Blog Nine

Just learning about her husband's death, Louise Mallard goes up to her room for some alone time. As she is crying, she looks out at the world through her window. She has a breakdown. After her breakdown, she finds that she is free. I find this odd because I would not think someone should be happy after her husband dies. Someone comes to the door and tries to get her to come out, but Louise just tells her to leave. She then sits in her room and fantasizes about the upcoming years of her life. She is happy to have this new sense of independence. She then goes downstairs when her husband walks through the door. He was unaware that there was a train accident and he was not in it. Louise then died of a heart attack that the doctors say were of happiness (Chopin).

I think that Kate Chopin seems to feel that marriage oppresses people whether they do it out of kindness or not. Kate Chopin hints that marriage plays a negative roll on both the male and the female. I think that the window that Louise looks out when she runs upstairs symbolizes freedom. There is a whole world out there that she now has to her own.

Abby Werlock thinks that the surprise ending symbolizes a tragic defeat (Werlock). The doctors tell the family that it was "Joy that kills" (Werlock). I think that this is ironic.

I liked this story. I think that Emerson and Thoreau's writings that I have read do not really seem comparable to this story. Emerson was married so I think he valued marriage. I do not think that he felt oppressed by marriage by his poems that he wrote about his wife. They were all great things and about how much they loved each other. Emerson and Chopin definitely shared different views on marriage. Chopin seemed to not like it while Emerson seemed to value it.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour" Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. .

Werlock, Abby H. P. "'The Story of an Hour'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CASS782&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 16, 2012).