2018.