Assignment

Comparison and Contrast

In the comparison of two stories 'The Story of an Hour' and 'The Masque of the Red Death', we will discuss how setting affected the characters in two stories.

Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" illuminates how one person can see beyond the lairs of repression that build up during their life. The protagonist of Kate's "The Story of an Hour", Mrs. Mallard, represses the essence of her being until she thinks that her husband is dead. Thinking him gone they, the feelings inside of her, are finally able to come out. Yet, just as in all situations there is a cost that must be paid for this freedom.

Like many people, Mrs. Mallard was always without the feeling of freedom. Marring young, she had gone from under the wing of her father into the "tender hands" of her husband (p.2 line 1). Even though she thought that being subjugated was wrong no matter the reason "a kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seems no less a crime," she being Mrs. Mallard can no more express these thoughts than a pig could express quantum physics (p.2 line 9). By giving us a character that knows and understands its own plight Kate Chopin establishes plausibility. The fact that Mrs. Mallard has no way of dealing with the situation that she is in, causes us to empathize with her, for we all have been unable to express our selves at times.

Acknowledging her love for her husband at first led Louise and those around her to believe it was grief and sorrow that caused such emotion. She cried and felt depressed like any normal person should from the situation. It was time for her to be alone in her room in a comfortable, cozy chair, looking out the open window, letting it all soak in. She observes the outside view seeing only the feeling of new spring life and the "delicious breath of rain was in the air" (67, 5). Upon isolating herself and letting herself take in her own peace of mind, Louise is frightened when an unidentified feeling begins to grow in her. She soon realizes she feels not grief and sorrow but unsurpassed freedom and self empowerment, yet another ironic twist:

She was young, with a fair, clam face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought. (67, 8)

Only as she becomes Mrs. Louise Mallard can she see what had always been inside of her from the beginning. Kate shows us that it is not with effort but abandonment that we will truly become what we always where, for as a new entity Louise gains new insight into who she really is. It is with tears, not brute force that her chrysalis, that she was trapped in during ...