文學與人生 Dream sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.

The Story of an Hour

.

By Kate Chopin

.

,,,,,,,Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. 
,,,,,,,It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message. 
,,,,,,,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. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her. 
,,,,,,,There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. 
,,,,,,,She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. 
,,,,,,,There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window. 
,,,,,,,She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams. 
,,,,,,,She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought. 
,,,,,,,There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air. 
,,,,,,,Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will—as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. 
,,,,,,,When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. 
,,,,,,,She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. 
,,,,,,,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. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome. 
,,,,,,,There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind 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. 
,,,,,,,And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! 
,,,,,,,"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering. 
,,,,,,,Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg, open the door—you will make yourself ill. What are you doing Louise? For heaven's sake open the door." 
,,,,,,,"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window. 
,,,,,,,Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long. 
,,,,,,,She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom. 
,,,,,,,Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife. 
,,,,,,,But Richards was too late. 
,,,,,,,When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills.

Setting  

The action takes place in a single hour in an American home in the last decade of the 19th Century.   

Characters 

Mrs. Louise Mallard: Young, attractive woman who mourns the reported death of her husband but exults in the freedom she will enjoy in the years to come.     
Brently Mallard: Mrs. Mallard's husband.  
Josephine: Mrs. Mallard's sister.  
Richards: Friend of Brently Mallard.  
Doctors: Physicians who arrive too late to save Mrs. Mallard.    

Type of Work and Publication Information 

"The Story of an Hour" is a short story that observes the unities of time, place, and plot–that is, the action takes place in (1) less than a day (2) in a single location (3) as part of a single story line with no subplots. The story was first published in Vogue magazine in 1894.  

Theme 

Repression of women in a male-dominated society. Society in late-19th Century expected women to keep house, cook, bear and rear children–but little more. Despite efforts of women’s-rights activists such as Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, women still had not received the right to vote in national elections by the century’s end. Moreover, employers generally discriminated against women by hiring them for menial jobs only and paying them less than men for the same work.  The Story of an Hour hints that Mrs. Mallard’s husband–perhaps a typical husband of his day–dominated his wife. 

Symbolism 

Examples of symbols in the story are the following: 

Springtime (Paragraph 5): The new, exciting life awaiting Mrs. Mallard 
Patches of Blue Sky (Paragraph 6): Emergence of her new life 

Figures of Speech 

Examples of figures of speech are the following: 
Revealed in half-concealing (Paragraph 2): Paradox 
Storm of grief (Paragraph 3): Metaphor  
Physical exhaustion that haunted her body (Paragraph 4): Metaphor/Personification 
Breath of rain (Paragraph 5): Metaphor  
Song which someone was singing (Paragraph 5): Alliteration 
Clouds that had met (Paragraph 6): Metaphor/Personification 
The sounds, the scents (Paragraph 9): Alliteration 
Thing that was approaching to possess her (Paragraph 10): Metaphor/Personification 
Monstrous joy (Paragraph 12): Oxymoron 
She carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory (Paragraph 20): Simile 
Joy that kills (Paragraph 23): Paradox. The phrase is also ironic, since the doctors mistakenly believe that Mrs. Mallard was happy to see her husband alive. 

 

 

Paradox v.s. Oxymoron

Paradox 比較像是一種情況,陳述
然後在此項陳述或情況中表達出相反或矛盾或甚至荒謬的感覺
但這種情況可能是真實或假的
例如你某位鍾愛的親人過逝,然後你很悲傷
但在悲傷感覺中你又覺得有種欣悅的感覺一切都結束了
這樣子你可以說是一種paradoxical feeling
Oxymoron是用兩個相反的字來形容一件事情,
然後有一點在玩文字上的遊戲,用意在文字上突顯出特別的效果
例如:
a poor millionair
a smart retard

 

What's in a Name? 

Not until Paragraph 16 does the reader learn the protagonist’s first name, Louise. Why the author delayed revealing her given name is open to speculation. I believe the author did so to suggest that the young woman lacked individuality and identity until her husband’s reported death liberated her. Before that time, she was merely Mrs. Brently Mallard, an appendage grafted onto her husband’s identity. While undergoing her personal renaissance alone in her room, she regains her own identity. It is at this time that her sister, Josephine, calls out, “Louise, open the door!” However, there is irony in Mrs. Mallard’s first name: Louise is the feminine form of the masculine Louis. So even when Mrs. Mallard takes back her identity, it is in part a male identity. (Michael J. Cummings, Cummings Study Guides)  

Foreshadowing 

The opening sentence of the story foreshadows the ending–or at least hints that Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition will affect the outcome of the story. Morever, this sentence also makes the ending believable. Without an early reference to her heart ailment, the ending would seem implausible and contrived.  

Mrs. Mallard's Heart Condition 

As the story unfolds, the reader discovers that Mrs. Mallard’s heart ailment may have resulted–in part, at least–from her reaction to her inferior status in a male-dominated culture and to a less-than-ideal marriage. For example, in Paragraph 8, Chopin says the young woman’s face “bespoke repression”; in Paragraph 14, the author tells us that a “powerful will” was “bending" Mrs. Mallard. Finally, in Paragraph 15, Chopin notes: “Often she had not” loved her husband.   

Study Questions and Essay Topics 

1. The story says Mrs. Mallard “had loved him [her husband]–sometimes. Often she did not.” If she was “often” not in love with him, why did she marry him?
2. What was life like for Mrs. Mallard in the home of Brently Mallard?
3. In the report of the train accident, Brently Mallard's name was at the top of the list of fatalities (Paragraph 2). Does this information mean that Mallard was an important citizen in his community? Does it also suggest that perhaps Louise married him, in part, because of his standing in the community? 
4. Do you believe Brently Mallard mistreated his wife? In answering this question, keep in mind the following: (1) In Paragraph 13, Louise Mallard recalls that Brently was kind and that "he had never looked save with love upon her." (2) However, Paragraph 8 had previously informed the reader that Mrs. Mallard's face "bespoke repression," and Paragraph 14 says Brently had a "powerful will bending her." 
5. How much of Mrs. Mallard's apparent unhappiness in her marriage was her own fault?
6. After Mrs. Mallard receives news that her husband died in a train accident, she goes to “her room.” Do these two words mean that she slept separately from her husband? Does the fact that no children are named in the story indeed indicate that she and her husband slept apart?
7. Write an essay about what society expected of the typical 19th Century American woman. 
8. Research the life of Kate Chopin (1851-1904). Then decide whether the death of her husband in 1882 influenced her when she wrote “The Story of an Hour,” published in 1894 in Vogue magazine.
9. Did author Chopin herself face problems similar to those of Mrs. Mallard?
10. Write an essay comparing and contrasting Mrs. Mallard and Nora Helmer in A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen. 

「一小時的故事」 The Story of an Hour 故事賞析

   Kate Chopin(1851--1904)的短篇故事「一小時的故事」The Story of an Hour 敘述Mrs. Mallard在一個小時中歷經兩次震撼，從接獲丈夫因火車事故喪生的消息，到丈夫突然返家，她一驚心臟病發猝死。在簡單的故事情節之下，卻隱含豐富的象徵，及嚴肅的主題。

   Mrs. Mallard心臟不好，唯恐她無法承受打擊，妹妹Josephine及友人Richards小心謹慎地告知她這個壞消息；聽到惡耗，她立刻嚎啕大哭不能自已，激動的情緒平息後，她獨自登上二樓。

   Mrs. Mallard上了樓，在移轉的空間和孤獨的情境裡經驗了她個人全新的認知。她先是身心俱疲地沉入舒服的扶手椅中，這時窗外一小方塊事物吸引住她，枝頭萌發新葉進入眼界、小販的叫賣和遠方微弱的歌傳入耳中。

   年輕漂亮的Mrs. Mallard眼中無神，腦中一片空洞。但是她漸漸覺察出從天際有股無以名狀的力量，逼近俘虜她，她卻束手無策。當她不再抵抗時，口中傾吐出一個字：“Free, free, free!”隨之而來的是一陣巨大的喜悅。

   丈夫的死訊帶來悲痛但往後卻能過自由的日子；丈夫愛她，但是婚姻生活裡，丈夫將他個人的意志強加在她身上，卻讓她有為別人而活的感覺。從今以後，她開始為自己而活。 Mrs. Mallard的思緒飛到來年的春天夏天，她祈禱能活的長久；令她深覺諷刺的是，就在昨天當她想到日子還那麼長的時，還不禁顫抖呢。

   Josephine在門外苦苦哀求，她卻充耳不聞。“Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door – you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.” “Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.窗外的事物像仙丹靈藥，治癒了她所有的病。終於，她開門了，眼中泛著勝利的熱，踩著勝利女神般的腳步走下樓。然而，幾乎同一時間，大門被打開，Mr. Brently Mallard進門，只聽Josephine一聲尖叫，在樓梯下面等候的Richards急忙擋住視線。但一切都太遲了。  

   結局又短又快。Physicians later determine that Mrs. Mallard’s death resulted from “joy that kills.” Her weak heart could not withstand the happy shock of seeing her husband alive and whole.  醫生們都診斷Mrs. Mallard死於心臟病，認為她因過度喜悅而死。

只有領會她內心起伏轉折的讀者才能明白她真正的死因，並非狂喜，而是新生的自由又落空的絕望；並非心臟生病，而是對真愛的覺醒。Kate Chopin寫於1894的短篇故事，仍能帶給現今的讀者許多省思。

 Author

Kate Chopin was born Catherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis on February 8, 1850. Her mother, Eliza Faris, came from an old French family that lived outside of St. Louis. Her father, Thomas, was a highly successful Irish-born businessman; he died when Kate was five years old. Chopin grew up in a household dominated by women: her mother, great-grandmother, and the female slaves her mother owned, who took care of the children. Young Chopin spent a lot of time in the attic reading such masters as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and the Brontës. Her great-grandmother taught her to speak French and play piano, and related stories about her great-great-grandmother, a woman who ran her own business, was separated from her husband, and had children while unmarried. This woman great example for young Katie of a woman's strength, potential for independence, and the real workings of life's passions.

 Not many writers during the mid to late 19th century were bold enough to address subjects that Kate willingly took on. Although David Chopin, Kate's grandson, claims "Kate was neither a feminist nor a suffragist, she said so. She was nonetheless a woman who took women extremely seriously. She never doubted women's ability to be strong".Despite this fact, there is no question regarding where Kate's sympathies lay. It lay with the individual in the context of his and her personal life and society.