"The Story of An Hour" lit response

Markeia Scruggs
September 29, 2009
2 page lit response

“The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin is a story expressing a woman’s hurt and sorrow toward the supposed death of her husband. The news takes her by surprise and causes her to become deeply depressed and mute. The story expresses in detail the effects of death on her life. Kate Chopin uses extremely descriptive diction and figurative language to depict her pain and sorrow.
When Mrs. Mallard first hears of her husband’s death, she is surprised and stunned. The passage states, “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.” The use of words such as paralyzed inability to accept its significance, sudden, wild abandonment, and storm of grief gives the story a stronger meaning. She appeals to pathos in an attempt to give the situation all of its credibility.
Kate Chopin also uses figurative language to appeal to the pathos. “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.” Chopin writes. She gave an identity to Mrs. Mallard’s exhaustion to heighten the intensity of her pain. Her diction used to bring her exhaustion to life gives the reader a feeling of exhaustion as well. She does this to again intensify the meaning of her exhaustion.
The tone of the story changes as Mrs. Mallard finds out that her husband, Brently Mallard, is in fact alive. The story states, “Some on 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.” The use of such strong diction appeals to the pathos. The reader feels a sense of relief and happiness because Brently Mallard is back home. The adjectives amplify the intensity of the moment and help to appeal to pathos and create imagery.
The story “The Story of An Hour” is an intense story composed of intense diction and figurative language. The uses of such literary elements combine to create imagery and appeal to pathos. The story’s intensity is that much better with the use of these items.