Comment Paper

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Reader-Response Criticism

Comment Paper

Literary Analysis

The story begins when Ms. Mallard gets to know the shocking news of her husband’s death. In the beginning, she felt destructed but later she began to become hopeful which turns into a joy and ultimately causes a heart attack. The characters in the story are Louise Mallard, Richards and Josephine Mallard. The settings of the story refer to a small mansion located in England around the year 1894 when Chopin published he story. It is essential to assess the figurative language used in the story. Primarily, imagery, personification, symbolism, simile, metaphor and tone are utilized in the story.

In addition, personification is used as events describing the breath of the rain. A meteorological sense is given to humanize the instance of rain which is an explicit illustration of personification. The most imperative element is the symbolism. It is the manner men treated the female, especially wives in the Victorian era. It is depicted that the protagonist became free and independent after the death of her husband and thus adheres to the notion of widespread gender disparity in that era. Likewise, connotation is also utilized in the short story. In the story, there exist several hints ad indicators which reflect the joy felt by Josephine after the death of her husband. She was distressed when she heard the news but soon shunned those feelings and advanced to embrace joy, freedom and independence ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"GkbOYEZ6","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Chopin)","plainCitation":"(Chopin)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":385,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/yvjivw9i/items/LXXKHMCE"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/yvjivw9i/items/LXXKHMCE"],"itemData":{"id":385,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Story of an Hour","page":"2","source":"Zotero","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Chopin","given":"Kate"}]}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Chopin). An ironic tone is pursued in the short story. The author mocked Victorian women lived in the middle and late 19th century which includes living for husband and children. However, the protagonist struggled to embrace the joy and dies of joy in the end.

Reader-Response Criticism

The Story of an Hour is an interesting story which revolves around a woman named Ms. Mallard. After hearing about her husband’s death, she also dies shorty. Several interpretations can be acquired from the story as per the beliefs and views of people. First, it appears the protagonist became depressed after the death of her husband and therefore kept muttering free. The death of the husband made her mentally unstable. Meanwhile, the notions of becoming happy sound irrational as she had just lost her husband and suddenly transitioned from being gloomy to happy. At the end of the story, the husband comes back home and the joy of protagonist perishes which causes her to die. If the story is assessed keeping in view the time of publication, critical insights can be cultivated.

The story was published in the 19th century where the women faced severe suppression and their rights were not granted to them in true letter and spirits. When the husband was alive, Ms. Mallard did not feel the sense of freedom and independence. She perhaps would have felt oppressed as a majority of the women did in that era. The death of her husband struck her as an opportunity to be free and live her dreams as she had thought. It appears to be one of the reason that caused her to have feelings of joy and be independent. As rarely women felt that sense of joy, the story sounds interesting. It is also essential to highlight not many stories in that era raised such issues and events involving women living their life in absence of a man. It is critical as it discusses the aspects of feminism. It will not be wrong to say the story is a feminist interpretation which later causes death to the protagonist. The death caused by joy is significant because it underpins the fear she had after seeing her husband return from death. The freedom and dreams she had saw were all perished after witnessing the return of her husband.

A critical appraisal of the short story reflects the protagonist may have suffered from a mental disease after the death of the husband. If she was not living a happy life with the husband, it should have been mentioned in the story. However, the absence of such instances makes sure that she was not persecuted or suppressed by the husband. Thus, it reflects she was living a normal life with the husband. Once the husband died, she felt sad and appeared normal. However, things sounded irrational the very moment her grief translated into extreme feelings of joy and happiness. The loneliness may have caused her to suffer from such abnormal emotions of deeming herself independent. Meanwhile, the women in that era were irrefutably dependent on the men. Therefore, living without husband may have sounded a blessing to her and the intensity of joy nearly mad her mad.

The madness is reflected in the very last scene at the end of the short story. Ms. Mallard dies after seeing her husband alive standing in front of her. It is an explicit illustration of the fallacious state of mind she possessed as she will continue to live a live as she desires. The short story also highlights the state of women of that era. They loved to live freely but it was challenging as society refrained from accepting such women. The message is critically and ironically embedded in the short story by the writer. A wide range of literary devices are also utilized to make the story sound realistic.

Works Cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. p. 2.