English Composition

English Composition Study Guide

©2018 of 84 Average Response Example: Grief and joy do not normally walk hand-in-hand; however, in Katie Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” the relationship between the two conflicting emotions is clearly defined. The euphoria of Mrs. Mallard’s anticipated freedom from her domineering husband, coupled with the crushing disappointment of learning that it had merely been an illusion, delivered her to death. By examining her emotional, physical, and mental reactions to the supposed death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard’s cause of death will be evident. Using pathos, a literary device employed by the author to evoke an emotional response from the reader, Kate Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard’s initial reaction to her husband’s death as one common to any grieving widow. We learn immediately that her tears are not brought about by the unexpected news of her husband’s death but by the first emotion to cross her heart: freedom. A long-awaited liberation was upon her, and Mrs. Mallard opened her heart to receive it with gladness. “Free, free, free,” she chanted to herself. Still, an unnamed source of fear insisted on edging into her spirit, as if she sensed that her celebration was premature, that her impending livelihood was too good to be true. Mrs. Mallard’s state of mind worked alongside her emotions and physical activities to project her jubilant reaction to both losing her husband and gaining her freedom. With “a suspension of intelligent thought," Mrs. Mallard reflects upon her anticipated reaction to the sight of her husband’s corpse, knowing that the tears will once again flow, but this thought is overshadowed by the fact that her life would belong solely to her, a life that she once hoped would quicken and now hoped would be everlasting. Her thoughts touch on the fact that her love for her husband had been sporadic but that it no longer mattered in the face of freedom. Emotion can also be conveyed through body language and physical actions. Tearfully collapsing in her sister’s arms before racing up the stairs and throwing herself onto a chair facing an open window is a dramatic foreshadowing of opportunity. Mrs. Mallard believes she will finally have the chance to live her own life, free of the constraints of her strong-willed spouse who clearly did not allow her to be her own person. Her heaving bosom, racing pulse, and open arms indicate welcome for the new life awaiting her. “Free! Body and soul free!” Her whispered triumph gave no indication of the love she may or may not have felt for her husband; yet, the sound of a key in the door lock and the sight of Brentley Mallard, alive and well, destroyed the widow who was still wed. By not giving the reader an immediate physical reaction from Mrs. Mallard, Chopin delivers a shocking turn of events with the final sentence of her story: “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” Chopin informs the reader at the very beginning of the story that Mrs. Mallard suffered from an issue with her heart, implying that the illness was physical, but the opposite was true. Mrs. Mallard suffered from a repressed heart, the kind that had been restrained so long that it no longer knew how to be true to itself but was longing to rediscover its passion and individuality. The build-up of such unexpected freedom and opportunity was so emotionally intense that Mrs. Mallard was unable to contain her devastation upon learning that for only a single hour of her life would she ever be free. According to Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard died from “heart disease, of the joy that kills.” Ironically, she died from hope. Achieve Page 67