Documented Literary Analysis

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John Walker

Mrs. Sharon Watts

ENG102 English Composition II

2 May 2018

The Conflict of Marriage

In marriage, everything is not always as happy as it sometimes seems. In Kate Chopin’s

“The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Louise Mallard is in conflict after the reported death of her

husband. She is not satisfied with the relationship she has with him in which he, as her husband

in the 1800s, is able to exercise his complete will over hers. Thus, Mrs. Mallard experiences a

conflict within herself over her unusual reaction to the death of her loved one. Mrs. Mallard, who

has a weak heart, experiences a range of emotions caused by events that only fate could have

caused to happen as they do. Mrs. Mallard is a character who is in conflict with her husband and

society, herself, and fate throughout the events of the story.

First, Mrs. Mallard is struggling in her relationship with her husband, Brently Mallard,

because of society’s view of roles in a marriage. Chopin writes of Mrs. Mallard’s feelings for her

husband, “And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not” (296). Mrs. Mallard is in

conflict with Mr. Mallard because of the way the society of the time period allows the husband to

exercise dominance over the wife in the guise of love. Berkove states, “It is obvious that there is

quite a discrepancy between the way Louise and Brently Mallard feel about each other, but all

the mystery of the difference is on Louise's side. Whatever her original reason had been for

marrying Brently, it is clear now that feeling the way she does about him she would be better off

not being married” (154). Chopin further reveals Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts about life without her

husband when the author writes, “There would be powerful will bending hers in that blind

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persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a

fellow creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she

looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination” (296). Louise no longer wishes to have a

relationship with and is downtrodden by the thought of a future life with Brently.

Furthermore, Mrs. Mallard is in conflict with herself over her reaction to her husband’s

death. Chopin describes Louise Mallard as not being like a normal woman who receives the

news of her husband’s tragic, unexpected death. The author writes, “She did not hear the story

as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She

wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment in her sister’s arms” (Chopin 296). Papke states,

“Her response is atypical, however, and that is the subject of the story: what Louise thinks and

feels as she finds herself thrust into solitude and self-contemplation for the first time” (Koloski

133). Mrs. Mallard continues not to process the death of her husband with the normal

response. When she is in her room alone and the new feeling approaches her, she longs to be

able to suppress the unusual response. Berkove argues, “Louise also recognizes self-assertion "as

the strongest impulse of her being. This is a peculiar value for a married person and is indeed

incompatible with marriage, where an emphasis upon shared goals and mutual commitment is

the opposite of self-assertion” (153). When she goes to her room alone and is trying to fight back

the feeling coming to her, she is conflicted because she knows the joy of her newfound freedom

is not what she should be experiencing.

Probably the most forceful conflict present in the story is Mrs. Mallard’s conflict with

fate. To begin, it is certainly fate that causes the family friend, Richards, to be present in the

telegram office to receive the news of the husband’s death “with Brently Mallard’s name leading

the list of killed” (Chopin 296) and to be ready to deliver that news to Mrs. Mallard in her

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weakened state. Moreover, it is fate that allows Mrs. Mallard, with her weak heart, to become so

joyful about life that she goes down the stairs feeling like a goddess who can never die. It is fate

again that allows Brently Mallard to come through the door alive. Cunningham writes:

Chopin pays a great deal of attention to two areas of Louise's experience: the

strain placed upon her physical system by the various shocks--the surprise of her

husband's death, the grief that this news brings, the realization that her life is now

utterly changed, and the understanding that this change is quite possibly for the

better--that sweep over her, and the strain upon her spiritual outlook as she

struggles to understand the apparent freedom opened to her. (50)

All of the conflict present in Chopin’s short story seems to be resolved, as it is so often in

literature, with the protagonist’s death. The irony that Mrs. Mallard dies surprising death at the

end. Mrs. Mallard, of course, is no longer in conflict with her husband and society, herself, or

fate. In fact, it is fate who has been merciful and makes Mrs. Mallard ultimately “Free! Body

and soul free!” (Chopin 296) through her death.

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Works Cited

Berkove, Lawrence I. "Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour'." Twentieth-

Century Literary Criticism, edited by Janet Witalec, vol. 127, Gale, 2002. Literature

Resource Center,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1420056308/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=fee3dd8f

. Accessed 15 Apr. 2018. Originally published in American Literary Realism, vol. 32, no.

2, Winter 2000, pp. 152-158.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The World's Best Short Stories: Anthology & Criticism,

vol. 3: Famous Stories, Roth Publishing, 1990, p. 296. The World's Best Series.

LitFinder,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/LTF0000119071WK/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=a1

94aafa. Accessed 15 Apr. 2018.

Cunningham, Mark. "The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate

Chopin's 'Story of an Hour.'." Short Story Criticism, edited by Jelena Krstovic, vol. 110,

Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1420082721/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=2a55c9e

8. Accessed 15 Apr. 2018. Originally published in English Language Notes, vol. 42, no.

1, Sept. 2004, pp. 48-55.

Koloski, Bernard. "Mary E. Papke on “the Story of an Hour”." Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short

Fiction, Twayne Publishers, 1996, pp. 132-134. Twayne's Studies in Short Fiction 65.

Twayne's Authors Series,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX1706800036/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=9b754e

5d. Accessed 15 Apr. 2018.