Locked Door example essay topic

320 words
Symbolism in "The Story of an Hour" While reading the short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, I came across many symbolic aspects. The most dominant the locked door. The locked door is used in this story as a buffer zone between the Society's norm and the individual's desires. In this story Mrs. Mallard comes to find out that her husband has been killed.

It was her sister Josephine who told her the news. As soon as she hears this, she bursts out with tears and feelings of grief. She was held by her sister. After grieving for a short time, Mrs. Mallard went away to her room alone.

As she enters the room, she immediately sits in a armchair. As she sits in the chair she stares out an open window. She looks at the tops of some trees and patches of clearing blue sky. Suddenly she is no longer sad anymore. She feels some guilty for her actions of happiness. She grows happier and happier.

Josephine comes to the locked door, trying to get in. Mrs. Mallard would just state what she thought her sister would want to hear. On one side of the door her sister represents conformity to society, how you would be expected to act in society. On the other is Mrs. Mallard and her twisted beliefs of being extremely happy. She finally exits the room. Her husband comes home, she falls down and dies.

The locked door has a very powerful and symbolic meaning to it. Before she Hirst 2 enters the room and shuts the door, she acts how one would be expected to act when they hear a loved one has died. As soon as she gets in the room behind that locked door she becomes joyful..