After reading "A Story of an Hour," why do you think the story ends the way it does? What elements are confusing about the ending? How does this story inform the ideas you had yesterday about stories told from a mother's perspective?
In “A Story of an Hour”, the ending was more dramatic and very unique As it says in the appendix, the author was following in the footsteps of “Maupassant’s Tales”, and decided to create a story that tells us what the author is thinking and how the author is acting. I think the narrator wants us to be surprised and leave us with uncertainty after reading the last lines of the short story. I believe she wants her audience to think about what happens and to remember the ending of the short story. I found the ending of “A Story of an Hour” to be intriguing, unique, and somewhat confusing. The last sentence of the story… “When the doctors came they said she and died of heart disease- of joy that skills”, was shocking but also confused me as to who the “her” was being referred to in the story. I believe it is referring to the narrator, but I don’t understand how the narrator could have possibly died, and therefore, I am utterly confused. I do not understand how Brently Mallard was entering their house when she had died previously. This story does not completely portray the ideas I had about the stories yesterday because this story does not express the relationship between the mother and daughter. However, yesterday I expressed how the stories from a mother’s perspective are surrounded by a dilemma, and the whole story of “A Story of an Hour” is surrounded by a dilemma. The whole story is about the death of many humans from a “railroad disaster” and how it affects the narrator. Overall, “The Story of an Hour” is quite different from the stories we have read in the past, and is more challenging to comprehend.
I think the ending was much more dramatic than anything we have read this year, short stories and all. In every other piece we have read, in the end something dramatic happens, but we see what comes after and it leaves you somewhat satisfied. In Story of The Hour, we see the ending being the big dramatic moment, but I was satisfied with the ending. With the other short stories I felt like they started in a random place and they finished in one as well. Because they were short stories, we didn't get much of a background nor a resolution in my opinion. Therefore when we read about the mother daughter dilemmas and issues and their relationships, I never felt like I understood them completely and that we got enough information. It felt more like an excerpt from a book than a short story. This is the first one where I have felt it is really just a short story. That changes how I see it because the ending doesn't confuse me, it seems like the doctors ironically judged her death wrong, because she was so happy to be free and she may have loved her husband, but she was so excited at the thought of living for herself, that when she realised that was gone, it killed her, and now she is free. Truly free. I think this is different from the other mothers we have read about who have all not had the issue of feeling oppressed, but rather distanced and misunderstood, and while this woman is misunderstood, it is for very different reasons.
The ending to "The Story of an Hour" is conflicting because it is both happy and sad as well as anticipated and ironic. What I mean by this is that when it is revealed in the end that the husband it still alive it brings a sense of relief or solution to the problem, but then as a result, the wife dies because the joy of seeing her husband again after great depression and sadness is too overwhelming for her heart disease. The effect of this ending on the reader is conflicting thoughts because of the dramatic shifts in emotion due to the drastic rise and fall of the moods of the events main events that occur. From my perspective, it makes the story more interesting and thought-provoking, and it leaves more room for interpretation of the meaning or message conveyed through the story. "The Story of an Hour" informs the ideas of stories told from a mother's perspective by showing the the thought process of Mrs. Mallard when she is mentally dealing with a dilemma and it can be used to explain some of the thoughts and decisions of the mothers in the other stories.
Having read this story before I had a better idea of what was going on at the end, but it is still a little confusing. After Mrs. Mallard is told her husband is dead and goes into her room instead of experiencing grief she experiences a strange euphoria. She says under her breath "Free! Free! Free!" the author later clarifies that she was referring to being free from her husband by writing, "yet she had loved him --sometimes. Often she had not." I think that this was the reason the author killed her in the end of the story. The shock or her husband walking through the door and her chance at running her own life being taken away had killed her. This doesn't really change how I see each story though because she is referring to her husband and in the others the mothers where struggling with their children. Adding to that, I also think that every story we read will be different and just because we are hearing from mothers doesn't mean that they will all have the same prospective.
The ending to the Story of an Hour is ironic and twistedly funny given that the main character drops dead. They try so hard to break the news of her husband's death gently so as to not overwhelm her, and they succeed at this, so you don't expect her to die in the story. Nor do you expect her husband to be alive. The sight of him alive took more out of her than the news of his death, and you'd think, as Mola said, that it would relieve her as it did for the audience, but that's what ends up killing her. It sort of makes the story worth reading, because it would be pointless without her death and brings on a good chuckle as well as a few seconds of thought. It's almost like the author pulled a prank on the reader, she wanted you to say "wait what?" and read that last bit in slight shock, she definitely succeeded with me. It is very different from the mother-narrated stories we have read. A lot of them have some comedy in the story but an overall heavy tone while in the Story of an Hour it is sad and saddening even but ends in a comedic way and is remembered for its humor.
Mrs. Mallard receives the news of her husband's death and goes into a state of shock. At first, grief takes over; her mind shuts down and she sits, staring outside without really seeing anything. However, she moves past the initial grief and realizes that now her life will not depend on or adjust to anyone else's. Without her husband, she controls her own life, and she says, "free, free, free" under her breath when she realizes this. This idea thrills her, and she is able to escape from the state of shock to join her sister downstairs. When her husband walks through the door, she is both surprised and disappointed because the person she only loved "sometimes" had returned to her life. I think this story portrays a relationship in which the communication was lacking. Just like in many of the characters in the mother-daughter short stories, this woman feels misunderstood and wants control of her own life (though she doesn't realize it until she thinks her husband is dead). At the end, I think that she dies both of surprise and of grief that she will not be able to life the free life she had predicted for herself.
Just like Libby, I had previously read this story. Nothing really confused me about the ending, as I already discussed the story in depth with my English teacher during the summer program here. Re-reading the story though, I do think that the way the story ended was the result of a little bit of foreshadowing. Mrs. Mallard was a bit saddened by the fact that her husband was dead, and she cried a lot because of it; however she was mostly happy. With her husband gone, She would finally be able to live life the way she wanted to, without having to worry about anyone else's opinion besides hers, and she could be free to govern herself without someone else controlling her. That is why she kept chanting to herself that she was "free." Taking all of this into account, it wasn't really a surprise to me that her husband would walk through the door later that day, putting an end to her temporary feeling of freedom, and causing her to die of a heart attack. I can't say that I can relate to what Mrs. Mallard was going through, but I do feel bad for her. Yes, she was sad to have "lost" her husband, but she had finally felt as though the shackles bound to her hands and feet for her entire life were finally unlocked. She had no choice but to feel overjoyed, but when her spouse walked through the door, it was as if the shackles had somehow imprisoned her once again.
The ending of "A Story of an Hour" wasn't exactly happy, yet it probably wasn't intended on being happy. This short story continually reminds the reader of the failure, misery, and lack of hope that the Native Americans on the reservation. Every single person has experienced a painful event that has made their lives worse than what it can be living in the reservation. Historically, Native Americans haven't been able to succeed or get far in their lives after America was conquered. This ending where the storm is over and the family goes back to their desperation and sadness is a way of telling the reader that his is simply the life of a Native American in a reservation. They've been through pain and suffering so when an obstacle is presented to them they are simply used it.
"The Story of an Hour" is unlike any other short story we have read so far, in that it successfully blends satire with drama and mystery. Although the end was somewhat confusing to me as I was a little lost in all the pronouns, that in part is what makes this particular story unique. Like Suki said, previous stories we have read did not really have the clearest beginning, middle, and end. "The Story of an Hour" was very well structured, and I felt like the ending meshed very well with the satire-drama type story that it is. I thought the ending and dramatic twist of the woman's death reflected on Mrs. Mallard's mental state, and the author did a great job showing the reader why any mother would think the way they do.
The ending to “A Story of an Hour” was quite complex but not so confusing, to me. When the narrator found out her husband was died, her immediate reaction was to cry of sadness because she has just lost someone she has been living her life with for some amount of time. Yet, once the narrator weeps a little, she goes to her room in silent thought. During this time of debriefing and realization, the woman realizes she feels free. This might be because of the husband miss treating the wife, or maybe just because she wasn’t very happy in their relationship. The fact that this mother feels freedom in about an hour of her being informed about the accident is shocking to me. I was slightly surprised that the woman ended up dying after surprisingly seeing her husband, but then again if she was feeling released and then all of a sudden the whole tragic event was all fake, she has a reason to be extremely surprised. She seemed to enjoy being alone and free, so her death truly gave her freedom even if her husband was still alive. This story might not have to do with a mother-daughter relationship, but it certainly shows the perspective of the mother/wife in her relationship with her husband. I am assuming their relationship was not healthy or good in anyway, so this shows the reasons behind the mother’s feelings. Over all I liked this story because it was slightly twisted in a way that it was surprising.
In “A Story of an Hour”, the ending was more dramatic and very unique As it says in the appendix, the author was following in the footsteps of “Maupassant’s Tales”, and decided to create a story that tells us what the author is thinking and how the author is acting. I think the narrator wants us to be surprised and leave us with uncertainty after reading the last lines of the short story. I believe she wants her audience to think about what happens and to remember the ending of the short story. I found the ending of “A Story of an Hour” to be intriguing, unique, and somewhat confusing. The last sentence of the story… “When the doctors came they said she and died of heart disease- of joy that skills”, was shocking but also confused me as to who the “her” was being referred to in the story. I believe it is referring to the narrator, but I don’t understand how the narrator could have possibly died, and therefore, I am utterly confused. I do not understand how Brently Mallard was entering their house when she had died previously. This story does not completely portray the ideas I had about the stories yesterday because this story does not express the relationship between the mother and daughter. However, yesterday I expressed how the stories from a mother’s perspective are surrounded by a dilemma, and the whole story of “A Story of an Hour” is surrounded by a dilemma. The whole story is about the death of many humans from a “railroad disaster” and how it affects the narrator. Overall, “The Story of an Hour” is quite different from the stories we have read in the past, and is more challenging to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteI think the ending was much more dramatic than anything we have read this year, short stories and all. In every other piece we have read, in the end something dramatic happens, but we see what comes after and it leaves you somewhat satisfied. In Story of The Hour, we see the ending being the big dramatic moment, but I was satisfied with the ending. With the other short stories I felt like they started in a random place and they finished in one as well. Because they were short stories, we didn't get much of a background nor a resolution in my opinion. Therefore when we read about the mother daughter dilemmas and issues and their relationships, I never felt like I understood them completely and that we got enough information. It felt more like an excerpt from a book than a short story. This is the first one where I have felt it is really just a short story. That changes how I see it because the ending doesn't confuse me, it seems like the doctors ironically judged her death wrong, because she was so happy to be free and she may have loved her husband, but she was so excited at the thought of living for herself, that when she realised that was gone, it killed her, and now she is free. Truly free. I think this is different from the other mothers we have read about who have all not had the issue of feeling oppressed, but rather distanced and misunderstood, and while this woman is misunderstood, it is for very different reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe ending to "The Story of an Hour" is conflicting because it is both happy and sad as well as anticipated and ironic. What I mean by this is that when it is revealed in the end that the husband it still alive it brings a sense of relief or solution to the problem, but then as a result, the wife dies because the joy of seeing her husband again after great depression and sadness is too overwhelming for her heart disease. The effect of this ending on the reader is conflicting thoughts because of the dramatic shifts in emotion due to the drastic rise and fall of the moods of the events main events that occur. From my perspective, it makes the story more interesting and thought-provoking, and it leaves more room for interpretation of the meaning or message conveyed through the story. "The Story of an Hour" informs the ideas of stories told from a mother's perspective by showing the the thought process of Mrs. Mallard when she is mentally dealing with a dilemma and it can be used to explain some of the thoughts and decisions of the mothers in the other stories.
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ReplyDeleteHaving read this story before I had a better idea of what was going on at the end, but it is still a little confusing. After Mrs. Mallard is told her husband is dead and goes into her room instead of experiencing grief she experiences a strange euphoria. She says under her breath "Free! Free! Free!" the author later clarifies that she was referring to being free from her husband by writing, "yet she had loved him --sometimes. Often she had not." I think that this was the reason the author killed her in the end of the story. The shock or her husband walking through the door and her chance at running her own life being taken away had killed her. This doesn't really change how I see each story though because she is referring to her husband and in the others the mothers where struggling with their children. Adding to that, I also think that every story we read will be different and just because we are hearing from mothers doesn't mean that they will all have the same prospective.
ReplyDeleteThe ending to the Story of an Hour is ironic and twistedly funny given that the main character drops dead. They try so hard to break the news of her husband's death gently so as to not overwhelm her, and they succeed at this, so you don't expect her to die in the story. Nor do you expect her husband to be alive. The sight of him alive took more out of her than the news of his death, and you'd think, as Mola said, that it would relieve her as it did for the audience, but that's what ends up killing her. It sort of makes the story worth reading, because it would be pointless without her death and brings on a good chuckle as well as a few seconds of thought. It's almost like the author pulled a prank on the reader, she wanted you to say "wait what?" and read that last bit in slight shock, she definitely succeeded with me. It is very different from the mother-narrated stories we have read. A lot of them have some comedy in the story but an overall heavy tone while in the Story of an Hour it is sad and saddening even but ends in a comedic way and is remembered for its humor.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Mallard receives the news of her husband's death and goes into a state of shock. At first, grief takes over; her mind shuts down and she sits, staring outside without really seeing anything. However, she moves past the initial grief and realizes that now her life will not depend on or adjust to anyone else's. Without her husband, she controls her own life, and she says, "free, free, free" under her breath when she realizes this. This idea thrills her, and she is able to escape from the state of shock to join her sister downstairs. When her husband walks through the door, she is both surprised and disappointed because the person she only loved "sometimes" had returned to her life. I think this story portrays a relationship in which the communication was lacking. Just like in many of the characters in the mother-daughter short stories, this woman feels misunderstood and wants control of her own life (though she doesn't realize it until she thinks her husband is dead). At the end, I think that she dies both of surprise and of grief that she will not be able to life the free life she had predicted for herself.
ReplyDeleteJust like Libby, I had previously read this story. Nothing really confused me about the ending, as I already discussed the story in depth with my English teacher during the summer program here. Re-reading the story though, I do think that the way the story ended was the result of a little bit of foreshadowing. Mrs. Mallard was a bit saddened by the fact that her husband was dead, and she cried a lot because of it; however she was mostly happy. With her husband gone, She would finally be able to live life the way she wanted to, without having to worry about anyone else's opinion besides hers, and she could be free to govern herself without someone else controlling her. That is why she kept chanting to herself that she was "free." Taking all of this into account, it wasn't really a surprise to me that her husband would walk through the door later that day, putting an end to her temporary feeling of freedom, and causing her to die of a heart attack. I can't say that I can relate to what Mrs. Mallard was going through, but I do feel bad for her. Yes, she was sad to have "lost" her husband, but she had finally felt as though the shackles bound to her hands and feet for her entire life were finally unlocked. She had no choice but to feel overjoyed, but when her spouse walked through the door, it was as if the shackles had somehow imprisoned her once again.
ReplyDeleteThe ending of "A Story of an Hour" wasn't exactly happy, yet it probably wasn't intended on being happy. This short story continually reminds the reader of the failure, misery, and lack of hope that the Native Americans on the reservation. Every single person has experienced a painful event that has made their lives worse than what it can be living in the reservation. Historically, Native Americans haven't been able to succeed or get far in their lives after America was conquered. This ending where the storm is over and the family goes back to their desperation and sadness is a way of telling the reader that his is simply the life of a Native American in a reservation. They've been through pain and suffering so when an obstacle is presented to them they are simply used it.
ReplyDelete"The Story of an Hour" is unlike any other short story we have read so far, in that it successfully blends satire with drama and mystery. Although the end was somewhat confusing to me as I was a little lost in all the pronouns, that in part is what makes this particular story unique. Like Suki said, previous stories we have read did not really have the clearest beginning, middle, and end. "The Story of an Hour" was very well structured, and I felt like the ending meshed very well with the satire-drama type story that it is. I thought the ending and dramatic twist of the woman's death reflected on Mrs. Mallard's mental state, and the author did a great job showing the reader why any mother would think the way they do.
ReplyDeleteThe ending to “A Story of an Hour” was quite complex but not so confusing, to me. When the narrator found out her husband was died, her immediate reaction was to cry of sadness because she has just lost someone she has been living her life with for some amount of time. Yet, once the narrator weeps a little, she goes to her room in silent thought. During this time of debriefing and realization, the woman realizes she feels free. This might be because of the husband miss treating the wife, or maybe just because she wasn’t very happy in their relationship. The fact that this mother feels freedom in about an hour of her being informed about the accident is shocking to me. I was slightly surprised that the woman ended up dying after surprisingly seeing her husband, but then again if she was feeling released and then all of a sudden the whole tragic event was all fake, she has a reason to be extremely surprised. She seemed to enjoy being alone and free, so her death truly gave her freedom even if her husband was still alive. This story might not have to do with a mother-daughter relationship, but it certainly shows the perspective of the mother/wife in her relationship with her husband. I am assuming their relationship was not healthy or good in anyway, so this shows the reasons behind the mother’s feelings. Over all I liked this story because it was slightly twisted in a way that it was surprising.
ReplyDelete