The Story of an Hour is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard who finds out a tragic accident that killed her husband. Evidently Mr. Mallard was not killed; he was far from the scene of the accident and was not involved with the accident. At the end of the story Mrs. Mallard is the one that passes away. She passes away from being so happy thinking that her husbands’ death set her free.
As Mrs. Mallard sobs about the tragic news many thoughts run through her head. At the moment she is sad but all of a sudden she begins to feel a relief and uplift from her husbands death. As I was reading the story many thoughts ran through my head, I thought to myself why does Mrs. Mallard feel so free from her husbands’ death? Did Mr. Mallard abuse her, was he obsessive, did Mrs. Mallard love him anymore or maybe she didn’t find him attractive anymore. In the story Mrs. Mallard expresses her love as an unsolved mystery. An unsolved mystery is a situation that can be solved but it will take a long time or it will never be solved. In Mrs. Mallard situation she felt that trying to fix her love Mr. Mallard could not be help. Mrs. Mallard couldn’t figure out if she really loved him Mr. Mallard
Yes, you're right about her confusion: how do you see this ambivalence, of self-conflict, in the details of the story, and what are the terms of the conflict? Examining this through a close look at the story's details couild be a good journal focus. Don't forget to see my comments on others' blogs (current and previous), and the study sheet posted to Blackboard.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that she was kind of confuse for a moment and might had ask her self if she love him or not. But i believe that as the story went on she realized that it wasn't that she didn't love him,it was that she loved the freedom she know had a little more. I believe that was the reason why she kept saying under her breath "free, free, free!". It was because she could now go on and live a different life one without any commitments.
ReplyDeleteA very well written overview of the story, however I am quite sure the the author never intended to define him as abusive. "She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.". I doubt the hands of an abusive man would be portrayed as tender. It also says he never looked upon her with anything but love. Sounds like he was an alright guy to me...
ReplyDeleteI agree with Matthew, I dont think her husband was abusive. Maybe he wasnt showing her enough love; not fulfilling her life the way she thought it would be after marriage.
ReplyDeleteYes, Matt, Anum, and Aldys all make good points--all of which goes to make Mrs. Mallard's internal conflict that much more intense... well, sometimes a lifetime of experience can be compressed into an hour...
ReplyDeleteWe never will really know the actual story of the husband. Maybe the wife was just a miserable person, or maybe the husband was abusive. Personally, I think it was more about the wife herself just being sick of her life because of herself, not because of him. The author leaves it up to us basically to imagine what could possibly be the scenario, although we'll never really know.
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