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Love and Marriage
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“The Story of an Hour” Quotes
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.
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Louise has just been told that her husband, Brently Mallard, died in a train accident. The “wild abandonment” she displays challenges her weak heart and defies the limitations and expectations that her body and social context have placedupon her. Indeed, if other nineteenth-century women would respond to similar news with passive denial rather than with the passion Louise shows, then Louise is, perhaps, different from the average woman of her day. She seems to be somebody who, rather than refusing to accept tragedy, is willing to confront difficulty and hardship, even if this means straying from the societal norm and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. T
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.
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Having mostly stopped crying, Louise retreats to the isolation of her locked bedroom and sinks into a chair placed by the open window. What she sees beyond the window frame takes on symbolic meaning. The treetops full of “new spring life” represent new beginnings and possibilities. Though she hasn’t yet realized it, the spring-like qualities of the outdoors endear themselves to her, as evidenced by the fact that the smell of rain in the air is described as “delicious.” Having returned from their winter travels, the birds symbolize a freedom and a resurgence of life, and it is important to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor a
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.
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In this moment, Louise looks out the window, her gaze settles on the sky, and the nature of her looking out the window begins to change. Her “glance” is initially not one of deep thought or introspection, but rather “a suspension of intelligent thought.”This “suspension” of thought is a response to a feeling that Louise fears but knows is coming, and her reaction seems to be an attempt to comport herself in the way that society would expect a new widow to behave; if she is to meet nineteenth-century society’s expectations, she must repress the joyful feeling of freedom that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Ve
There would be no one to live for her 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.
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After Louise allows herself to rather unconventionally embrace the freedom of widowhood, she considers the institution of marriage and how she now exists outside of its oppressive dictates. Interestingly enough, she sees marriage as a cruelty enacted not just on wives by their husbands but also on husbands by their wives. This “powerful will” is not specific to men; it is the direct result of the imposition of one person upon another, an occurrence inevitably and unavoidably brought about by the institution of marriage. Through this logic, it can be understood that “The Story of an Hour” champions independence above Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam co
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!
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On the heels of admitting to herself that she sometimes loved Brently (and sometimes did not), Louise comes to the conclusion that the point is irrelevant. By calling love “the unsolved mystery,” Chopin frames marriage as a somewhat abstract concept, in contrast to the more tangible and clear concept of “self-assertion” and independence. Love, it seems, pales in comparison to freedom and self-empowerment, which is readily available if only an individual acknowledges it. It is noteworthy that Louise recognizes her “possession of self-assertion” as “the strongest impulse of her being,” since the word “strongest” contradicts the previously established idea that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas
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.
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Finally acquiescing to her sister’s plea that she come out of the locked bedroomso that she won’t make herself ill, Louise confidently stands and leaves the room—her victorious demeanor seems to defy the very premise of her needing to leave the room to avoid illness. Thatthe word “importunities” carries with it connotations of annoyance and intrusion underscores the sense that Josephine’s assumption of Louise’s weakness is at odds with reality;Chopin is revealing her allegiance to Louise and her fondness for the character’s newfound feminine confidence. However,Louise is once again portrayed as physically excited to the point of possible agitation, as Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Mo
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