Hillary Brewer
Professor Woodard- ENG 102
1/26/13

Kate Chopin’s thesis in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin’s thesis in “The Story of an Hour” was that women in the 1800’s lived in a world of patriarchy and chaos. The 1800’s were a time when women worked at home doing house work and raising children. They had not been given the right to vote or be heard like men had. Chopin wanted to express the struggles of what women went through, through the life of Mrs. Mallard.
Mrs. Mallard was given the news of her husband’s death which took a large toll on her being that she had a heart condition. Chopin included the detail of Mrs. Mallard’s heart disease to ensure that the reader understands why she fell to her death at the end of the story: “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble.” Chopin included that, “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.” This quote was given to us to show that Mrs. Mallard had not wanted anyone to see the emotion she was to express.
Mrs. Mallard was soon to see the new spring life growing upon the tree tops. Chopin uses words like, “delicious” and “new” to explain the spring time outside the windows. Chopin also uses “blue” to express the sky in which is seen through Mrs. Mallard’s eyes. These adjectives would seem alarming to the reader due to what had just happened in the recent paragraphs. Mrs. Mallard should be grieving her husband’s death, but instead notices how beautiful the world truly is. Chopin uses these words to express that Mrs. Mallard is not sad about her husband, but that she is relieved to not be under his ‘ownership’ anymore.
Mrs. Mallard, however, does not like that she feels this way: “’Free, free, free!’ The vacant stare and the look of terror that followed it went from her eyes.” Chopin wants the reader to have sympathy for the main character. She wants whomever reads “The Story of an Hour” to feel for the main character by understanding what it was like to be a woman and wife back in the 1800’s. By this Chopin puts in a sentence that states plain and clear that men and women both believed that they could rule another being, “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.” Another instance in which Chopin shows that being alone and on your own as a woman was a great and pure feeling was, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.” Mrs. Mallard was overwhelmed with joy that she could finally live the life she wanted.
At the end of the story, Chopin has the husband return with no idea what had happened, with that surprise the wife had past of a heart attack. The last sentence, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” Chopin wrote that sentence to express the fact that Mrs. Mallard had died from a joy that killed. Her husband’s life was something that should have been joyful, but to her, it was the end of her life. The joy that was supposed to be there had killed her because she had not found joy in her marriage. She wanted the life of freedom, and she died because the thoughts of how life would be with him were too unbearable to deal with. Chopin’s thesis in “The Story of an Hour” was that women in the 1800’s lived in a world of patriarchy and chaos. She expresses her views on how women felt through the character Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard thought her husband had been killed in a train accident and felt joy and relief. She had not been grieving his death she was looking forward to, and praying for, a long life. However, at the end of the ‘hour’ her husband walked through the door and that ‘joy’ overwhelmed her and she had died.