Thesis

Thesis

            Stressful situations can attack the heart and cause eventual death. That is the broader theme in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. We need stress to face challenges or escape danger. The problem is when it becomes chronic. Sometimes, people may have no idea that stress is part of life, being a natural, physiological reaction of the body. When Mrs. Mallard’s husband supposedly died, she got overwhelmed. From the text, Chopin notes that Mrs. Mallard wept bitterly while supporting herself in her sister’s arms (Mavis 33). She was filled with profound grief. However, that was not the case deep inside her heart. Having lived in a stressful and troublesome marriage, she had wished her husband dead. She apparently attributed all her marital problems to the husband. Mrs. Mallard was living under stress caused by her husband. Brently Mallard wholly contributed to her death, first throughs stressful lifestyle that led to heart problems and, secondly, through the shock that Brently Mallard was not dead.  Although Mrs. Mallard was confused amidst a state of inner joy after receiving the news of the accident, it was a sigh of relief for her because, for the first time, she was going to enjoy her freedom. Brently Mallard had curtailed her freedom for a long time. They were in a marital union filled with endurance. Through the reactions of Mrs. Mallard, the reader can be able to note that her husband’s death would bring a lot of relief in her life. However, Brently Mallard was to blame for all the misfortunes of his wife. He never created a conducive home environment or a cordial relationship for the wife to thrive. She eventually passes on; the husband, Brently Mallard, should be put to blame for causing his wife’s death, albeit indirectly.

The sudden unexpected news of her husband’s death took such a toll on her that she drifted back to her room alone. Indeed, no one would accompany her at that time. Since she could do nothing about her “husband’s demise,” she decided to accept the change, even though she knew for the first time, no one would help her face the troubles and challenges of future life. However, the latter explanation is far from the truth. Her sadness was ironic. Mrs. Mallard was celebrating the purported death of her husband, a clear indication of the sour relationship that existed between them.

Her death can first be described as situational. It may be recalled that she complained of having heart problems. From the outset, the reader can have a warning, that is, a misfortune may befall her.  Her life then becomes dramatic after she begins to prefer solitary life and surrenders everything in life. No one knows the extend of emotional troubles she is going through. Even though Josephine and Richards are not aware of what is going on with Mrs. Mallard, the reader can tell that something worse may happen soon. She passed away because she was unable to hold it any longer. From the text, we understand that a weak heart has been troubling Mrs. Ballard. When it later turns out that her husband is still alive, it gets her into a shocking mode. For a long time, she had been tolerating her marital life. Mrs. Mallard would enjoy being out of her marriage that remaining within its confines. She had lived a life of emotional torture and attributed it to her marriage.             A stressful reaction pushes people to counter challenges. The husband had stressed mrs. Mallard to the point of death (Chopin 1).  A human body can bear stress only for a limited period of time. That is the case with Mrs. Mallard. The husband caused her death in the long run when her body could no longer bear the pain and suffering.  We may even use this image of the fight or flight to exemplify a stressful situation, in which it is necessary to decide in a concise time whether to face it or run away (Rich 126). At such a time, the human body releases a load of substances, such as adrenaline and cortisol, hormones that are produced in the adrenal gland and that increase your energy so that you can react quickly to the challenge.  Of course, Mrs. Mallard dies not necessarily because of heart attack, but due to the enduring state of marriage with Mallard (Chopin 193). If the husband had truly died, then Mrs. Mallard would not have passed away. Her disappointment that the husband was not dead claimed her life.
The doctors’ report was also not reliable because they stated that Mrs. Mallard died due to her weak heart which could not bear the joy of seeing her husband coming back alive. It can be argued that the husband was indirectly responsible for her death. First, the wide endured living with him as the husband.  The torture that the wife went through in marriage was enough to compel her commit suicide, let alone a heart attack. Moreover, frequent challenges in her marriage may have been the cause of heart complications that she later developed in life.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate, and Robert C. Evans. “The Story of an Hour.” Introduction to Literary        Context: American Short Fiction, Nov. 2014, pp. 193–198. EBSCOhost,            search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=101666196&site=ehost-  live&scope=site.
Chopin, Kate. The story of an hour. Joe Books Ltd, 2018.
Mavis Chia-Chieh Tseng. “‘Joy That Kills’: Female Jouissance in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story           of an Hour.’” Short Story, vol. 22, no. 2, Fall 2014, pp. 29–38. EBSCOhost,         search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=122008087&site=ehost-  live&scope=site.

Rich, Charlotte. “Reconsidering the Awakening: The Literary Sisterhood of Kate Chopin and       George Egerton.” Southern Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3, 2003, pp. 121-136. ProQuest,             https://search.proquest.com/docview/222248540?accountid=45049.