A Psychological Analysis of the Story of an Hour [2]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-15编辑:黄丽樱点击率:7416
论文字数:2340论文编号:org200904152212511307语种:英语 English地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:The Story of an HourPsychological AnalysisFeminist Consciousnesseffortsdeath
cal approach in her short stories, novellas and novels, among which The Story of an Hour is a typical example. And the successful employment of the psychological approach or stream of consciousness has achieved the dramatic effects and intensified the themes.
Mrs. Mallard, the heroine, lived a superficially happy life in other people’s eyes according to the conventional and secular criteria. Her husband was gentle and considerate, so they were deemed to be a perfect match. However, deep inside her heart she felt much inhibited. No one knew, including her husband, of her spiritual demands. Yet she had to make others believe that she was happy and lucky. She had to act the traditional role as a virtuous wife, not for herself, but for others. According to Peggy Skaggs, the heroines in the works of Kate Chopin often lived a two-faceted life. They lived in disguise to hide their real feelings and intentions. The women in the 19th century were required to learn all the social graces (The authoress herself was also required to do so in her puberty.) and encouraged to follow the rules and principles as men wanted them to do. In the American fiction Gone with the wind, we can see that Mummy has once and again threatened Scarlett that no man would take the risk to marry her if she insisted on doing as she liked. Most women were reduced to the victims of the then social and marital systems. Yet still they had to repress their own desires to cater to the patriarchal society. And no one would care about their real demands. Mrs. Mallard was just one of the victims.
Chopin is a good weaver of plots. When we read her short stories, we find there are so many mistakes and coincidences in them as if we were reading O’ Henry. At the beginning of the story she lays out suspense to the readers and immediately seizes their hearts. The news of her husband’s death evokes the readers’ deep sympathy for the heroine with heart disease. They worry about that she can’t survive the fatal blow. Like the other characters in the story, they all thought that she would be heart-broken and swooned on the spot like other women encountering the same situation. But she didn’t. Of course she wept too. However, she wept not because she felt sad, although her sister Josephine and other people believed that she did because she found it hard to face the music. But unexpectedly, as they read on, they find they have been deceived because what she (the heroine) rejoiced for is that she could be free from that moment on; and the repressed emotions can be at last released. Some intense psychological changes have undergone quickly in her body. The initial response to her husband’s death is that she felt free instead of feeling sad, which shows she must have been inhibited for ages. Thus she has a sense of emancipation as if a man were taken out of the suffocating dungeon where he had been imprisoned for ages and finally could breathe fresh air. At this moment, the lawless, asocial and amoral id has controlled her and the instinct to pursue pleasure temporarily got the upper hand of her reason. She became so excited and ecstatic that she couldn’t hold back happy tears trickling down her cheeks. But with her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend, Richards in her presence, she couldn’t reveal happiness to their faces because the conscious mind reminded her that she had to observe the reality principle. If they have discovered the secret and real reason of her sudden cry, she would
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