“The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin focuses on Josephine, who has conflicted feelings about the loss of her husband. The entire text describes how she reacts to the news of her husband’s death. Her worries, possible memories, emotions and, oddly enough, the inhalation of freedom are placed at the center of the narrative. Existential awareness covers Josephine with her head, and she is speechless from the news that has come. The denouement of the story lies in the fact that Brentley returns home at the moment of Josephine’s awareness of the death and the meeting of a new reality. Josephine is shocked to see her husband as a ghost back from the dead, and has a heart attack. Kate Chopin in “The story of an hour” describes the conflicting feelings of the main character, her renewal after the death of Brentley, and leads her to a cruel conclusion: death from shock.
Throughout the story, Josephine experiences fear, awe, release, pleasure, and anticipation. Kate Chopin draws parallels between feelings and bodily sensations, which tells readers about Josephine’s excitement: “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 2). Chopin mentions the main character’s eyes, which look ahead and prepare to accept a new reality. It seems strange that Josephine, despite the present descriptions of pain, suffering, tears and tantrums, quickly puts up with the loss of her husband. It cannot be called joy, it cannot be called intense grief, but it is precisely the existential rift that divided Josephine’s life into two parts. In the first part, she belonged in body and soul to her husband (Paudel 98). Sitting at the window, while the rest of the house is worried that she will hurt herself, Josephine is looking forward to the renewal.
The text produces the effect of a riddle and forces one to take attempt after attempt in understanding Josephine. The descriptions of Josephine’s physicality force readers to better understand how she feels, and therefore produce the effect of a serious emotional charge; some of Josephine’s emotions are conveyed to the reader. The topic raised by Kate Chopin is closely related to the existential issues of communication, emotional attachment and the Other in philosophy. This story shows readers what a powerful influence one person can have on another, even to the point of controlling his life and death.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Joe Books Ltd, 2018.
Paudel, Kishor. “Existential Angst in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour.” NCC Journal vol. 4, no. 1, 2019, pp. 97-99.