An comment on “The story of An Hour”
...dom or liberation. When she tastes the first scent of “new spring life, Louise feels really like drinking in a very “elixir of life”. This kind of sharp transformation of her intellectual experience has been a great irony against her later becoming the very victim of the institution of marriage and failed equal love . The other two important figures in the tale , Josephine and Richards , are in fact foil characters to support the heroine . They may be considered also two good-willed busybodies , pushing the story forward and making the tale plausible . Both of them try to console the pitiable wife and prevent the news from endangering Louise’s life . However, they do not clearly perceive her inner world and ridiculously “predict” her final death . Furthermore , it is worthwhile to mention the contrastive function of Josephine with Louise . They are totally different : while Louise dies on the way her pursuit of individuality , her sister still wanders without any awareness of gender politics . Finally , although Brently , the husband , does turn up towards the end of the story , he might be viewed as an off-stage character . Instead of knowing his personality quite well , the readers just can be convinced about his failure in communicating with his beloved and helping the wife’s values successfully realized in the family life . In that sense , he should be an indispensable figure for this satirical short story . Similarly , the whole story highlights the central theme of the feminist awakening of a woman’s significant identity with individuality , independence , freedom and self-reliance both domestically and socially . Trough Louise’s ironic story of the short hour , the long-time underlined struggle , conflict and especially great pain from female values and voices can be penetrated hard . Those symbolic images , namely “ open window”, “patches of blue sky” , “delicious breath of rain” , and “elixir of life”, all cast light on the ever-increasing repressed , inhibited family life and the unprecedented spiritual liberation. The second theme can be a kind of criticism towards the institution of unequal marriage in which men have tried to gain the advantage of women in both body and soul . As Louise mediates , she sometimes loves her husband while the husband should bear the dead facial expression . But love has been lost somehow in the marriage . The greatness of this story , if any , should count on the a general theme about the implied struggle for “power will” between human beings , not limited to both genders ,which reminds readers of the contrastive images between “open window” and “close door” . Although finally Louise opens the door for Josephine, no true human understanding and communication have been achieved other than the shocking death of the former and piercing cry of the latter . So the third theme may be the study of difficulty of human c...