chopin
...“The Story of an Hour”. In the short story Chopin deals with the death of her husband as well as the mixed emotions that follow. In the story Kate Chopin is portrayed as Mrs.Mallard, who receives news of her husbands death and immediately without denial is struck by grief. Even though she admits to only loving her husband half the time, she is filled with sorrow from the tragedy. As her emotions were starting to calm, Chopin describes Mrs.Mallard as being overwhelmed with a feeling that she couldn’t comprehend. She would soon realize that the feeling she felt was freedom. Freedom from any restrictions that other Victorian women had to endure. It was if she had just taken the “very elixir of life” (Chopin). Filled with such new life Mrs.Mallard actually had a heart attack said to be cause by “joy that kills”(Chopin). Although Kate Chopin did not die in her real life experience “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates just how powerful the feeling of freedom is (Chopin). There was another connection between Kate Chopin’s life and “The Story of an Hour” it was the train wreck that took her fathers life. Chopin lost her father at a young age. Thomas O’Flaherty was one of the founders of the Pacific Railroad. He died after the bridge above the Gasconade river collapsed. When Chopin’s father died she was left to be raised by her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs.Mallard had suffered the loss of her father as did Chopin. Both Mrs.Mallard and Kate Chopin lost their fathers in train wrecks. Chopin was at boarding school when she received news of her fathers death. The death of her father “liberated” (Toth) her to return home where she would be raised by her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Because she returned home it is said that “The Story of an Hour” was about Kate Chopins liberation (Kate Chopin). The third connection between Kate Chopin’s life and “The Story of an Hour” was the return of a husband and the feeling of “the joy that kills” (Chopin). Not only was the short story about Chopins personal experiences but it was also about the women in her family and what they had gone through. In this Particular section of the story Chopin uses one of her mothers past experiences. Kate Chopins mother, Eliza, went through the same situation that she further describes in “The Story of an Hour” .In the stor...