Context Plot Overview Character List Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Analysis

Structure and Style

Important Quotations Explained How to Cite This SparkNote

The Story of an hour

Themes The Forbidden Joy of Independence
In The Story of an Hour, independence is a forbidden pleasure that can be imagined only privately. When Louise hears from Josephine and Richards of Brentlys death, she reacts with obvious grief, and although her reaction is perhaps more violent than other womens, it is an appropriate one. Alone, however, Louise begins to realize that she is now an independent woman, a realization that enlivens and excites her. Even though these are her private thoughts, she at first tries to squelch the joy she feels, to beat it back with her will. Such resistance reveals how forbidden this pleasure really is. When she finally does acknowledge the joy, she feels possessed by it and must abandon herself to it as the word free escapes her lips. Louises life offers no refuge for this kind of joy, and the rest of society will never accept it or understand it. Extreme circumstances have given Louise a taste of this forbidden fruit, and her thoughts are, in turn, extreme. She sees her life as being absolutely hers and her new independence as the core of her being. Overwhelmed, Louise even turns to prayer, hoping for a long life in which to enjoy this feeling. When Brently returns, he unwittingly yanks Louises independence away from her, putting it once again out of her reach. The forbidden joy disappears as quickly as it came, but the taste of it is enough to kill her.

The Inherent Oppressiveness of Marriage

Chopin suggests that all marriages, even the kindest ones, are inherently oppressive. Louise, who readily admits that her husband was kind and loving, nonetheless feels joy when she believes that he has died. Her reaction doesnt suggest any malice, and Louise knows that shell cry at Brentlys funeral. However, despite the love between husband and wife, Louise views Brentlys death as a release from oppression. She never names a specific way in which Brently oppressed her, hinting instead that marriage in general stifles both women and men. She even seems to suggest that she oppressed Brently just as much as he oppressed her. Louises epiphany in which these thoughts parade through her mind reveals the inherent oppressiveness of all marriages, which by their nature rob people of their independence.

Motifs Weeping
Louises weeping about Brentlys death highlight the dichotomy between sorrow and happiness. Louise cries or thinks about crying for about three-quarters of The Story of an Hour, stopping only when she thinks of her new freedom. Crying is part of her life with Brently, but it will presumably be absent from her life as an independent woman. At the beginning of the story, Louise sobs dramatically when she learns that Brently is dead, enduring a storm of grief. She continues weeping when she is alone in her room, although the crying now is unconscious, more a physical reflex than anything spurred by emotion. She imagines herself crying over Brentlys dead body. Once the funeral is over in her fantasies, however, there is no further mention of crying because shes consumed with happiness.

Symbols Heart Trouble

The heart trouble that afflicts Louise is both a physical and symbolic malady that represents her ambivalence toward her marriage and unhappiness with her lack of freedom. The fact that Louise has heart trouble is the first thing we learn about her, and this heart trouble is what seems to make the announcement of Brentlys death so threatening. A person with a weak heart, after all, would not deal well with such news. When Louise reflects on her new independence, her heart races, pumping blood through her veins. When she dies at the end of the story, the diagnosis of heart disease seems appropriate because the shock of seeing Brently was surely enough to kill her. But the doctors conclusion that shed died of overwhelming joy is ironic because it had been the loss of joy that had actually killed her. Indeed, Louise seems to have died of a broken heart, caused by the sudden loss of her muchloved independence.

The Open Window

The open window from which Louise gazes for much of the story represents the freedom and opportunities that await her after her husband has died. From the window, Louise sees blue sky, fluffy clouds, and treetops. She hears people and birds singing and smells a coming rainstorm. Everything that she experiences through her senses suggests joy and springnew life. And when she ponders the sky, she feels the first hints of elation. Once she fully indulges in this excitement, she feels that the open window is providing her with life itself. The open window provides a clear, bright view into the distance and Louises own bright future, which is now unobstructed by the demands of another person. Its therefore no coincidence that when Louise turns from the window and the view, she quickly loses her freedom as well.

Literary analysis: War, by Luigi Pirandell

War is a short story written by Italian dramatist/author Luigi Pirandello in the early 20th century. The story depicts a time when a country is at war, and we see the parents of children who are going off to war crammed into a small train car. What starts off as a pleasant enough discussion quickly turns into a spitting contest, where each man tries to best the others by discussing his own suffering. One man has had his child at the front since the outbreak of the war, while another's son has been injured on 3 separate occasions, and sent back just as many times. We see yet another man who starts to talk in math, that is to use figures and calculations to show the he suffers more because of his multiple children fighting.

Here we come to the first statement we can draw from War about the human condition. We realize that, in a way similar to Thomas Hobbes, humans are naturally selfish, and it is our instinct to try and best each other, even in times of great communal strife. However, we then see a fat traveller enter the carriage, and he only stirs up the debate more. He makes fanciful proclamations about how children are not the property of parents, nor should they be treated as such. This prompts a traveller to hasten to agree with the boisterous man, and we see that he is a slight bit intimidated. He, however, goes off on a tangent about how children belong to the Nation, and it is only the desires of the Nation that drive the actions of children. This is met with a harsh comment of Bosh or Nonsense from the fat man. Here we see a theme of denial start to emerge in Pirandello's work. We realize that the man has been already convinced of his view of the world, and has now come to deny anything that could possibly be contrary to that value system. Thus our second statement about the human condition we can make is that humans believe what they want to believe, and will often resort to silencing others to strengthen their own beliefs. We learn (only in passing) that the traveler's son has actually died in the war, but one would not know that from the tone we interpret. He is so defiantly proud of his son's death that he has not come to realize the impact of his loss. This is why, when a silent traveler poses the fateful question Is your son really dead? we see that he has had no idea up until then, and he breaks out in sobs. Thus we come to our final conclusion about the human condition. We can say that with relative certainty that humans will choose to deny information that might have a negative effect on their status and/or reputation.
Pirandello's story is one rife with the classic theme of denial, where someone refuse to believe an obvious truth. The author is making a commentary on how this negatively affects society via the flow of false information, and contemporary society would do well to learn from the faults of the fat traveller

THEME OF WAR
Credit to Mishra Planeswalker

The human nature is to deny information that will create negative

effects. Or in other words, our nature is to deny certain truths.

Objective or known to be as dramatic point of view, in which there are no comments on characters and events happening in the course of story. It's just like a camcorder recording the events and actions, including characters' conversation

(Short Story) War by: Luigi Pirandello

Pirandello's short story War is a fine example of epiphany as well as how this sudden realization can cast meaning on the entirety of a narrative. At the onset the characters of the story argue for the notion that it is but right and proper that their children are off fighting a war. First, the parents reflect that their sons are fighting for a higher calling - for their country. Our children do not belong to us; they belong to the Country... Moreover their sons are happy to be sacrificing themselves in the name of the nation, And our sons go, when they are twenty, and they don't want tears, because if they die, they die inflamed and happy.... Most of the short story is composed of this bravado, of parents telling themselves that it is correct that their sons are off killing and being killed. The chief believer in this line of reasoning is a father who has just lost his son. Yet he maintains that his son died happy and thus, I do not even wear mourning. However a simple question by the newest passenger on the train makes this man confront the fact that his son is indeed dead. Faced with this epiphany the passenger breaks down, he tried to answer but words failed him... to the amazement of everyone, [he] broke into harrowing, heartrendering, uncontrollable sobs. In light of this father's sudden realization that his son is truly gone his earlier statements take on a ring of passionate desperation. Clearly the father has been trying to convince himself that everything is as it should be, that his son died for a noble cause. Yet ultimately the father's assertions ring hollow. His tears of mourning at the end reflect how the consolations we hide behind (his death was for a higher purpose, he died fighting for what he believed in) evaporate in the face of inconsolable fact. Lastly this father has poured tremendous energy in constructing the facade that he hides his grief behind. While he is defending the war he is described as a fat man whose bulging eyes seemed to spurt inner violence of an uncontrolled vitality. Yet after he gives in to sorrow it as if his body withers and his energy leaves him. Faced with his son's death the father is described as old... his great bulging, horribly watery light gray eyes turning to look at these people before whom he has so vigorously defended the war. Review: This short story is composed almost entirely of dialogue which emphasizes the passionate denials of the unfortunate father. It is also a study in the economic use of words, how subtle themes can be suggested in a very compact space.

Short story reviews: True Love, by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was years, possibly decades ahead of the curve is seeing where computers would go, and while some of the stories are startling in their predictions some of the best are quite funny. "True Love" is a little both. This is a character who is a bit disturbing because of the technology he is using and how he is using it, while humorous in how it is his undoing as well as how commonplace that technology has become.

The main character is a computer programmer who works on Multivac the world's greatest supercomputer. He has created a program that he alone controls. Among the things that it has access to is the personal information on everyone on earth. This computer programmer decides that he will use this information to find the perfect woman. He starts with three billion women and by describing what he considers the perfect woman he manages to whittle it down to just over a hundred. Then without telling them he begins to have the transferred to his work one at a time so that he can met them and decide if they are the perfect woman for him. The problem is that while they are all perfect for him he isn't perfect for them. And so he decides to come at it from a different way. He begins to give his life story to the computer while programming the computer to think more and more like him. The plan is that the computer will be able to find a woman who will love him as well. The problem is that he is breaking the law to do all this, and so he can't tell anyone what happens when the computer turns him in for a crime he had committed years ago, but of course the computer still has the woman transferred so that she can take care of him. It is impossible to read this without thinking of the various dating sites that are all over the internet. The idea of finding your perfect match through computer technology isn't as odd as it was at the time that Asimov wrote this story, but even now when it is commonplace when you take a step back and look more carefully a the technology it is possible to see that it is a little odd. It seems to take something out of love when you begin to make it so calculated. It always fascinates me to read old science fiction from the masters because often the science and the fiction that had seemed so absurd before has changed. Isaac Asimov was one of the best at this because his stories are about people, even his computers are people, and people haven't changed