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，也很独立。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是一位独立的女性，但我更相信她是深爱着她的丈夫的。因为她是一位独立的女性，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 (1899) 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?
NO.2
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.
第二篇：References of The Story of An Hour
1. I guess to make my previous answer more clear, I would say that the conflict is internal because Louise Mallard is dealing with the constraint she feels by her marriage and the second-class status she has as a woman. Brently, her husband, has never really done anything cruel to her except treat her like a woman--which is to say in her era--like she is weak and helpless without him. Her conflict with her husband, then, is not one of an external nature, but rather in her own feelings of frustration and her dread of living under his authority. She wants to be her own person. And just when she thinks that opportunity has arrived, she sees Brently and realizes that she is in this "prison" of marriage again. The pain of that is more than her heart can stand, and she dies.
The protagonist(主角) character Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin's "The Story of An Hour" portrays（描写） a wife's unexpected response to her husband's death. The narrator divulges(揭露) to the reader modest (谦虚的,适度的)but convincing hints of Mrs. Mallards newly discovered freedom. This newly discovered freedom would be short lived for Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard, who suffers from heart disease, was portrayed as an average wife who breaks down into a fit of (一阵发作) distress痛苦 from the fateful重大的, 灾难性的 news of her husband's death. She retreats撤回 to her room to come to grips握紧,紧握 with the tragedy but finds instead something unexpected in herself. The tears and
Mallard is not the tyrant暴君 who holds Louise in this bondage奴役,束缚 but instead it was the institution of marriage itself that entraps使陷入圈套,使受骗 her. The conflict in " The Story of An Hour" was centered on Mrs. The conflict that Louise Mallard feels is not with her husband or herself but that of the cultural institution of marriage. This personal conflict is prent普遍的,盛行的 in most married people but is not normally an over bearing conflict as was encountered遇到,遭遇 within Mrs. The time of her new found freedom was revealed when she begins to whisper "free" over and over to denote that she is no longer under the will of another person. This conflict was so profoundly深刻地 ingrained深深渗入的,根深蒂固的 in Louise that when she discovers that her husband was not dead and she was not free, death was the only escape from the internal conflict of personal freedom. Mallard is a good husband but that she detests憎恶,厌恶 the bondage of being husband and wife and she no longer wants the will of another forced upon her. Mallard's lost personal freedom when she married her husband and became obedient to his stronger will. emotions soon turned to confusion as Mrs. The imagery in the story helps set her characters new found freedom from the trees "aquiver" with new life denoting her new found life to the cloud's shadow representing her married life casting shadows on her happiness.
The conflict is that Mrs Mallard is happy that her husband died because she is finally free from the unhappy life she was living but she should really be saddened by the death of the man she married.
A woman loves her husband and is shocked by his death. Yet she is glad because now she is free. She cannot bear it when he turns up alive.
The most important conflict in this story is appearance versus reality. To all people it would appear that Louise would grieve over Brently since they would assume she was happily married and content in her sub-servant role as a housewife. Louise's sister Josephine exemplifies作为……的范例 such a judgment of how Louise's reaction to the sudden death of her husband Brently. Josephine
misinterprets Louise's behavior, thinking she is hysterical over Brently's death. She pleads, "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door-you will make yourself ill." To Josephine, Louise appears to be
heart-broken, but in reality, Louise is relieved by his death.
Another conflict in this story is the role of the wife versus the role of the husband. For instance, Louise struggled with her feelings about her marriage for years. Louise thinks "what could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion断言,主张,声明 which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being." She admits that she did love Brently, but often she did not. On the other hand, the story suggests that Brently was completely content in the
marriage and assumed that Louise was too. This conflict is reflected in Louise's internal struggle. When she realizes that Brently is alive, she must die. This is the only way she can win the freedom she was struggling for within herself. She dies because he is alive, he is ultimately responsible for her death. In the exposition of ―The Story of an Hour‖ we are introduced to Mrs. Mallard, who is a woman ―Afflicted with a heart trouble‖ (Chopin 15). The conflict arises out of the news of her husband‘s death in a train wreck. Her immediate reaction is unusual. Instead of being paralyzed by the ―inability to accept its significance,‖ (15), Mrs. Mallard ―wept at once, with sudden wild abandonment‖ (15). The conflict begins to develop when she goes to her room alone but instead of continuing to cry, she stares out her window at the beautiful spring day with a glance that ―indicated a suspension of intelligent thought‖ (13). Here the conflict intensifies. ―There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully‖ (15). As she begins to recognize what it is, ―Her bosom rose and fell tumultuously,‖ (15) and she tries to ―beat it back with her will‖ (13). She is unable to stop it from coming, and when she ―abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped from her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over again under her breath: ?free, free, free!‘‖ (15) It is at this point that the plot reaches its greatest intensity – Mrs. Mallard‘s awakening to her own freedom. She sees beyond her grief to ―a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely‖ (16). She would be able to ―live for herself‖ (16) without ―a 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‖ (16). For Mrs. Mallard, love was not as important as ―self-assertion‖ (16). The climax of the story, however, occurs when Mr. Mallard returns unexpectedly, and Mrs. Mallard dies instantly. Here we realize not only the intensity but the depth of her feeling. The resolution has a twist of bitter irony. The doctors attribute her death to ―the joy that kills‖ (16). Brently Mallard, her sister Josephine, nor Mr. Richards will ever know the truth.
1. I guess to make my previous answer more clear, I would say that the conflict is internal because Louise Mallard is dealing with the constraint she feels by her marriage and the second-class status she has as a woman. Brently, her husband, has never really done anything cruel to her except treat her like a woman--which is to say in her era--like she is weak and helpless without him. Her conflict with her husband, then, is not one of an external nature, but rather in her own feelings of frustration and her dread of living under his authority. She
wants to be her own person. And just when she thinks that opportunity has arrived, she sees Brently and realizes that she is in this "prison" of marriage again. The pain of that is more than her heart can stand, and she dies.
The protagonist(主角) character Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin's "The Story of An Hour" portrays（描写） a wife's unexpected response to her husband's death. The narrator divulges(揭露) to the reader modest (谦虚的,适度的)but convincing hints of Mrs. Mallards newly discovered freedom. This newly discovered freedom would be short lived for Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard, who suffers from heart disease, was portrayed as an average wife who breaks down into a fit of (一阵发作) distress痛苦 from the fateful重大的, 灾难性的 news of her husband's death. She retreats撤回 to her room to come to grips握紧,紧握 with the tragedy but finds instead something unexpected in herself. The tears and
Mallard is not the tyrant暴君 who holds Louise in this bondage奴役,束缚 but instead it was the institution of marriage itself that entraps使陷入圈套,使受骗 her. The conflict in " The Story of An Hour" was centered on Mrs. The conflict that Louise Mallard feels is not with her husband or herself but that of the cultural institution of marriage. This personal conflict is prent普遍的,盛行的 in most married people but is not normally an over bearing conflict as was encountered遇到,遭遇 within Mrs. The time of her new found freedom was revealed when she begins to whisper "free" over and over to denote that she is no longer under the will of another person. This conflict was so profoundly深刻地 ingrained深深渗入的,根深蒂固的 in Louise that when she discovers that her husband was not dead and she was not free, death was the only escape from the internal conflict of personal freedom. Mallard is a good husband but that she detests憎恶,厌恶 the bondage of being husband and wife and she no longer wants the will of another forced upon her. Mallard's lost personal freedom when she married her husband and became obedient to his stronger will. emotions soon turned to confusion as Mrs. The imagery in the story helps set her characters new found freedom from the trees "aquiver" with new life denoting her new found life to the cloud's shadow representing her married life casting shadows on her happiness.
The conflict is that Mrs Mallard is happy that her husband died because she is finally free from the unhappy life she was living but she should really be saddened by the death of the man she married.
A woman loves her husband and is shocked by his death. Yet she is glad because now she is free. She cannot bear it when he turns up alive.
The most important conflict in this story is appearance versus reality. To all people it would
appear that Louise would grieve over Brently since they would assume she was happily married and content in her sub-servant role as a housewife. Louise's sister Josephine exemplifies作为……的范例 such a judgment of how Louise's reaction to the sudden death of her husband Brently. Josephine misinterprets Louise's behavior, thinking she is hysterical over Brently's death. She pleads, "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door-you will make yourself ill." To Josephine, Louise appears to be heart-broken, but in reality, Louise is relieved by his death.
Another conflict in this story is the role of the wife versus the role of the husband. For instance, Louise struggled with her feelings about her marriage for years. Louise thinks "what could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion断言,主张,声明 which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being." She admits that she did love Brently, but often she did not. On the other hand, the story suggests that Brently was completely content in the marriage and assumed that Louise was too. This conflict is reflected in Louise's internal struggle. When she realizes that Brently is alive, she must die. This is the only way she can win the freedom she was struggling for within herself. She dies because he is alive, he is ultimately responsible for her death.
In the exposition of ―The Story of an Hour‖ we are introduced to Mrs. Mallard, who is a woman ―Afflicted with a heart trouble‖ (Chopin 15). The conflict arises out of the news of her husband‘s death in a train wreck. Her immediate reaction is unusual. Instead of being paralyzed by the ―inability to accept its significance,‖ (15), Mrs. Mallard ―wept at once, with sudden wild abandonment‖ (15). The conflict begins to develop when she goes to her room alone but instead of continuing to cry, she stares out her window at the beautiful spring day with a glance that ―indicated a suspension of intelligent thought‖ (13). Here the conflict intensifies. ―There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully‖ (15). As she begins to recognize what it is, ―Her bosom rose and fell tumultuously,‖ (15) and she tries to ―beat it back with her will‖ (13). She is unable to stop it from coming, and when she ―abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped from her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over again under her breath: ?free, free, free!‘‖ (15) It is at this point that the plot reaches its greatest intensity – Mrs. Mallard‘s awakening to her own freedom. She sees beyond her grief to ―a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely‖ (16). She would be able to ―live for herself‖ (16) without ―a 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‖ (16). For Mrs. Mallard, love was not as important as ―self-assertion‖ (16). The climax of the story, however, occurs when Mr. Mallard returns unexpectedly, and Mrs. Mallard dies instantly. Here we realize not only the intensity but the depth of her feeling. The resolution has a twist of bitter irony. The doctors attribute her death to ―the joy that kills‖ (16). Brently Mallard, her sister Josephine, nor Mr. Richards will ever know the truth.
D. PLOT
It tells what happens in a story. Like a builder of a house--the story builder follows a plan when he builds a story. The authors plan or pattern is called a PLOT.
There are five parts to a plot:
(1) Introduction: Introduces the main characters and gives the purpose or problem of the story.
(2) Rising Action: The complication and conflicts in the story.
(3) Climax: the highest point of interest--suspense mounts--turning point--outcome of the story is determined.
(4) Falling Action: This is a very brief occurrence. Suspense subsides.
(5) Conclusion / Final Outcome: It is a brief clarification of major conflicts and minor complications.
The plot is a series of closely related events that happen to the main character. The main character is called the Protagonist. A situation develops where the protagonist finds himself in a series of CONFLICTS. These conflicts are with his Antagonist who could be another person, nature, or various sources.
CONFLICT-- Conflict is essential to plot. Without conflict there is no plot. It is the opposition of forces which ties one incident to another and makes the plot move. Conflict is not merely limited to open arguments, rather it is any form of opposition that faces the main character. Within a short story there may be only one central struggle, or there may be one dominant struggle with many minor ones. (http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/engramja/elements.html)
There are two types of conflict:
1) External - A struggle with a force outside one's self.
2) Internal - A struggle within one's self; a person must make some decision, overcome pain, quiet their temper, resist an urge, etc.
There are four kinds of conflict:
1) Man vs. Man (physical) - The leading character struggles with his physical strength against other men, forces of nature, or animals.
2) Man vs. Circumstances (classical) - The leading character struggles against fate, or the circumstances of life facing him/her.
3) Man vs. Society (social) - The leading character struggles against ideas, practices, or customs of other people.
4) Man vs. Himself/Herself (psychological) - The leading character struggles with himself/herself; with his/her own soul, ideas of right or wrong, physical limitations, choices, etc.
1. In The Story of an Hour, the antagonist would be Mr. Brentley Mallard, Mrs. Mallard's husband. The central conflict revolves around Mrs. Mallard being informed that her husband has been killed in a train accident.
After learning of this news, Louise Mallard goes upstairs into her room and sits in a chair facing a window and begins to imagine the life she will have as a widow. Up until that moment, she never imagined that she would ever have any individual freedom in her life, since, in this period in history, women were considered the property of their husbands and could not go out without them.
"Chopin deals with the issues of female self-discovery and identity in "The Story of an Hour." After Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband's death, she is initially overcome with grief. But quickly she begins to feel a previously unknown sense of freedom and relief."
Mrs. Mallard has lived a life that has largely been controlled by Mr. Mallard's wishes and choices. She has loved her husband, she tells the reader, most of the time, but she has not loved the confining feeling that marriage has given her. She longs to make her own decisions, choices, to explore her own interests, just the thought of having the ability to make such choices makes her feel joyful.
"Louise is ecstatic when she realizes that ''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."
Her joy, however, is short-lived, when at the end of the story she gets a great shock, a surprise that causes her to die on the spot, her husband walks in the front door, very much alive. All the free days she imagined she would have, sitting upstairs in her chair, thinking of herself as a widow, free from the demands of marriage, are gone in an instant. In that same instant, Louise Mallard's weak heart gives out and she dies.
She dies a happy death, having had the opportunity to explore, even if it is only in her mind, what life would be like freed from the constraints of marriage and the control of her husband.
"Chopin seems to be making a comment on nineteenth-century marriages, which granted one person—the man—right to own and dominate another—the woman. This theme, unpopular in an era when women were not even allowed to vote, is examined in many of Chopin's other works, most notably The Awakening."
1. In The Story of an Hour, the story's central conflict is the
main character's shock at the discovery of her true inner feelings after being announced about the death of her husband. She did not expect, from what one perceives in the story, that she would actually welcome the situation. Her feelings shocked her, because she for the first time felt freedom and a sense of joy at being "released" from her role as submissive wife. In the end, when he comes back and we find out that he is actually alive, she cannot take the change, nor fathom the idea that those feelings she had been bottling up for ages, and now they are out- only to be put them back in again which is why she passes out and collapses.
Hence, in this story, the unique antagonist would be the protagonist herself, or better yet, her submissive nature as an enslaved wife, and the role that she, herself, opted to take as a woman.