1.What is the internal conflict in "The Story of an Hour"?
The internal conflict in this text is Louise Mallard's. She learns at the beginning of the story that her husband has been killed in a train accident, and immediately after hearing this, she retires, alone, to her room. There, she begins to notice all the signs of "new spring life." She hears the "countless sparrows twittering," smells the "delicious breath of rain," sees the "tops of trees all excited." It is unexpected that she would be so aware of signs of life when she has just learned of this important death. However, Louise begins to reflect on her new freedom, a monstrous joy that held her." We would likely expect a woman who has just learned of her young husband's death to be quite sad, and, instead, she seems to be, well and happy.
However, 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. Thus, she is conflicted between her grief -- it will be relatively short-lived, but she will grieve nonetheless -- and her joy at her new found freedom as a widow, who no longer has to bend her will to suit her husband's. Louise knows that her husband loved her, and she is sad for him, but she relishes the idea of a life that can now be hers alone.
2. What is the "joy that kills" in "The Story of an Hour" by Chopin?
At the end of this story Louise Mallard dies of "heart disease -- the joy that kills," according to her doctors. However, after reading the story, readers can ascertain Chopin's irony: Louise did not die of joy; she died of the terrible shock of seeing her husband alive when she'd believed him to be dead.
When she learned of her husband's death in a train accident, she locked herself in the room, sat on a chair for sometimes and started repeating the word, "'free, free, free,'" again and again. She rejoices that his death would supply to her "a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely." She awaits the independence she would possess as a widow. The narrator describes her feelings as "monstrous joy". it was only yesterday that she had thought that life might be long and boring with her husband."
Therefore, when her husband, Brently Mallard, opens the front door and steps through, just as Louise descends the stars, her husband's friend tries to shield Brently from Louise's sight, but she sees her husband. When she collapses, doctors believe it to be not connected to her apparent "heart trouble” but a joy upon finding Brently to be alive that kills her.
3. Feminist Analysis of “The Story of an Hour”
In the story “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief with the loss of her husband. This shows that the female is an emotional person compared to men. It was natural to know that she would be upset with the death of her husband. Mrs. Mallard has heart problems which can make the reader see her as a weaker person right at the beginning of the story. So, her husband’s death has to be told not directly.
Another way to make Mrs. Mallard appear as a weaker person was when she went to her room alone to continue her grief. After she enters her room she goes to the chair and the story says, “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” This shows us that her strong emotions caused her physical exhaustion. Not only was she emotional, but now the story shows that Mrs. Mallard can’t even handle it physically either.
After she sits down, Mrs. Mallard begins to appear as a stronger woman which is where the feminist theory takes effect. She looks out of the house through the large open window which could also signify the open opportunities available to her now. She begins to see how her marriage made her a weak person. She realizes that she has been living her life through limitations caused from being married. Mrs. Mallard knows that she can begin to live for herself. It shows the feminist theory that it was assumed women were oppressed and shows the patriarchal ideology. She was bending her will and freedom to a white man that held all of the control in the relationship. Marriage, in this story, appears to be the male having complete control over the woman.
Mrs. Mallard goes on to realize how much she really didn’t love her husband. She doesn’t feel the need to have guilt over it since he is already gone. She finally breaks away from the role forced onto her as the perfect wife. I think that the story also shows how Mrs. Mallard develops her own identity. As a reader, we are told that her name is Mrs. Mallard at the beginning. Through her grief of losing her husband she is still Mrs. Mallard to us. This shows that her title is really just the name given to her with her husband’s last name. She has no identity as her own; she is just a woman that belongs to Mr. Mallard. After she realizes how free she is, we begin to see her as an actual person. Her emotions and thoughts aren’t about her dead husband anymore; instead it’s about her living alone without limits. She comes into her own individual person.
“The Story of an Hour” also shows how the thoughts of a woman can change without the limitations. Mrs. Mallard thinks of time differently after the death of her husband. The death of her husband gave her a new look of life in her future. Now that she could live for herself. She desires to have a long time to enjoy it. When she was forced into the role of timid and obedient wife, she didn’t see a point in living. She would have rather died young then to have to obey her husband for the rest of her life. She finally allowed herself to think of her life as living for herself since she was forced to live her life for her husband. Finally, when her husband comes home safely, she realized that she did not get freedom from married life. In the end, this weakness is what everyone thinks killed her.