The Story of An Hour

Kate Chopin (14)

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 ing 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 hte 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 the 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 keyhold, 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 the 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.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.

看过 the story of an hour 的同志们 请帮我回答几个问题 是英语的最好 汉语也可以

1.what is the conflict and which type does it belong to?

2.what are the four stages of the story and what the main idea of each stage ? 3. how many characters are there in the story,where are the characteristics of each character.Analyize the characterization methods use in the story? 4.Point out some important settings in the story and analyze the function? 5.What is the point of view in the story?why??必有重谢 ！！！！！！

2010-6-25 19:58 最佳答案

这是我论文写的,有一两个不是很准确,我们的要求也是你这个几个,还多一个我也给你放上了,如果你们也是写论文要是有需要可以联系我,我把我的论文发给你 1. The conflict of this story is the feminist and the male first doctrine. And it belong to external conflict. 2. Four stages of this story :

1). Exposition : P(1-3) Character event . A friend came and told Mrs. Mallard her husband had been dead in the railroad disaster.

2). Development : P(4-7) The situation of the wife after she came back to her own room . Her husband dead and she have no idea about her future .

3). Climax : P(8-17)She was waiting for something coming to her and realized it was freedom . She find something more important than her insipid life——Free , Body and soul free .

4).Resolution : P(18-20) the wife died suddenly when she saw her husband again . not because the losing of the new freedom . 3. Character : it’s use of the protagonist .

The characteristics of Mrs. Mallard : Free, free, free!” “Free! Body and soul free!” Her seemingly inappropriate pleasure formed a striking yet discordant contrast with the death of her husband. All these show that she was no other than a beast in the cage and she had repressed herself for so long. But now, she could at last live a kind of life she wanted.

4.Setting : In the nineteenth century, tried to blunt description of Chopin

women and men, children, relationships and sexuality in their own feelings and emotions. This is considered offensive to readers of high society at that time. In 1885 his mother died, she stopped and began to accept the Catholic

practice of Darwinian view of human evolution. In the natural rather than the church to seek God and love of Chopin a lot of descriptive themes. American writers her sad that caused by the environment, art and the limitations prevented a full account of instinct. Social behaviors that challenge the

traditional works, such as \"Story of An Hour\" magazine editors often rejected. However, after half a century, feminist critics have strongly advocated. 5. Point of view : Omniscient point of view .

6. Theme : As a woman in the society at that time Louise burdened all the responsibilities for her husband and her family . but quite different from other women , she looked forward to the freedom eagerly , however , in the end she couldn’t realize her freedom because of power lessness.

The Story of an Hour是一篇非常著名的短篇小说，作者凯特•肖邦叙述了女主人公Mrs. Mallard (Louise)在得知丈夫过世之后的一系列反应。课堂上，老师说已有许多名家对这篇小说做出评论，但不知为何，第一次读这篇小说时就感觉有一种莫名的熟悉。以下是我自己的一些看法：

由小说的第三段“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.”可见小说的女主人公Mrs. Mallard是一位Untraditioanal的现代女性。这主要体现在两个方面：第一，她是一位女性。她的内心也很脆弱，在得知丈夫去世时她会悲痛，也会哭泣。第二，她是一位Untraditioanal的现代女性。她不会歇斯底里的无法接受丈夫去世的事实，相反的，她很平静，很坚强，也很。

她不愿在朋友甚至是妹妹面前伤心。也许她需要的不是别人的安慰而是独自的和解。因而她会回到自己的房间，独自消化。

房间里的布置还是那么的温馨、和谐。坐在扶椅上，她却感到整个人都垮了。生活似乎已没有了希望。望着窗外，树叶已生新芽，细雨绵绵，人们的生活依旧如故。此时的她是否想起了和丈夫在一起的幸福时光？如果他还活着，不，就算他真的已不在了，他一定希望自己还像以前一样活着，不是吗？透过厚厚的云层她看到了一片蓝天，那一定是丈夫在看着她吧。看着看着，她无意识的把头靠在椅罩上，像个孩子在睡梦中抽泣着。也许她是在梦里和丈夫重逢了吧。

她还年轻，也很漂亮，她的脸部的轮廓中透露着一种自制和力量。此刻，她目光呆滞的看着那一点蓝天,好像在想些什么… …

无论是从丈夫对自己的期望还是从自己的实际情况来看，她都应该尽快走出阴影，但她却感到害怕。那么，她害怕什么呢？也许她是怕自己真的会不再想他吧。是的，她是那么深深的爱着他。正因为这种爱让她不再哭泣,她是怕他知道了要伤心吗?可是,她知道当她看到丈夫的尸体时她会无法控制自己,她会想起他们共同度过的幸福生活，她会叹息以后要独自面对生活,她还会哭泣。但是，现在,她要坚强的张开双手“迎接”新生活的到来，因为他希望自己是这么做的。以后的生活她不将再为任何人而活，她要为自己而活,因为丈夫已经成为她自己的一部分。但她清楚无论这种想法是好还是坏，这种想法本身就是矛盾的，因为她真的要垮了。

“就算她有时爱他吧，但大多时候她并不爱他。那又怎样！”她这样安慰自己。是的，现在她恢复了理智，爱情的谜底就算没有解开那又有什么关系呢？现在，让一切都恢复正常吧！

接着她就开始筹划以后的日子。她于是感到整个人都轻松了好多。

过了一会儿，在妹妹的要求下，她开了门.和妹妹一块下楼。正在这时Mr. Mallard拖着疲惫的身体进了门，我们的Louise，因极度的兴奋，死于心脏病。

有人说这是一篇女权主义作品，文中Louise因能够脱离丈夫的控制而欣喜不已，又因丈夫归来而在失望中死去。我赞成Louise是一位的女性，但我更相信她是深爱着她的丈夫的。因为她是一位的女性，她有思想，有理性，所以她不会歇斯底里，她会从她丈夫的角度来考虑问题；因为她深爱着她的丈夫，所以她能够战胜内心的痛苦，不断的告诉自己要像以前一样生活；因为她对丈夫的爱让她看到丈夫安然无恙时因极度兴奋而死去。总的来说，她的爱是矛盾的，

因为她的爱让自己相信她不爱；她的爱还是痛苦的，因为她注定要在不断的挣扎中生存。从女性的角度来说Louise的fancy就是她爱丈夫最好的证明。From the part of a female, Louise’s fancy is the best truth for her love. 这仅是我个人的一点理解

Classical short story of Kate Chopin! I like it very much! The end is opening: You can say that it is a tradegy of a woman who gets freedom finally, and you can also say that it is a victory of a woman.

Kate Chopin was a forgotten American voice until her literary reputation was resuscitated by critics in the 1950s. Today her novel The Awakening (19) the story of a sensual, determined woman who insists on her independence, is widely read and highly honored, a feminist work which was decidedly ahead of its time. Born Katherine O'FIaherty into an upper-middle-class family in St. Louis, she married Oscar Chopin when she was twenty and moved to her husband's home in Louisiana. In the ten years that she resided in Louisiana she was aware of and receptive to Creole, Cajun, black, and Indian cultures, and when she later came to write fiction, she would incorporate people from these cultures in her work, especially her short stories. When her husband died as a young man, Kate Chopin returned to St. Louis with her six children. Financially secure, she began writing fiction as best she could while rearing her children. She is a good example of an American realist, someone trying to represent life the way it actually is lived, and she acknowledged her debt to the contemporary French naturalists Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant.

Does the psychological ambivalence dramatized in \"The Story of an Hour\" ring true or uncomfortably real when we consider honestly our own feelings?

People read books and stories and watch movies because they can relate and are interested in what they read and watch. Stories give us details, make us hate or love the characters, and built up the story until we get to

the climax of the story. Movies give us more visual elements so we don't have to imagine scenery or any element we can't see. In film we also can see and relate to characters more because we see there facial expressions and

whether we can like or dislike each character. We read stories and watch film to get to this climactic point. This is where a story is considered good or bad. A certain climax is where the film is usually giving \"two thumbs up\" or \"two thumbs down\". Kate Chopin's short story \"The Story of an Hour\" gives us details throughout the story to set up the sudden climax of Louise Mallard's death. In an adaptation of \"The Story of an Hour\" plot structure is a key factor in how a film version would be made from the story.

Kate Chopin's original version of \"The Story of an Hour\" was a great short story because it gave the reader great details that lead up to a great climax. My film adaptation would generally stay faithful but it would

stray away from the general setting of Chopin's version. Instead of a slave owned eighteenth century south, my version of the play would be held in present day in the 9th ward projects of New Orleans, Louisiana. Instead of Brentley Mallard who is Louise Mallard's husband, travels places across the world for his own pleasure, in my version Mr. Mallard would be in the marines and forcefully has to tour the world. He is a very jealous man so he tries to gives his wife, Louise Mallard, the world. He buys Louise all the gifts that she can imagine with all the money he gets from the marines, but he has a bad drinking problem. When he drinks he becomes violent and beats Louise. He also is constantly leaving because of his duties in the marines. Louise Mallard loves him for many different reasons. She loves the way he treats her when he is there, she loves the presents that he constantly buys her, and she loves their excellent sex life. There are also a plethora of things she hates about him. She hates that he is so jealous, she hates the occasional physical and mental abuse that he gives her when he is drunk, but she almost hates and envies that he has been across the world but he has never even taken her on a honeymoon.