Story of an Hour

Sarah Broge
January 6, 2010
Johann 4
The Story of an Hour

The ways of the 1800’s were not as simple as they are today. You couldn’t get a divorce and women could not be free within themselves. One woman’s journey to freedom finally comes but is taken away from her in about a less than an hour.
The Story of an Hour’s mode line is tragedy. The main character Louise Malard just lost her husband in a train wreck. Only for a few minutes she feels grief. She rises to power when she realizes that she is finally free of his torment and the power over her that he had. She feels free now. Independence is what she gained from his death. But there’s a catch. Her husband is alive. She has to live with him now and her independence and her freedom have been taken away from her as easily as they came. She dies not only from her existing heart problem but she dies because her freedom has died along with her. She can’t get it back unless he dies. But she died instead. Now she is free in another place.
Louise Malard has a hard life. She lives in 1894 and she has no respect because she is a woman. Women were not respected in that time period. She has lost her individuality when she got married to Brently Malard. He supposedly died in a horrible train wreck. She is free of him and she is glad to be away from the torture of the ways of that time. But he’s alive and her happiness is gone as quickly as it came. She dies because the pain of living with him is just too much to bare. She is not a strong woman but she should be respected as all women should be. The times were hard then but that’s what happens when you live in a society run all by men. She is brave and strong but in the end she just falls apart because of the tragic return of her husband in her life.
The way that the author describes the way that Louise thinks is different from what other writers do. Symbolism that is used in this story is kind of like others but the meaning of them if different. The patches of blue sky and the distant song which someone is singing is described on what is happening around her. The sky is clearing up because she is happy again and the distant song is the way that she is feeling. Her heart is singing to her because she is free. Her heart may have a problem with it but it is almost fully healed of the pain that she had received when her husband was alive.
Women in the 1800’s were not as free and open as they are today. Over the years they have progressed in achieving the goals of independence. But sometimes their independence is taken away from them as quickly as it came.