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Jill_Story

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 2 months ago

Jill's Article

 

The story of an hour

 

 

The first paragraph said “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble,” it showed that Mrs. Mallard was a very weak woman, so she needed other people to take good care of her. Due to her sickness, she was almost trapped in her house. Her husband had never taken her to travel with him. Therefore, she longed for freedom very much. So, in the 4th and the 5th paragraph we were told that she put a roomy chair faced the window, and from the window she could see the open square before her house, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. All of the animals and the view she saw in these paragraphs symbolized the freedom and life she wanted. That’s a very lively and bright life. Although at first a physical exhaustion haunted her body and soul, it’s because that she heard of her husband’s death, she could not accept it immediately. She had used to the life of repression, the life that always had someone to restrict her, and made money for her. Therefore, when she heard of her husband’s death, she felt a bit strengthless. She didn’t know what her life would be in the future. So, from those paragraphs we can know that Mrs. Mallard was a woman of traditional image. She always stayed at home, and waited for her husband. That’s very normal for the woman at that time. However, in fact, Mrs. Mallard was not that kind of woman that other people viewed her. Deep in her mind, she longed for freedom. She always stayed in her room, watched the sky, and expected the freedom of her body and soul. Also, this kind of repression had eroded her beauty and youth. Actually, she was young, with a fair, calm face. However, now in her eyes we just could see dull stare, and her face had lines which was not supposed to appear in that kind of young skin. Because of repression, she’s just like a faded flower.

 

At the end of the story, the doctors said that Mrs. Mallard had died of heart disease—of joy that kills. They thought Mrs. Mallard saw that her husband was back and stood just in front of her, she was so happy that her heart could not bear the stimulation, so she died. Actually, to some extent, the doctors were right. Because Mrs. Mallard gave everyone a traditional and weak impression of women, they all thought when she lost her dependence, she would be very sad. Therefore, when she saw that her dependence was back, the extent of her happiness was over what her weak heart could bear. So, no doubt they thought she was dead of joy. However, all of them didn’t know that Mrs. Mallard wanted to free herself so much, she knew nothing was more important than self-assertion. She wanted to do everything she liked. She wanted to claim her right, and sought for her freedom. Therefore, when she saw that her husband was still alive, her dream of happiness and freedom was broken, and she knew that she could not be free in the near future. The sudden sad feeling captured her weak heart, so she died—of sorrow that killed. This was the most ironic paragraph in the story. The fact of her death was the other way round. Besides, from the first paragraph we learned that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble. In fact, the heart trouble here was not just heart trouble that easy; it also stood for the unhappiness of her. The repression made her unhappy. Therefore, in the end of the story, I thought that she was killed by heart disease, which also symbolized that she was killed by repression and unhappiness.

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