Blog #9 - "The Story of an Hour"

"The Story of an Hour" is written by a woman named Kate Chopin. In the story a woman believes that her husband has died in a train accident. She cries and mourns in front of people to make them believe that she is sad, but deep down she is happy that she is "free". This was back in the day when women did not have as many rights and were often oppressed. So then, they find out that her husband did not really die. He comes home and she is so shocked that she has a heart attack or something of that sort. When the doctor got there "they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills" (Choplin). I think that this can be compared to Emerson's philosophy of marriage. Emerson was married to a woman named Ellen Tucker. They were happily married but she was sick with tuberculosis. Ellen passed away when she was nineteen, only two years after they were married. "Waldo’s world came apart, literally. He felt that his personal world was cut off from the natural world, as he was cut off from Ellen. He was cut off from himself, “unstrung, debilitated by grief.” (Vetter). As you can see, Emerson never really got over the death of his wife Ellen. You can see a big difference between how Emerson felt and how the Mrs. Mallard reacted. Mrs. Mallard was not very sad because with his death came her freedom, but Emerson was not the same after Ellen, he was not happy. This shows how Emerson probably felt about his marriage in relation to Mrs. Mallards. Emerson obviously loved his wife, and it sounds like she was pretty happy as well during their marriage. Mrs. Mallards marriage does not seem as loving because her husband probably did not give her the kind of freedom that she really wanted, and it seems as though she did not love him near as much as Emerson loved Ellen. This shows a huge difference in their values.



""The Story of an Hour"" Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.


"Marriage | Emerson - Living Legacy." Harvard Square Library. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.