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Imagine a world where women are fighting for unprecedented rights, the economic climate is unpredictable, and new developments in technology are made every year. While this world might sound like the present day, it also describes America in the 1890s . 

It was in this world that author Kate Chopin wrote and lived, and many of the issues of the period are reflected in her short story, “The Story of an Hour.” Now, over a century later, the story remains one of Kate Chopin’s most well-known works and continues to shed light on the internal struggle of women who have been denied autonomy.

In this guide to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” we’ll discuss:

  • A brief history of Kate Chopin and America the 1890s
  • “The Story of an Hour” summary
  • Analysis of the key story elements in “The Story of an Hour,” including themes, characters, and symbols

By the end of this article, you’ll have an expert grasp on Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” So let’s get started!

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“The Story of an Hour” Summary

If it’s been a little while since you’ve read Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” it can be hard to remember the important details. This section includes a quick recap, but you can find “The Story of an Hour” PDF and full version here . We recommend you read it again before diving into our analyses in the next section! 

For those who just need a refresher, here’s “The Story of an Hour” summary: 

Mrs. Louise Mallard is at home when her sister, Josephine, and her husband’s friend, Richards, come to tell her that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed in a railroad accident . Richards had been at the newspaper office when the news broke, and he takes Josephine with him to break the news to Louise since they’re afraid of aggravating her heart condition. Upon hearing the news of her husband’s death, Louise is grief-stricken, locks herself in her room, and weeps.

From here, the story shifts in tone. As Louise processes the news of her husband’s death, she realizes something wonderful and terrible at the same time: she is free . At first she’s scared to admit it, but Louise quickly finds peace and joy in her admission. She realizes that, although she will be sad about her husband (“she had loved him—sometimes,” Chopin writes), Louise is excited for the opportunity to live for herself. She keeps repeating the word “free” as she comes to terms with what her husband’s death means for her life. 

In the meantime, Josephine sits at Louise’s door, coaxing her to come out because she is worried about Louise’s heart condition. After praying that her life is long-lived, Louise agrees to come out. However, as she comes downstairs, the front door opens to reveal her husband, who had not been killed by the accident at all. Although Richards tries to keep Louise’s heart from shock by shielding her husband from view, Louise dies suddenly, which the doctors later attribute to “heart disease—of the joy that kills .”

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Kate Chopin, the author of "The Story of an Hour," has become one of the most important American writers of the 19th century. 

The History of Kate Chopin and the 1890s

Before we move into “The Story of an Hour” analysis section, it’s helpful to know a little bit about Kate Chopin and the world she lived in. 

A Short Biography of Kate Chopin

Born in 1850 to wealthy Catholic parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Kate Chopin (originally Kate O’Flaherty) knew hardship from an early age. In 1855, Chopin lost her father, Thomas, when he passed away in a tragic and unexpected railroad accident. The events of this loss would stay with Kate for the rest of her life, eventually becoming the basis for “The Story of an Hour” nearly forty years later.

Chopin was well-educated throughout her childhood , reading voraciously and becoming fluent in French. Chopin was also very aware of the divide between the powerful and the oppressed in society at the time . She grew up during the U.S. Civil War, so she had first-hand knowledge of violence and slavery in the United States. 

Chopin was also exposed to non-traditional roles for women through her familial situation. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother chose to remain widows (rather than remarry) after their husbands died. Consequently, Chopin learned how important women’s independence could be, and that idea would permeate much of her writing later on. 

As Chopin grew older, she became known for her beauty and congeniality by society in St. Louis. She was married at the age of nineteen to Oscar Chopin, who came from a wealthy cotton-growing family. The couple moved to New Orleans, where they would start both a general store and a large family. (Chopin would give birth to seven children over the next nine years!) 

While Oscar adored his wife, he was less capable of running a business. Financial trouble forced the family to move around rural Louisiana. Unfortunately, Oscar would die of swamp fever in 1882 , leaving Chopin in heavy debt and with the responsibility of managing the family’s struggling businesses. 

After trying her hand at managing the property for a year, Chopin conceded to her mother’s requests to return with her children to St. Louis. Chopin’s mother died the year after. In order to support herself and her children, Kate began to write to support her family. 

Luckily, Chopin found immediate success as a writer. Many of her short stories and novels—including her most famous novel, The Awakening— dealt with life in Louisiana . She was also known as a fast and prolific writer, and by the end of the 1900s she had written over 100 stories, articles, and essays. 

Unfortunately, Chopin would pass away from a suspected cerebral hemorrhage in 1904, at the age of 54 . But Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and other writings have withstood the test of time. Her work has lived on, and she’s now recognized as one of the most important American writers of the 19th century. 

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American life was undergoing significant change in the 19th century. Technology, culture, and even leisure activities were changing. 

American Life in the 1890s

“The Story of an Hour” was written and published in 1894, right as the 1800s were coming to a close. As the world moved into the new century, American life was also changing rapidly. 

For instance, t he workplace was changing drastically in the 1890s . Gone were the days where most people were expected to work at a trade or on a farm. Factory jobs brought on by industrialization made work more efficient, and many of these factory owners gradually implemented more humane treatment of their workers, giving them more leisure time than ever.

Though the country was in an economic recession at this time, technological changes like electric lighting and the popularization of radios bettered the daily lives of many people and allowed for the creation of new jobs. Notably, however, work was different for women . Working women as a whole were looked down upon by society, no matter why they found themselves in need of a job. 

Women who worked while they were married or pregnant were judged even more harshly. Women of Kate Chopin’s social rank were expected to not work at all , sometimes even delegating the responsibility of managing the house or child-rearing to maids or nannies. In the 1890s, working was only for lower class women who could not afford a life of leisure .

In reaction to this, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was created in 1890, which fought for women’s social and political rights. While Kate Chopin was not a formal member of the suffragette movements, she did believe that women should have greater freedoms as individuals and often talked about these ideas in her works, including in “The Story of an Hour.” 

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Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" a short exploration of marriage and repression in America.

“The Story of an Hour” Analysis

Now that you have some important background information, it’s time to start analyzing “The Story of an Hour.”

This short story is filled with opposing forces . The themes, characters, and even symbols in the story are often equal, but opposite, of one another. Within “The Story of an Hour,” analysis of all of these elements reveals a deeper meaning.

“The Story of an Hour” Themes

A theme is a message explored in a piece of literature. Most stories have multiple themes, which is certainly the case in “The Story of an Hour.” Even though Chopin’s story is short, it discusses the thematic ideas of freedom, repression, and marriage. 

Keep reading for a discussion of the importance of each theme! 

Freedom and Repression

The most prevalent theme in Chopin’s story is the battle between freedom and “repression.” Simply put , repression happens when a person’s thoughts, feelings, or desires are being subdued. Repression can happen internally and externally. For example, if a person goes through a traumatic accident, they may (consciously or subconsciously) choose to repress the memory of the accident itself. Likewise, if a person has wants or needs that society finds unacceptable, society can work to repress that individual. Women in the 19th century were often victims of repression. They were supposed to be demure, gentle, and passive—which often went against women’s personal desires. 

Given this, it becomes apparent that Louise Mallard is the victim of social repression. Until the moment of her husband’s supposed death, Louise does not feel free . In their marriage, Louise is repressed. Readers see this in the fact that Brently is moving around in the outside world, while Louise is confined to her home. Brently uses railroad transportation on his own, walks into his house of his own accord, and has individual possessions in the form of his briefcase and umbrella. Brently is even free from the knowledge of the train wreck upon his return home. Louise, on the other hand, is stuck at home by virtue of her position as a woman and her heart condition. 

Here, Chopin draws a strong contrast between what it means to be free for men and women. While freedom is just part of what it means to be a man in America, freedom for women looks markedly different. Louise’s life is shaped by what society believes a woman should be and how a wife should behave. Once Louise’s husband “dies,” however, she sees a way where she can start claiming some of the more “masculine” freedoms for herself. Chopin shows how deeply important freedom is to the life of a woman when, in the end, it’s not the shock of her husband’s return of her husband that kills Louise, but rather the thought of losing her freedom again.

Marriage as a “The Story of an Hour” theme is more than just an idyllic life spent with a significant other. The Mallard’s marriage shows a reality of 1890s life that was familiar to many people. Marriage was a means of social control —that is to say, marriage helped keep women in check and secure men’s social and political power. While husbands were usually free to wander the world on their own, hold jobs, and make important family decisions, wives (at least those of the upper class) were expected to stay at home and be domestic. 

Marriage in Louise Mallard’s case has very little love. She sees her marriage as a life-long bond in which she feels trapped, which readers see when she confesses that she loved her husband only “sometimes.” More to the point, she describes her marriage as a “powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” In other words, Louise Mallard feels injustice in the expectation that her life is dictated by the will of her husband.

Like the story, the marriages Kate witnessed often ended in an early or unexpected death. The women of her family, including Kate herself, all survived their husbands and didn’t remarry. While history tells us that Kate Chopin was happy in her marriage, she was aware that many women weren’t. By showing a marriage that had been built on control and society’s expectations, Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” highlights the need for a world that respected women as valuable partners in marriage as well as capable individuals.

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While this painting by Johann Georg Meyer wasn't specifically of Louise Mallard, "Young Woman Looking Through a Window" is a depiction of what Louise might have looked like as she realized her freedom.

"The Story of an Hour" Characters

The best stories have developed characters, which is the case in “The Story of an Hour,” too. Five characters make up the cast of “The Story of an Hour”:

Louise Mallard

Brently mallard.

  • The doctor(s)

By exploring the details of each character, we can better understand their motivations, societal role, and purpose to the story.

From the opening sentence alone, we learn a lot about Louise Mallard. Chopin writes, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.”

From that statement alone, we know that she is married, has a heart condition, and is likely to react strongly to bad news . We also know that the person who is sharing the bad news views Louise as delicate and sensitive. Throughout the next few paragraphs, we also learn that Louise is a housewife, which indicates that she would be part of the middle-to-upper class in the 1890s. Chopin also describes Louise’s appearance as “young,” “fair, calm face,” with lines of “strength.” These characteristics are not purely physical, but also bleed into her character throughout the story.

Louise’s personality is described as different from other women . While many women would be struck with the news in disbelief, Louise cries with “wild abandonment”—which shows how powerful her emotions are. Additionally, while other women would be content to mourn for longer, Louise quickly transitions from grief to joy about her husband’s passing.  

Ultimately, Chopin uses Louise’s character to show readers what a woman’s typical experience within marriage was in the 1890s. She uses Louise to criticize the oppressive and repressive nature of marriage, especially when Louise rejoices in her newfound freedom. 

Josephine is Louise’s sister . We never hear of Josephine’s last name or whether she is married or not. We do know that she has come with Richards, a friend of Brently’s, to break the news of his death to her sister. 

When Josephine tells Louise the bad news, she’s only able to tell Louise of Brently’s death in “veiled hints,” rather than telling her outright. Readers can interpret this as Josephine’s attempt at sparing Louise’s feelings. Josephine is especially worried about her sister’s heart condition, which we see in greater detail later as she warns Louise, “You will make yourself ill.” When Louise locks herself in her room, Josephine is desperate to make sure her sister is okay and begs Louise to let her in. 

Josephine is the key supporting character for Louise, helping her mourn, though she never knows that Louise found new freedom from her husband’s supposed death . But from Josephine’s actions and interactions with Louise, readers can accurately surmise that she cares for her sister (even if she’s unaware of how miserable Louise finds her life). 

Richards is another supporting character, though he is described as Brently’s friend, not Louise’s friend. It is Richards who finds out about Brently Mallard’s supposed death while at the newspaper office—he sees Brently’s name “leading the list of ‘killed.’” Richards’ main role in “The Story of an Hour” is to kick off the story’s plot. 

Additionally, Richard’s presence at the newspaper office suggests he’s a writer, editor, or otherwise employee of the newspaper (although Chopin leaves this to readers’ inferences). Richards takes enough care to double-check the news and to make sure that Brently’s likely dead. He also enlists Josephine’s help to break the news to Louise. He tries to get to Louise before a “less careful, less tender friend” can break the sad news to her, which suggests that he’s a thoughtful person in his own right. 

It’s also important to note is that Richards is aware of Louise’s heart condition, meaning that he knows Louise Mallard well enough to know of her health and how she is likely to bear grief. He appears again in the story at the very end, when he tries (and fails) to shield Brently from his wife’s view to prevent her heart from reacting badly. While Richards is a background character in the narrative, he demonstrates a high level of friendship, consideration, and care for Louise. 

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Brently Mallard would have been riding in a train like this one when the accident supposedly occurred.

  Mr. Brently Mallard is the husband of the main character, Louise. We get few details about him, though readers do know he’s been on a train that has met with a serious accident. For the majority of the story, readers believe Brently Mallard is dead—though the end of “The Story of an Hour” reveals that he’s been alive all along. In fact, Brently doesn’t even know of the railroad tragedy when he arrives home “travel-stained.”

  Immediately after Louise hears the news of his death, she remembers him fondly. She remarks on his “kind, tender hands” and says that Brently “never looked save with love” upon her . It’s not so much Brently as it’s her marriage to him which oppresses Louise. While he apparently always loved Louise, Louise only “sometimes” loved Brently. She constantly felt that he “impose[d] a private will” upon her, as most husbands do their wives. And while she realizes that Brently likely did so without malice, she also realized that “a kind intention or a cruel intention” makes the repression “no less a crime.” 

Brently’s absence in the story does two things. First, it contrasts starkly with Louise’s life of illness and confinement. Second, Brently’s absence allows Louise to imagine a life of freedom outside of the confines of marriage , which gives her hope. In fact, when he appears alive and well (and dashes Louise’s hopes of freedom), she passes away. 

The Doctor(s)

Though the mention of them is brief, the final sentence of the story is striking. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” Just as she had no freedom in life, her liberation from the death of her husband is told as a joy that killed her.

In life as in death, the truth of Louise Mallard is never known. Everything the readers know about her delight in her newfound freedom happens in Louise’s own mind; she never gets the chance to share her secret joy with anyone else.

Consequently, the ending of the story is double-sided. If the doctors are to be believed, Louise Mallard was happy to see her husband, and her heart betrayed her. And outwardly, no one has any reason to suspect otherwise. Her reaction is that of a dutiful, delicate wife who couldn’t bear the shock of her husband returned from the grave. 

But readers can infer that Louise Mallard died of the grief of a freedom she never had , then found, then lost once more. Readers can interpret Louise’s death as her experience of true grief in the story—that for her ideal life, briefly realized then snatched away. 

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In "The Story of an Hour," the appearance of hearts symbolize both repression and hope.

“The Story of an Hour” Symbolism and Motifs

  Symbols are any object, word, or other element that appear in the story and have additional meanings beyond. Motifs are elements from a story that gain meaning from being repeated throughout the narrative. The line between symbols and motifs is often hazy, but authors use both to help communicate their ideas and themes. 

  In “The Story of an Hour,” symbolism is everywhere, but the three major symbols present in the story are: 

  •   The heart
  • The house and the outdoors
  • Joy and sorrow

Heart disease, referred to as a “heart condition” within the text, opens and closes the text. The disease is the initial cause for everyone’s concern, since Louise’s condition makes her delicate. Later, heart disease causes Louise’s death upon Brently’s safe return. In this case, Louise’s ailing heart has symbolic value because it suggests to readers that her life has left her heartbroken. When she believes she’s finally found freedom, Louise prays for a long life...when just the day before, she’d “had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”

As Louise realizes her freedom, it’s almost as if her heart sparks back to life. Chopin writes, “Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously...she was striving to beat it back...Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” These words suggest that, with her newfound freedom, the symptoms of her heart disease have lifted. Readers can surmise that Louise’s diseased heart is the result of being repressed, and hope brings her heart back to life. 

  Unfortunately, when Brently comes back, so does Louise’s heart disease. And, although her death is attributed to joy, the return of her (both symbolic and literal) heart disease kills her in the end. 

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The House and the Outdoors

The second set of symbols are Louise’s house and the world she can see outside of her window. Chopin contrasts these two symbolic images to help readers better understand how marriage and repression have affected Louise. 

First of all, Louise is confined to the home—both within the story and in general. For her, however, her home isn’t a place to relax and feel comfortable. It’s more like a prison cell. All of the descriptions of the house reinforce the idea that it’s closed off and inescapable . For instance, the front door is locked when Mr. Mallard returns home. When Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief, she goes deeper inside her house and locks herself in her room.

In that room, however, Mrs. Mallard takes note of the outdoors by looking out of her window.  Even in her momentary grief, she describes the “open square before her house” and “the new spring life.” The outdoors symbolize freedom in the story, so it’s no surprise that she realizes her newfound freedom as she looks out her window. Everything about the outside is free, beautiful, open, inviting, and pleasant...a stark contrast from the sadness inside the house . 

The house and its differences from outdoors serve as one of many symbols for how Louise feels about her marriage: barred from a world of independence.

Joy and Sorrow

  Finally, joy and sorrow are motifs that come at unexpected times throughout “The Story of an Hour.” Chopin juxtaposes joy and sorrow to highlight how tragedy releases Louise from her sorrow and gives her a joyous hope for the future. 

At first, sorrow appears as Louise mourns the death of her husband. Yet, in just a few paragraphs, she finds joy in the event as she discovers a life of her own. Though Louise is able to see that feeling joy at such an event is “monstrous,” she continues to revel in her happiness. 

  It is later that, when others expect her to be joyful, Josephine lets out a “piercing cry,” and Louise dies. Doctors interpret this as “the joy that kills,” but more likely it’s a sorrow that kills. The reversal of the “appropriate” feelings at each event reveals how counterintuitive the “self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” is to the surrounding culture. This paradox reveals something staggering about Louise’s married life: she is so unhappy with her situation that grief gives her hope...and she dies when that hope is taken away. 

Key Takeaways: Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” 

Analyzing Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” takes time and careful thought despite the shortness of the story. The story is open to multiple interpretations and has a lot to reveal about women in the 1890s, and many of the story’s themes, characters, and symbols critique women’s marriage roles during the period .

There’s a lot to dig through when it comes to “The Story of an Hour” analysis. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just remember a few things :

  • Events from Kate Chopin’s life and from social changes in the 1890s provided a strong basis for the story.
  • Mrs. Louise Mallard’s heart condition, house, and feelings represent deeper meanings in the narrative.
  • Louise goes from a state of repression, to freedom, and then back to repression, and the thought alone is enough to kill her.

Remembering the key plot points, themes, characters, and symbols will help you write any essay or participate in any discussion. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” has much more to uncover, so read it again, ask questions, and start exploring the story beyond the page!

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What’s Next? 

You may have found your way to this article because analyzing literature can be tricky to master. But like any skill, you can improve with practice! First, make sure you have the right tools for the job by learning about literary elements. Start by mastering the 9 elements in every piece of literature , then dig into our element-specific guides (like this one on imagery and this one on personification .)

Another good way to start practicing your analytical skills is to read through additional expert guides like this one. Literary guides can help show you what to look for and explain why certain details are important. You can start with our analysis of Dylan Thomas’ poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” We also have longer guides on other words like The Great Gatsby and The Crucible , too.

If you’re preparing to take the AP Literature exam, it’s even more important that you’re able to quickly and accurately analyze a text . Don’t worry, though: we’ve got tons of helpful material for you. First, check out this overview of the AP Literature exam . Once you have a handle on the test, you can start practicing the multiple choice questions , and even take a few full-length practice tests . Oh, and make sure you’re ready for the essay portion of the test by checking out our AP Literature reading list!

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Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Analysis of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

Self-Determination and Louise Mallard Living for Herself

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"The Story of an Hour" by American author Kate Chopin is a mainstay of feminist literary study . Originally published in 1894, the story documents the complicated reaction of Louise Mallard upon learning of her husband's death.

It is difficult to discuss "The Story of an Hour" without addressing the ironic ending. If you haven't read the story yet, you might as well, as it's only about 1,000 words. The Kate Chopin International Society is kind enough to provide a free, accurate version .

At the Beginning, News That Will Devastate Louise

At the beginning of the story, Richards and Josephine believe they must break the news of Brently Mallard's death to Louise Mallard as gently as possible. Josephine informs her "in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing." Their assumption, not an unreasonable one, is that this unthinkable news will be devastating to Louise and will threaten her weak heart.

A Growing Awareness of Freedom

Yet something even more unthinkable lurks in this story: Louise's growing awareness of the freedom she will have without Brently.

At first, she doesn't consciously allow herself to think about this freedom. The knowledge reaches her wordlessly and symbolically, via the "open window" through which she sees the "open square" in front of her house. The repetition of the word "open" emphasizes possibility and a lack of restrictions.

Patches of Blue Sky Amid the Clouds

The scene is full of energy and hope. The trees are "all aquiver with the new spring of life," the "delicious breath of rain" is in the air, sparrows are twittering, and Louise can hear someone singing a song in the distance. She can see "patches of blue sky" amid the clouds.

She observes these patches of blue sky without registering what they might mean. Describing Louise's gaze, Chopin writes, "It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought." If she had been thinking intelligently, social norms might have prevented her from such a heretical recognition. Instead, the world offers her "veiled hints" that she slowly pieces together without even realizing she is doing so.

A Force Is Too Powerful to Oppose

In fact, Louise resists the impending awareness, regarding it "fearfully." As she begins to realize what it is, she strives "to beat it back with her will." Yet its force is too powerful to oppose.

This story can be uncomfortable to read because, on the surface, Louise seems to be glad that her husband has died. But that isn't quite accurate. She thinks of Brently's "kind, tender hands" and "the face that had never looked save with love upon her," and she recognizes that she has not finished weeping for him.

Her Desire for Self-Determination

But his death has made her see something she hasn't seen before and might likely never have seen if he had lived: her desire for self-determination .

Once she allows herself to recognize her approaching freedom, she utters the word "free" over and over again, relishing it. Her fear and her uncomprehending stare are replaced by acceptance and excitement. She looks forward to "years to come that would belong to her absolutely."

She Would Live for Herself

In one of the most important passages of the story, Chopin describes Louise's vision of self-determination. It's not so much about getting rid of her husband as it is about being entirely in charge of her own life, "body and soul." Chopin writes:

"There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a will upon a fellow-creature."

Note the phrase men and women. Louise never catalogs any specific offenses Brently has committed against her; rather, the implication seems to be that marriage can be stifling for both parties.

The Irony of Joy That Kills

When Brently Mallard enters the house alive and well in the final scene, his appearance is utterly ordinary. He is "a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella." His mundane appearance contrasts greatly with Louise's "feverish triumph" and her walking down the stairs like a "goddess of Victory."

When the doctors determine that Louise "died of heart disease -- of joy that kills," the reader immediately recognizes the irony . It seems clear that her shock was not joy over her husband's survival, but rather distress over losing her cherished, newfound freedom. Louise did briefly experience joy -- the joy of imagining herself in control of her own life. And it was the removal of that intense joy that led to her death.

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Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 28, 2021

Originally entitled “The Dream of an Hour” when it was first published in Vogue (December 1894), “The Story of an Hour” has since become one of Kate Chopin’s most frequently anthologized stories. Among her shortest and most daring works, “Story” examines issues of feminism, namely, a woman’s dissatisfaction in a conventional marriage and her desire for independence. It also features Chopin’s characteristic irony and ambiguity .

The story begins with Louise Mallard’s being told about her husband’s presumed death in a train accident. Louise initially weeps with wild abandon, then retires alone to her upstairs bedroom. As she sits facing the open window, observing the new spring life outside, she realizes with a “clear and exalted perception” that she is now free of her husband’s “powerful will bending hers” (353). She becomes delirious with the prospect that she can now live for herself and prays that her life may be long. Her newfound independence is short-lived, however. In a surprise ending, her husband walks through the front door, and Louise suffers a heart attack and dies. Her death may be considered a tragic defeat or a pyrrhic victory for a woman who would rather die than lose that “possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” (353). The doctors ironically attribute her death to the “joy that kills” (354).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Chopin, Kate. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Edited by Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. Koloski, Bernard. Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1996. Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. New York: Morrow, 1990

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Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Some short stories can say all they need to do in just a few pages, and Kate Chopin’s three-page 1894 story ‘The Story of an Hour’ (sometimes known as ‘The Dream of an Hour’) is a classic example. Yet those three pages remain tantalisingly ambiguous, perhaps because so little is said, so much merely hinted at. Yet Chopin’s short story is, upon closer inspection, a subtle, studied analysis of death, marriage, and personal wishes.

Written in April 1894 and originally published in Vogue in December of that year, the story focuses on an hour in the life of a married woman who has just learnt that her husband has apparently died.

‘The Story of an Hour’: plot summary

What happens in that brief hour, that story of an hour? A married woman, Mrs Louise Mallard, who has heart trouble, learns that her husband has died in a railroad accident.

Her sister Josephine breaks the news to her; it was her husband’s friend Richards who first heard about the railroad disaster and saw her husband’s name, Brently Mallard, at the top of the list of fatalities. Her first reaction is to weep at the news that her husband is dead; she then takes herself off to her room to be alone.

She sinks into an armchair and finds herself attuned to a series of sensations: the trees outside the window ‘aquiver with the new spring life’, the ‘breath of rain’ in the air; the sound of a peddler crying his wares in the street below. She finds herself going into a sort of trancelike daze, a ‘suspension of intelligent thought’.

Then, gradually, a feeling begins to form within her: a sense of freedom. Now her husband is dead, it seems, she feels free. She dreads seeing her husband’s face (as she knows she must, when she goes to identify the body), but she knows that beyond that lie years and years of her life yet to be lived, and ‘would all belong to her absolutely’.

She reflects that she had loved her husband – sometimes. Sometimes she hadn’t. But now, that didn’t matter: what matters is the ‘self-assertion’, the declaration of independence, that her life alone represents a new start.

But then, her sister Josephine calls from outside the door for her to come out, worried that Louise is making herself ill. But Louise doesn’t feel ill: she feels on top of the world. She used to dread the prospect of living to a ripe old age, but now she welcomes such a prospect. Eventually she opens the door and she and Josephine go back downstairs.

Richards is still down there, waiting for them. Then, there’s a key in the front door and who should enter but … Mrs Mallard’s husband, Brently Mallard.

It turns out he was nowhere near the scene of the railroad accident, and is unharmed! Mrs Mallard is so shocked at his return that she dies, partly because of her heart disease but also, so ‘they’ said, from the unexpected ‘joy’ of her husband’s return.

‘The Story of an Hour’: analysis

In some ways, ‘The Story of an Hour’ prefigures a later story like D. H. Lawrence’s ‘ Odour of Chrysanthemums ’ (1911), which also features a female protagonist whose partner’s death makes her reassess her life with him and to contemplate the complex responses his death has aroused in her.

However, in Lawrence’s story the husband really has died (in a mining accident), whereas in ‘The Story of an Hour’, we find out at the end of the story that Mr Mallard was not involved in the railroad accident and is alive and well. In a shock twist, it is his wife who dies, upon learning that he is still alive.

What should we make of this ‘dream of an hour’? That alternative title is significant, not least because of the ambiguity surrounding the word ‘dream’. Is Louise so plunged into shock by the news of her husband’s apparent death that she begins to hallucinate that she would be better off without him? Is this her way of coping with traumatic news – to try to look for the silver lining in a very black cloud? Or should we analyse ‘dream’ as a sign that she entertains aspirations and ambitions, now her husband is out of the way?

‘The Dream of an Hour’ perhaps inevitably puts us in mind of Kate Chopin’s most famous story, the short novel The Awakening (1899), whose title reflects its female protagonist Edna Pontellier’s growing awareness that there is more to life than her wifely existence.

But Louisa Mallard’s ‘awakening’ remains a dream; when she awakes from it, upon learning that her husband is still alive and all her fancies about her future life have been in vain, she dies.

‘The Story of an Hour’ and modernism

‘The Story of an Hour’ is an early example of the impressionistic method of storytelling which was also being developed by Anton Chekhov around the same time as Chopin, and which would later be used by modernists such as Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf.

Although the story uses an omniscient third-person narrator, we are shown things from particular character perspectives in a way that reflects their own confusions and erratic thoughts – chiefly, of course, Louisa Mallard’s own.

But this impressionistic style – which is more interested in patterns of thought, daydreaming, and emotional responses to the world than in tightly structured plots – continues right until the end of the story.

Consider the final sentence of the story: ‘When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills.’ The irony, of course, is that Louisa appears to have accepted her husband’s death and to have taken his demise as a chance to liberate herself from an oppressive marriage (note Chopin’s reference to the lines on her face which ‘bespoke repression and even a certain strength’ – what did she need that strength for, we wonder?).

So it was not joy but disappointment, if anything, that brought on the heart attack that killed her. But the (presumably male) doctors who attended her death would not have assumed any such thing: they would have analysed her death as a result of her love for her husband, and the sheer joy she felt at having him back.

Chopin’s story also foreshadows Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Garden Party’ , and Laura Sheridan’s enigmatic emotional reaction to seeing her first dead body (as with Chopin’s story, a man who has died in an accident). If you enjoyed this analysis of ‘The Story of an Hour’, you might also enjoy Anton Chekhov’s 1900 story ‘At Christmas Time’, to which Chopin’s story has been compared.

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The Story of an Hour

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Analysis: “The Story of an Hour”

The title “The Story of an Hour” references the amount of time that elapses in Chopin’s tale, which tracks the emotions and thoughts of the protagonist , Mrs. Louise Mallard , upon learning of her husband’s death. Though the story barely exceeds 1,000 words, Chopin creates a sense of temporal expansion by intricately plotting the transition of Louise’s feelings from grief, to liberation, to joy, to determination, and finally to shock at her husband’s unexpected return. By employing a third-person omniscient narrator, Chopin balances these observations of Louise’s interior life with observations of contemporary social expectations for women in 1890s America. She uses psychological realism , a literary genre that prioritizes character interiority over action, and that was popular with late 19th-century writers who were also influenced by the naturalist and realist literary movements.

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The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin | Characters, Summary, Analysis, Setting, Theme

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin | Characters, Summary, Analysis, Setting, Theme

The Story of an Hour Short Story

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Story of an Hour is a phenomenal American short story written by Kate Chopin on April 19, 1894, and published in Vogue on December to 1894. Initially, it was written and first published under the title “ The Dream of an Hour “. It was reprinted in St. Louis Life on January 5, 1895.

The title of the short story refers to the time elapsed between the moments at which the protagonist, Louis Mallard , hears that her husband is dead and discovers that he is alive after all. The Story of an Hour was considered controversial during the 1898-s because it deals with a female protagonist who feels liberated by the news of her husband’s death. In Unveiling Kate Chopin, Emile Toth argues that Chopin “had to have her heroine die” in order to make the story publishable.

The Story of an Hour Setting

The Story of an Hour has been strongly linked with the ideals of the women’s liberation movement of the 1960’s when feminists took a stand to fight to give women more freedom in America. The reason “The Story of an Hour” was an important piece of literary work at this time was because of its radical story. In the story, this housewife who has been confined to the social norms of the obedient wife, has an unorthodox reaction to the death of her husband she anticipates her newfound freedom from the suppression of the husband, of men and becomes invigorated by it. This idea is one of the key values of the bus The Story of an Hour” was an important work to show a woman’s break from the norm of society.

Marriage Vs Freedom Theme

The idea of Marriage Vs. Freedom is a growing theme in modern American Women Writing during Kate Chopin’s time. The idea that women can look beyond marriage as their lifelong goal to achieve is a teetering idea for women seeking independence.

Mrs. Mallard believes that both women and men limit each other in matrimony. She does not express any apparent ill-will against Mr. Mallard and has even admitted to loving him at some points. Due to its structure as telling the situation within an hour’s time, no background information is given about Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s relationship. This is an effective style that Chopin utilizes. The story is not about the husband being abusive to his wife or vice-versa. Instead, it focuses on the individual’s inner desires for freedom. The point of view of The Story of an Hour is that of the wife. Louise’s desire for freedom far exceeds her love for him a controversial idea that goes against the norms of society. She would rather live freely than be in a marriage that subjects her to domesticity. “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a follow-creature”.

The Story of an Hour Summary

The short story describes the series of emotions Louis Mallard endures after hearing of the death of her husband, who was believed to have died in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart problems and therefore her sister attempts to inform her of the horrific news in a gentle way. Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room to immediately mourn the loss of her husband. However, she begins to feel on unexpected sense of exhilaration. “Free ! Body and soul free !” is what she believes is a benefit of his death. At the end of the story, it is made known that her husband was not involved in the railroad disaster and upon his return home Mrs. Mallard suddenly dies. The cause of her death is ambiguous and left for analysis as it can range from her known heart problems to psychological factors. We can ask ourselves if the real reason for the death was known that she would not be free after she sees that her husband isn’t really dead.

The Story of an Hour Characters

Mrs. louise mallard.

Mrs. Louise Mallard is the protagonist of the story. Si introduced as being “afflicted with a heart trouble”, which is who great care is taken in telling her of her husband’s death. She mour her husband, but then begins to feel relieved and liberated.

Mr. Brently Mallard

Mr. Brently Mallard is the husband of Louise Mallard. He is assumed dead until the end of the story when it is revealed that the news of his death was a mistake. While we do not really meet him or learn much about him, it is assumed he is the typical husband of the time period. He is out working and travelling, with his wife home caring for his home.

Mushephine is Louise’s sister who tells Louise of her husband’s death. She embodies the feminine ideals of the time, acting as the picture perfect wife figure. She is overly concerned about her sister because according to the standards of the time, she feels this should ruin her world. Through her, we see the norms of the time period contrasted to the rebellious reaction of Louise.

Richards is Mr. Mallard’s friend and is the first person to hear of Brently’s death, coming over to inform Louise safely. He represents the standard image and expectations of the man during the time period responsible for protecting women. However, he fails which could have been a bit controversial for the time period.

The Story of an Hour Analysis

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour falls on ironically detached and melancholy tone. The unrecognized unspoken unhappiness that seems to rule Louise Mallard life is realized only upon word of her husband’s demise, and swiftly taken away again at his revival”. The story comes off as subtly cruelled in that Louise’s reaction to the death of her husband was not one of sadness from loss to rather a bitter joy she feels when she comes to the understand that she is now free from the shackles of marriage, his perceived death representing freedom and independence from the role she is forever bound to do.

Meanwhile the people around her think she’s crying her eyes out over her dead husband. Really, though, she’s relieved to be free. No one understands her. At the end of the story, the doctors agree that she must have died from a sudden shock of extreme happiness from finding out that her husband lived after all. The story gives readers an almost out-of-body experience of the protagonist, Louise and rather than sentimental, the story takes on the approach of revolutionary in a way into new perspectives that much of society at the time did not believe.

In her article, “Emotions in ‘The story of An Hour’,” Jamil argues that Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard’s perception of her husband’s supposed death as fostered by emotions, rather than by rationality. Tamil claims that up until that point, Mrs. Mallard’s life had been devoid of emotion to such an extent that she has even wondered if it is worth living. The repression of emotion may represent Mrs. Mallard’s repressive husband, who had, up until that point, “smothered and “silenced her will. Therefore, her newfound freedom is brought on by an influx of emotion (representing the death of the figure of the repressive husband) that adds meaning and value to her life. For, though Mrs. Mallard initially feels fear when she hears of her husband’s death the strength of the emotion is so powerful that Mrs. Mallard actually feels joy (because she is feeling). Since this “joy that kills” ultimately leads to Mrs. Mallard’s death, one possible interpretation is that the repression of Mrs. Mallard’s feeling is what killed her in the end.

In the same article, Jamil shows that Mrs. Mallard faces as a wife. She realizes how after her husband’s apparent death that she was “free, free, free”. This shows how her life would change and that she is now a new person and removed from the repressed life she faced before. No evidence is given in the story about how she is repressed, but her reaction of his death and her new found confidence and freedom is enough. This repression of herself that she dealt with has now been removed and enabled her to be free.

Mrs. Mallard’s character shows no emotion until she hears that her husband has died ; in fact, her ‘heart trouble’ is more than physical issue, but rather more of an emotional concern. Similarly, by using her five senses, Louise familiarizes with how nature smells, sounds etc. As well, her emotions create a harmony between her senses (body) and her own self (soul). The season of spring is a time of rebirth, where plants grow and develop; Louise is reborn, has a new energy, and new perspectives on life. Louise envisions herself as a free woman now that her husband has tragically died. She can now live for herself and nobody else. In the end, the build up of emotion creates an overexcitement for Louise which takes a toll on her heart condition, because, Mrs. Mallard was able to branch out of her comfort zone and physically and emotionally experience the world, she has finally discovered who she is.

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The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin : Summary and Analysis

The story of an hour summary.

Summary and Analysis of The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

The Story of an Hour : The Story 

The Story of an Hour , originally titled The Dream of an Hour by Kate Chopin concerns a curious episode in the life of a woman who has just heard the news of her husband’s death and who comes to terms with the consequences arising thereof. Blasting off gender stereotypes in a frank and  honest manner, this story brings up some disconcerting issues and raises some important questions around the construction of femininity and the institution of marriage.

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Summary and Analysis of The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

The Story of an Hour : Summary

   Mrs Mallard , the protagonist of the story isn’t satisfied with her marriage to Brently Mallard . Some important facts are presented right at the outset of the story : that Mrs Mallard is afflicted with a heart disease and that her husband has just been killed in a railroad accident . Her sister Josephine and her husband’s  friend Richards are the first (and the last) give her the sad news. Richards had in fact been  the first to receive the telegram notifying  Mr  Mallards’s death.  He rushes to the house with the motive of relating her the news in as gentle a manner as possible. Finally, it’s Josephine who breaks the  news.

Instead of giving in to mute resignation, Mrs Mallard cries her heart out, locks herself  in her room and  sinks into an armchair. She takes some time to recover composure before stumbling upon an important realisation –  that she is free from her husband’s command and henceforth can become the mistress of her own life.   At first, she comes across a feeling “ too subtle and elusive to name “. She even tries to fight it back for sometime before the words finally escape her lips ” free, free free !”. Her eyes lose the vacant stare of terror and instead turn “ keen and brigh t”. We then witness her   breaking free from the socially constructed role of the dutiful wife .  It is a  moment of epiphany. A highly sensory language  is used to describe the intensity of her feelings. It’s as if she’s just come alive to the experiences around her:

She could see in the open so hard before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring  life… There would be no one to live for her during those coming  years; she would live for herself.

    It seems as if she was living her life for somebody else all this time . The fact that it is her husband’s death which brings her alive to all the happenings around her is quite telling. Mrs Mallard begins to feel that the feeling of “love”  isn’t in fact as powerful as the possession of self assertion.

Meanwhile, her sister Josephine is standing at the door, pleading her sister to open it. Louise ‘s ( No more Mrs Mallard now)  joy over this newfound freedom is so complete that she almost gives herself away when she gives in to her sister’s request and comes out of the room carrying herself unwittingly  “like a goddess of Victory.” However, her joy  turns out to be a short-lived one and her freedom remains unrealized when Mr Mallard enters the house . Turns out, it was a different Brently Mallard who was killed in the railroad accident. Being afflicted with a heart trouble and with all her dreams dashed at the unfortunate sight of her healthy husband, Lousia  gets a heart stroke and dies.

The Story of an Hour : Analysis

The Story of an Hour is what it says: it is the story of an hour in the life of a married woman. However, this hour is unlike any she has been  through so far. It is in this hour that she, on hearing about her husband’s ‘death’ discovers her freedom. Spanning a great length of barely three pages, the well-crafted story is a strong feminist critique of the society,  the institution of marriage and the construction of femininity within that institution. Furthermore, it is also a critique of the (mis)representation and misinterpretation of women in art and literature . Female self-assertion , independence and freedom lie at the core of this short story. Chopin’s intense engagement with the feminist cause is central to understanding the story which has been hailed as one of the foremost examples of feminist fiction in the short story form .

Chopin’s construction of the plot, the protagonist and  her use of language demands undivided attention if one is to make a sound analysis of this story.

Mrs Mallard is introduced as an unhappy housewife with a heart trouble. The mention of her heart condition right at the beginning of the story is significant and will be taken up later in the course of analysis.

The well-wishers of Mrs Mallard try to soften the blow of her husband’s death as carefully as possible. Her sister tries to convey the message “ in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing” . Her husband’s friend Richards hurries himself to the spot to prevent “ any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message “. Though it is true that her heart trouble necessitated  such precautions, it is safe to assume that the manner of informing her about her husband’s death would’ve been just as covert even if she did not have a heart trouble. The most obvious reason for such a cautionary move is the blow inflicted by a dear one’s death. The not-so-obvious reason is that women in the past have been constructed as  delicate people when it comes to handling such situations. Years of construction of feminity  by  male writers and the reiteration of gender stereotypes in literature has led to the creation of certain behavioural ‘expectations’ from the female character. This is perhaps what Kate Chopin is consciously writing against . Consider the first line of the third stanza of the story:

“She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance”

Which women is the speaker talking about? The women in real life or the women in fiction, or both? Chopin is keenly aware of the gender stereotypes engendered by years of male-centered literature. Perhaps she  is also aware of the stereotypes being shared by the reader. It is this consciousness about the tradition of writing preceding her and the reworking of that tradition which makes The Story of an Hour not just a story  of an hour but a response to the Stories of the Ages which had established the ‘norm’ through literary repetition.

A ‘ storm of grief ‘ overwhelms Mrs Mallard on hearing of her husband’s death. After the storm subsides, she goes to her room and becomes aware of the new possibilities her life can take following her husband’s death.

One might be tempted to dismiss Mrs Mallard as a selfish person. However, she isn’t an unfeeling individual . We are told that “ she knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind tender hands folded in death ”.  She isn’t happy that her husband died. She’s happy that she is free. There’s a difference between the two. The unrealistic societal expectations asking women to feel in this way and not that, to react in one way and not another has been reinforced by a huge portion of literature to such an extent  that the female figure has frequently been either deified or demonized and   often been denied a fair treatment on human terms. When given due consideration, we find that the seeming ‘selfishness’ of Mrs Mallard is no more than a very basic human aspiration: to be seen and  be treated as a free human being . And it isn’t just about women the speaker is concerned with. We are given to understand she is against the “blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. ”

Neither is it the case that their’s is a loveless marriage or that Mr Mallard is a bad husband. We are told that  Brently’s was a “ face that had never looked save with love upon her “. But perhaps love isn’t enough. Perhaps it is the institution of marriage itself which results in unequal power relation between either parties which further leads to one’s will being suppressed by another, no matter how benevolent the partner may be. By locating the suffocation faced  by Mrs Mallard within the structure of a relatively good marriage, Chopin locates the problem in the structure itself and leaves no room to point at  Mrs Mallard’s situation as a strictly subjective case.

A rich symbolism is employed in the scene where Mrs Mallard shuts herself in a room after hearing of her husband’s death where she leans against an open window:

The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

This heavily sensory imagery , completely engulfing the visual, the aural and the olfactory seethes with a newfound desire for life. It is as if she has been reborn. Moving beyond the literal, the open window is symbolic of the opening of a new life after her husband’s death. The blue sky reflects the freedom she now has and the infinite possibilities her life can now acquire. This is especially the case since the blue sky shows “ through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other “, similar to the way in which years of her marriage had subjugated of her will to that of her husband’s and had suffocated her life so far.

Chopin has made a brilliant use of contrast in this story. Mrs Mallard’s death is contrasted with Louise’s newfound life. Notice, that Mr Mallard is supposed to have died in a railroad accident, a casualty of a hard, mechanical machine. Mechanical, like an institution – like the institution of marriage. Louise’s  discovery of a new  life on the other hand is organic and takes place in the lap of nature where the “ trees are aquiver with the new spring life “. This free state of being is natural, unlike the artificial man-made institution of marriage.

Because gender identity has been actively constructed through narratives and acting out of those narratives in real life, the actions of people are often (mis)interpreted by comparing it with a set of “expected” behaviour. This is perhaps one of the reasons why Josephine kneels before the keyhole of the closed door, imploring her sister to open the door  saying that “ she will make herself ill” and Richard rushes to the scene before any “ less careful ‘ and ‘ less tender ‘ person relates the message. However,our Mrs Mallard is beyond any societal ‘expectation’ because she is an individual, a human being and her identity cannot be compartmentalized within the narrow confines of societal norms. It is interesting to note that this is also the first time (and that towards the very end of the story)  we get to hear the actual name of the protagonist  and not merely by her title  and an appendage of her husband.    Louise  is much more than Mrs Mallard . And that we come to know her real name and identity only after her husband’s supposed death is a telling one indeed.

Here, one may briefly touch upon thecharacter of Josephine , Mrs Mallard’s sister who serves as a foil to the protagonist . Josephine is someone who plays by the narrative insofar as the construction of the female identity is concerned. She expects her sister to react in a certain manner on hearing about her husband’s death and though her behavior may border on sisterly concern, she seems to have internalized the narrative constructed around the idea of a ‘wife’ and fails to anticipate or imagine an alternative mode of behavior on one’s part as opposed to the established ‘traditional’ one.

A close relationship between freedom and happiness is established in Mrs Mallard’s epiphanic moment after her husband’s death. She begins to view freedom as the strongest impulse and a real condition, above the romanticized interpretation of love and marriage. Freedom therefore becomes a necessary condition for happiness:

What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

A highly figurative language, rich in similies and metaphors is deployed in this amazingly brief story. The storm of grief makes Mrs Mallard sob like a child before a monstrous joy overwhelms her and her  fancy runs riot , making her carry herself like a goddess of Victory . Eventually, she ‘ descends ‘ the stairs, away from her freedom to death. Quite literally.

Mrs Mallard dies of a heart stroke on seeing her husband alive and kicking. The doctor infers the reason to be a sudden joy on her part – a joy that kills. It is here that the little piece of information about her heart condition furnished in the beginning of the story turns out to be of great value. By citing a genuine physical condition right at the outset, Chopin saves the character of Mrs Mallard from being reduced to a caricature and saves the character of  from collapsing into  another stereotype.

The importance of ‘truth’ and its interpretation is one of the central concerns of the story . The literary device of foreshadowing is employed to understand the nature of a fact and its interpretation. The problems of interpreting a fact is more importantly seen in two different instances at the opposite ends of the story. In the beginning of the story , the first person to receive the news about Mr Mallard’s death is Richards who waits for a second telegram to confirm  the ‘truth’ of the first telegram. This verification and interpretation of ‘truth’ turns out to be a false one. Towards the end of the story, another misinterpretation of an event occurs in that, the reason behind Mrs Mallard’s death as stated by the doctor is equally misleading. The doctor attributes her death to a shock of joy. The readers know better. The truth is obliterated in this case, thanks to the interpretation by an authority figure (the doctor) : quite like many traditional modes of thought and behaviour which  amplifies one view and silences another. As in her life, Mrs Mallard has been misinterpreted in her death. And there’s nothing she can do about it, for her final response to the denial of freedom is death.

The Story of An Hour : About the author

Born to a family of French and Irish descent, Kate Chopin was an American novelist and a short story writer who has been widely regarded as one of the foremost American feminist fiction writers.

Chopin’s literary output prior to her marriage was rather negligible. She married a certain Oscar Chopin  in 1870. Oscar died in 1882, leaving Kate in a huge debt. Following his demise, Kate also lost her mother and the double tragedy pushed her into depression. A family friend (doctor by profession) suggested her to start writing as a therapeutic exercise. It was then that her literary career slowly began its course.

Chopin wrote numerous short stories and poems,  regularly contributing to magazines like The Youth Companion and Vogue among others. Her first novel At Fault wasn’t especially popular  but her later collection of short stories established her as a writer of repute. Some of the most important collections of her short stories include Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadia.

The Awakening is generally considered to be her masterpiece where she explores the deepest concerns of a young wife who abandons her family and eventually commits suicide. The book dealt with themes like interracial marriage and female sexuality in a manner which was  far ahead of its time.

Her realistic treatment of female characters, clever use of irony and effective diction marked her  her as a serious writer of  her times and the pages of her literature reflect the first glimpse of feminist thought in fiction. Her short stories like Desiree’s Baby , Regret , Madam Celestinelz  Divorce etc explore the most private desires, emotions and aspirations of the female character. Female same-sex desires have been boldly dealt with in works like Lilacs and The Awakening .

A bulk of her oeuvre explore women’s search for identity and selfhood,  distinct from the socially constructed rules and their attempts at reconstructing the same according to their own terms. The Story of an Hour is borne of such legacy.

Chopin died in August 28, 1904 following a brain hemorrhage.

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The Story of an Hour

Kate chopin.

Easy Insightful Literature Notes

The Story of an Hour Summary & Analysis

The story line / plot summary.

‘The Story of an Hour’ written by Kate Chopin in 1894 is about the tragic event or events that happened with Mrs. Louise Mallard one day.

The story starts with the news that Mr. Brently Mallard has died in a railroad accident. Richards, Mr. Mallard’s friend, is first to hear this shocking news and he informed the Mallard family immediately. Mrs. Louise Mallard has heart disease, so great care is taken in informing Mrs. Mallard about her husband’s death.

Josephine, Louise’s sister, takes the responsibility to break the horrible news to her. She says in broken sentences, the truth veiled in concealment. At once Mrs. Mallard breaks down completely. She goes wild with grief. When the storm of grief has subsided, she locks herself in her bedroom.

Sitting on an armchair near the open window of her room, she looks at the blue sky, physically exhausted. The spring air smells of upcoming rain, of fresh greenery and flowers. She can hear a distant voice singing a song, countless sparrows twittering madly somewhere.

Mrs. Mallard is now motionless in the chair with periodic sobs in between. She was quite young with a calm face. But now there’s a steeliness in her stare. But her gaze isn’t of reflection, there is no sign of intelligence and knowledge in that gaze. She goes quite still and waits with fear for what is coming for her. But she doesn’t know what exactly is coming her way.

Her bosom rises and falls tumultuously. She struggles to keep herself free from the clutches of whatever is trying to drown her. She fights and wins. In her semi-conscious state, she keeps whispering the word “free!” repeatedly. The fear and vacant expression is replaced by a calm, bright and keen expression. ‘At last I’m free’ is her first thought. She thinks that her husband, though kind, never really loved her. She felt suffocated and hopeless with him, not loved and cherished. But now that he’s dead, she can be free. ‘Free soul! Free body!’ are her exact words.

Josephine was kneeling outside Louise’s door, begging her sister to open the door. Louise screams that she’s fine and asks her not to worry for her. Her imagination has taken her on a riot. She was imagining herself during summer, winter, spring and in all the seasons alone, enjoying herself, without any restrictions or sadness.

All of a sudden, she rises and opens the door and walks down the stairs, hand in hand with her sister. But when she reaches the bottom stair, someone opens the door with a latch key. On the threshold stood Mr. Mallard, travel-stained and calmly carrying his umbrella and grip-sack. It is known that he was quite far from the place where the accident had taken place. In fact, he didn’t know there had been an accident at all, let alone that someone had put his name in the dead men’s list.

Then everything happens quite fast; Richard tries to shield Mr. Mallard from Mrs. Mallard’s view but it is too late. The shock of seeing him again kills Louise at once. When the doctors come, they say she died due to her heart disease.

The Story of an Hour: A Commentary on the Story

‘The story of an hour’, as the title suggests, is really a story of an hour of Mrs. Mallard’s life. It’s written in third person narrative technique from an unknown narrator’s perspective. The writing style is quite simple but intriguing as well. The author has done a great job in describing Mrs. Mallard’s despair and then her happiness. The story flow is quite smooth; nothing seems forced or unnatural.

The story starts with the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. The description is quite simple and can make the reader quite curious at the same time. The main concern of the story has been the character of Mrs. Mallard and the purging of her heart by the sad news. At first, upon hearing the news of her husband’s death, she went wild with grief but later came up quite happy to be free from all bondage — from the confinement of marriage. She has come out as a self-asserting and confident woman ahead of her time.

Mrs. Mallard was apparently never loved by her husband and was trapped in a loveless marriage. The event of her husband’s death prompted a kind of rebirth for her. And through this story, the author presents the social themes like male domination in society, and loveless, unsuccessful marriages. The position of women in the society is under the author’s scanner. It has been almost an identity crisis for Louise, which she feels she finds back after her husband’s death. That is why the unexpected return of her husband was so shocking for her.

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The Story of an Hour Critical Analysis Essay

Looking for a critical analysis of The Story of an Hour ? The essay on this page contains a summary of Kate Chopin’s short story, its interpretation, and feminist criticism. Find below The Story of an Hour critique together with the analysis of its characters, themes, symbolism, and irony.

Introduction

Works cited.

The Story of an Hour was written by Kate Chopin in 1984. It describes a woman, Mrs. Mallard, who lost her husband in an accident, but later the truth came out, and the husband was alive. This essay will discuss The Story of an Hour with emphasis on the plot and development of the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, who goes through contrasting emotions and feelings that finally kill her on meeting her husband at the door, yet he had been said to be dead.

The Story of an Hour Summary

Kate Chopin narrated the story of a woman named Mrs. Mallard who had a heart health problem. One day the husband was mistaken to have died in an accident that occurred. Due to her heart condition, her sister had to take care while breaking the bad news to her. She was afraid that such news of her husband’s death would cost her a heart attack. She strategized on how to break the news to her sister bit by bit, which worked perfectly well. Mrs. Mallard did not react as expected; instead, she started weeping just once.

She did not hear the story as many women have had the same with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms (Woodlief 2).

Mrs. Mallard wondered how she would survive without a husband. She went to one room and locked herself alone to ponder what the death of her husband brought to her life. She was sorrowful that her husband had died, like it is human to be sad at such times. This is someone very close to her, but only in a short span of time was no more. This sudden death shocked her. Her sister Josephine and friends Mr. Richard and Louise are also sorry for the loss (Taibah 1).

As she was in that room alone, she thought genuinely about the future. Unexpectedly, she meditated on her life without her husband. Apart from sorrow, she started counting the better part of her life without her husband. She saw many opportunities and freedom to do what she wanted with her life. She believed that the coming years would be perfect for her as she only had herself to worry about. She even prayed that life would be long.

After some time, she opened the door for Josephine, her sister, who had a joyous face. They went down the stairs of the house, and Mr. Mallard appeared as he opened the gate. Mr. Mallard had not been involved in the accident and could not understand why Josephine was crying. At the sight of her husband, Mr. Mallard, his wife, Mrs. Mallard, collapsed to death. The doctors said that she died because of heart disease.

The Story of an Hour Analysis

Mrs. Mallard was known to have a heart problem. Richard, who is Mr. Mallard’s friend, was the one who learned of Mr. Mallard’s death while in the office and about the railroad accident that killed him. They are with Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister, as she breaks the news concerning the sudden death of her husband. The imagery clearly describes the situation.

The writer brought out the suspense in the way he described how the news was to be broken to a person with a heart problem. There is a conflict that then follows in Mrs. Mallard’s response which becomes more complicated. The death saddens Mrs. Mallard, but, on the other hand, she counts beyond the bitter moments and sees freedom laid down for her for the rest of her life. The description of the room and the environment symbolize a desire for freedom.

This story mostly focuses on this woman and a marriage institution. Sad and happy moments alternate in the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard. She is initially sad about the loss of her husband, then in a moment, ponders on the effects of his death and regains strength.

Within a short period, she is shocked by the sight of her husband being alive and even goes to the extreme of destroying her life. She then dies of a heart attack, whereas she was supposed to be happy to see her husband alive. This is an excellent contrast of events, but it makes the story very interesting.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below, a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song that someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window (Woodlief 1).

Therefore, an open window is symbolic. It represents new opportunities and possibilities that she now had in her hands without anyone to stop her, and she refers to it as a new spring of life.

She knew that she was not in a position to bring her husband back to life.

Her feelings were mixed up. Deep inside her, she felt that she had been freed from living for another person.

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her… She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death, the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead (Sparknotes 1).

The author captured a marriage institution that was dominated by a man. This man, Mr. Mallard, did not treat his wife as she would like (the wife) at all times, only sometimes. This Cleary showed that she was peaceful even if her husband was dead. Only some sorrow because of the loss of his life but not of living without him. It seemed that she never felt the love for her husband.

And yet she had loved him sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this procession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! (Woodlief 1).

How could a wife be peaceful at the death of her husband? Though people thought that she treasured her husband, Mr. Mallard, so much and was afraid that she would be stressed, she did not see much of the bitterness like she found her freedom. This reveals how women are oppressed in silence but never exposed due to other factors such as wealth, money, and probably outfits.

As much as wealth is essential, the characters Mr. and Mrs. Mallard despise the inner being. Their hearts were crying amid a physical smile: “Free! Body and soul free!”…Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window” (Woodlief 1).

In this excerpt, Mrs. Mallard knows what she is doing and believes that she is not harming herself. Instead, she knew that though the husband was important to her, marriage had made her a subject to him. This was not in a positive manner but was against her will. It seems she had done many things against her will, against herself, but to please her husband.

Mrs. Mallard’s character is therefore developed throughout this story in a short time and reveals many values that made her what she was. She is a woman with a big desire for freedom that was deprived by a man in marriage. She is very emotional because after seeing her freedom denied for the second time by her husband, who was mistaken to have died, she collapses and dies. The contrast is when the writer says, “She had died of heart disease…of the joy that kills” (Woodlief 1).

Mrs. Mallard was not able to handle the swings in her emotions, and this cost her life. Mr. Mallard was left probably mourning for his wife, whom he never treasured. He took her for granted and had to face the consequences. Oppressing a wife or another person causes a more significant loss to the oppressor. It is quite ironic that Mr. Mallard never knew that his presence killed his wife.

Sparknotes. The Story of an Hour. Sparknotes, 2011. Web.

Taibah. The Story of an Hour. Taibah English Forum, 2011. Web.

Woodlief. The story of an hour . VCU, 2011. Web.

Further Study: FAQ

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Bibliography

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Middle East Crisis Israel Strikes in Lebanon After Deadly Rocket Attack

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  • An Israeli medical team in Safed, Israel, transporting someone wounded in a rocket attack from Lebanon. Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
  • An Israeli police officer in Safed inspecting a crater left by a rocket fired from Lebanon. Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
  • Palestinians leaving Rafah, in southern Gaza. Haitham Imad/EPA, via Shutterstock
  • A banner hanging from a bridge in Tel Aviv aims to keep the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza in the public eye. Susana Vera/Reuters
  • More than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah. Unicef has said that more than 600,000 of them are children. Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
  • Israeli strikes hitting Khan Younis, which is just north of Rafah. Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
  • Israeli protesters at the Nitzana border crossing with Egypt who say aid deliveries help Hamas and should stop until the remaining hostages are freed. Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press
  • Palestinians on Rafah's Mediterranean coast on Wednesday. Haitham Imad/EPA, via Shutterstock

A member of the war cabinet warns that Israel could strike at the Lebanese military.

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Israel carried out extensive and lethal airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel, escalations in recent fighting that threaten to derail diplomatic efforts to prevent a major expansion of the war in the Gaza Strip.

The rocket attack from Lebanon was the second in two days to cause casualties in northern Israel, striking a military base near the city of Safed — beyond the border zone Israel has evacuated for months because of the fighting. A soldier was killed, the military said, identifying her as serving with Israel’s border protection service. Eight other people were wounded, according to Magen David Adom, the emergency medical service.

Reported strikes in Lebanon after a deadly rocket attack in Israel

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied with Hamas, the armed group Israel been battling in Gaza for more than four months. Hezbollah and Israel have launched dozens of tit-for-tat strikes across the border, fueling fears that the exchanges could expand to a full-fledged second front in the war.

Within hours of the rocket attack, Israel’s military said that it had carried out strikes against “a series of Hezbollah terrorist targets,” including compounds and control rooms. Lebanese broadcasters showed images and videos of smoke plumes and destruction. The state news agency reported that strikes hit at least eight areas, killing a woman and her two children ; Hezbollah said that three of its fighters had also been killed, and a senior official with the group, Hashem Safieddine, vowed a response.

On Wednesday night, Lebanon’s state media reported that an Israel drone strike on an apartment building killed four more people in Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, all members of the same family. The regional governor said that amid the escalating violence, schools and government offices in Nabatieh would be closed on Thursday.

Israeli officials have warned repeatedly that they would take much stronger military action in Lebanon if the cross-border violence continued; Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 in response to such attacks.

Benny Gantz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet, said on Wednesday that Israel could target the Lebanese military in addition to Hezbollah. Any incursion into Lebanon or strikes on the Lebanese military would mark a major escalation in the conflict.

“It is important that we be clear — the one responsible for the fire from Lebanon is not only Hezbollah or the terrorist elements that carry it out, but also the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese state that allows the shooting from its territory,” Mr. Gantz said, adding: “There is no target or military infrastructure in the area of ​​the north and Lebanon that is not in our sights.”

The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, cautioned that “this is not the time to stop” striking Hezbollah — which, like Hamas, is backed by Iran — and warned that “there is still a long way to go.”

Hezbollah has been equally defiant. Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader, said on Tuesday, “You escalate, we escalate.”

The latest strikes threatened to derail diplomatic efforts by the United States and others to defuse the cross-border tensions. A Western diplomat said on Tuesday that France had presented a proposal to Israel, Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah. The French proposal details a 10-day process of de-escalation and calls for Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters to a distance of about six miles from the border, according to the diplomat, who is involved in the talks and who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

The clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have displaced more than 150,000 people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since the war with Hamas began.

Mr. Netanyahu has been wary of opening a second front while the Israeli military continues to press its invasion of Gaza, but he has faced calls from some of the displaced residents and political hard-liners — including some in his own far-right governing coalition — to take stronger action.

Avigdor Liberman, a former top adviser to Mr. Netanyahu who now leads an opposition party, accused the government of waving a “white flag” at Hezbollah by failing to take strong enough steps to stop the rocket attacks.

“The war cabinet surrendered to Hezbollah and lost the north,” he wrote on social media on Wednesday after the attack on Safed.

Israel’s military said that the rockets from Lebanon had landed in the areas of Netu’a, Manara and a military base near Safed, a city of nearly 40,000 people, about eight miles south of the border. Four Israeli military bases sit near Safed, and rocket warnings there are not uncommon, but fatalities and direct hits are rare, said Tamir Engel, a spokesman for the city.

In early January, Hezbollah fired rockets toward a small military base in the area. The group said that it was retaliating for the assassination days earlier of a senior Hamas commander in Lebanon; Israel said at the time that the attack had caused no casualties.

Euan Ward , Adam Sella and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this article misstated the day on which Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, warned of further Israeli strikes in Lebanon. His comments were on Wednesday, not on Monday. The article also misspelled the surname of Hezbollah’s leader. He is Hassan Nasrallah, not Nazrallah.

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— Gabby Sobelman ,  Hwaida Saad and Cassandra Vinograd

The W.H.O. worries that southern Gaza’s largest hospital will soon cease to function.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday expressed fears that an important hospital serving southern Gaza might soon stop functioning, saying that it had been cut off by fierce fighting and that Israel had refused to allow in medical resupply missions, an allegation the Israeli military has denied.

The hospital, the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, has been surrounded for more than a week by Israeli forces, and on Tuesday the Israeli military ordered civilians sheltering there to evacuate . A video shared on social media on Wednesday and verified by The New York Times showed crowds of people carrying belongings and bedding leaving Nasser Hospital as explosions are heard in the background.

In the intensifying hostilities, at least 10 civilians have reportedly been killed, a perimeter gate demolished and two warehouses holding stocks of medicines largely destroyed, according to Rik Peeperkorn, the W.H.O.’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza.

The W.H.O. last had access to the hospital, the largest in southern Gaza and one of the few still functioning in the territory, on Jan. 29, Dr. Peeperkorn said. Speaking by video link from Rafah, in southern Gaza, he said the W.H.O. had applied to Israel to conduct two missions in the last five days to resupply the hospital with medicine and to assess its condition, but Israel had denied both requests.

“Without this support, and without being able to access this hospital, it might well become nonfunctional,” Dr. Peeperkorn said.

On Monday, after the head of the W.H.O. said that an agency team had been denied access to Nasser Hospital, COGAT, the Israeli body that coordinates policy for the Palestinian territories, said that the agency had “never submitted a coordination request” and that the W.H.O. should avoid “baselessly accusing” Israel.

Nasser Hospital was treating about 400 patients on Wednesday, including roughly 80 in intensive care and 35 who were receiving dialysis, Dr. Peeperkorn said. But any movement outside the complex was dangerous because of fighting in the area, he added, and it was unclear where civilians should go because other hospitals were overcrowded.

Al-Najjar Hospital, the main medical center in Rafah, to the south of Khan Younis, was treating more than 300 patients in a facility with 65 beds, leaving many to receive treatment on the floor, he said. Al-Najjar had served only as a primary health center before the war began on Oct. 7.

United Nations agencies and the W.H.O. have been obstructed by Israel’s repeated denials, delays and postponements of proposed aid convoys, Dr. Peeperkorn said. U.N. officials have reported that northern Gaza has been largely cut off from assistance this year. But since January, he said, Israel has facilitated fewer than half the proposed aid convoys to the south.

“Even when there is no cease-fire,” Dr. Peeperkorn said, “humanitarian corridors should exist so that W.H.O., the U.N. and parties can do their job.”

— Nick Cumming-Bruce reporting from Geneva

analysis in the story of an hour

Maps: Tracking the Attacks in Israel and Gaza

See where Israel has bulldozed vast areas of Gaza, as its invasion continues to advance south.

Hostages’ families denounce reports that Israel has pulled out of Gaza cease-fire talks.

As talks continued in Cairo toward an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told his negotiators not to take part, infuriating some family members of hostages still in Gaza who say that the government is not doing enough to rescue their relatives.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office did not directly confirm or deny the reports, instead issuing a statement saying that Hamas had not made any new proposal, but that “a change in Hamas’s position will allow progress in the negotiations.”

Mr. Netanyahu later posted on social media that “strong military pressure and very tough negotiations” would be key to freeing more of the remaining hostages seized during the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7. He praised the Israeli military operation that freed two hostages held by Hamas in Rafah on Monday.

Officials from Israel and the United States met this week with Hamas mediators from Qatar and Egypt to discuss a possible deal to trade hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and to suspend the four-month war in Gaza.

Those talks are still underway in Cairo, but, according to Israeli news outlets, Mr. Netanyahu told Israel’s representatives not to return to Cairo.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum , the main alliance of the hostages’ family members, responded to the reports by protesting outside the homes of Mr. Netanyahu; Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister; and Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, on Wednesday evening.

“This decision amounts in effect to sacrificing knowingly all of the hostages’ lives,” the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said in a statement.

The group has mounted increasingly aggressive protests against Mr. Netanyahu’s government to urge it to prioritize the release of their family members. More than 130 hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, including at least 30 who are believed to have died, according to the Israeli security services.

Other family members have said that the Israeli military should continue its war against Hamas until it has reached its goals, even if that means their relatives must remain in captivity.

Officials have said that in negotiations, Israel and Hamas were far apart on the number of imprisoned Palestinians who would be exchanged for the hostages and on the duration of a cease-fire. Hamas has demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, while Israel insists that it will only agree to a temporary pause in the fighting.

The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called on Wednesday for Hamas to speed up an exchange of hostages for prisoners to spare Palestinian people further “catastrophe” in the war, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.

— Johnatan Reiss and Gaya Gupta

The F.B.I. director makes a secret trip to Israel.

Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made an unannounced trip to Israel on Wednesday to meet with officials from the country’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the F.B.I. said.

As part of the visit, his first to Israel since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, Mr. Wray also spoke with F.B.I. agents working in Israel, the bureau said in a statement on Wednesday, stressing the importance of their efforts to counter threats from Hezbollah and Hamas. The United States designates both as terrorist groups.

Mr. Wray spoke with officials from Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency; Shin Bet, Israel’s equivalent of the F.B.I.; and the Israeli National Police, according to a person familiar with his trip to Israel, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Details of the trip were made public after Mr. Wray had departed Israel.

The F.B.I. has been working closely with its counterparts in Israel after the attacks on Oct. 7, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people. About 250 others, including American dual nationals, were abducted in the attacks. The F.B.I. has opened cases involving crimes against Americans committed by Hamas or others.

“The F.B.I.’s partnership with our Israeli counterparts is longstanding, close and robust,” Mr. Wray said in a statement, “and I’m confident the closeness of our agencies contributed to our ability to move so quickly in response to these attacks, and to ensure our support is as seamless as possible.”

The United States has created a C.I.A. task force to help Israel hunt down Hamas’s top leaders while America’s spy agencies have also raised the priority of intelligence collection on Hamas. The C.I.A. has also been heavily involved in negotiations for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and its allies, and President Biden has dispatched the agency’s director, William J. Burns, to join the cease-fire talks in Cairo.

After the visit, Mr. Wray headed to Germany for the Munich Security Conference.

— Adam Goldman

Hostages’ relatives rally in The Hague to draw attention to a war crimes complaint against Hamas.

Relatives of hostages being held in Gaza flew from Israel to The Hague on Wednesday on an emotional trip designed to draw attention to a complaint filed a day earlier against the leaders of Hamas at the International Criminal Court, accusing them of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including hostage-taking, killings and acts of sexual violence.

The hostage families, numbering about 100 people and accompanied by two former hostages who were released in November, said they had come to try to make sure that justice would be done. The case is being led by the legal team of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli nongovernmental organization advocating for the release of the captives, and the Canada-based Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights.

“The goal of so many families coming here together is to give backup to the complaint,” said Amit Levy, 21, the brother of Naama Levy, 19, who was seen in a harrowing video soon after her abduction from Nahal Oz being dragged by her hair from the back of a jeep in Gaza, her sweatpants bloodied.

“Those responsible must pay some kind of price,” Mr. Levy said.

After arriving in the Hague, the families appeared at a rally in support of their cause in a square near the court, holding up portraits of the captives, as hundreds of supporters stood under umbrellas in the driving rain, waving Israeli flags and chanting, “Bring them home now!”

“It is heartwarming to see,” said Moshe Or, 33, whose brother, Avinatan Or, 31, was kidnapped along with his partner, Noa Argamani, as they tried to flee from the Nova music festival.

“It’s important to use the international tools that are more often used against Israel,” he added, of the effort to seek international justice.

More than 250 people were abducted to Gaza during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, mostly from border communities, army bases, and an outdoor music festival. About half remain in captivity, though Israel has confirmed that at least 31 are dead .

The Israeli government does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and is not a signatory to its founding treaty. But unlike the International Court of Justice, the top U.N. court where South Africa has filed a case accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the International Criminal Court allows people to bring cases against individuals suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, must now evaluate the evidence submitted to the court, based on the testimony of about 100 witnesses, according to Dana Pugach, a member of the hostage forum’s legal team. Some witnesses are expected to testify in person at The Hague.

The prosecutor will then decide whether to press charges against the accused Hamas leaders, who have not been publicly named by the legal team, and whether to issue arrest warrants.

“We came to sue Hamas,” said Shani Yerushalmi, 25, who was traveling with her sister May, 21. Their sister Eden, 24, was kidnapped from the music festival and remains in Gaza.

The sisters, who in recent months have gone with hostage family delegations to Paris and Washington, said they hoped their action would put pressure on Hamas and have some influence on world opinion. Their mother mostly stays home surrounded by friends, they said, and their father prays much of the time while they “do the journeys.”

— Isabel Kershner reporting from The Hague

Biden shields Palestinians in the U.S. from deportation.

President Biden on Wednesday shielded thousands of Palestinians in the United States from deportation for the next 18 months, using an obscure immigration authority as he faces mounting criticism over U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza war.

About 6,000 Palestinians are eligible for the reprieve under a program called Deferred Enforced Departure, which allows immigrants whose homelands are in crisis to remain in the United States and work legally.

In a memo obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Biden said that “many civilians remain in danger” in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

“Therefore, I am directing the deferral of removal of certain Palestinians who are present in the United States,” he said.

The decision comes as Mr. Biden faces pressure over the war, particularly among Arab Americans who were once a reliable constituency for him . In recent weeks, pro-Palestinian groups have been demonstrating outside his campaign stops, chanting “Genocide Joe.”

While Mr. Biden’s criticism of the war has grown more forceful since the Oct. 7 attack, the United States has not signaled that it plans major policy changes such as putting conditions on billions of dollars in military aid to Israel.

Israel’s war against Hamas has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Much of Gaza has been left in ruins as Israel bombards the territory in retaliation for the attacks on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel .

Abed Ayoub, the executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, praised the decision to exempt Palestinians from deportation.

“There is a desperate need for this,” he said. “We see the situation in Gaza and Palestine is not getting better, and this is something that is welcome, and we are glad to see it implemented. We hope other measures can come into place.”

There are some exemptions to Mr. Biden’s order. Palestinians who have been convicted of felonies or those “who are otherwise deemed to pose a public safety threat” would not be protected from deportation, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, said in a statement.

Some Republicans, meanwhile, have pushed for a crackdown on Palestinians. Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, a former Trump administration official, introduced legislation in November that would have revoked visas from Palestinians and prevented them from receiving refugee status or asylum in the United States.

Mr. Biden’s decision to shield Palestinians from deportation has been in the works for some time. More than 100 staff members at the Department of Homeland Security signed an open letter to Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, in the fall, saying the agency should extend some protections to Palestinians.

Some congressional Democrats have also called on the administration to find a way to protect Palestinians in the United States.

“In light of ongoing armed conflict, Palestinians already in the United States should not be forced to return to the Palestinian territories, consistent with President Biden’s stated commitment to protecting Palestinian civilians,” they wrote in November in a letter, which Senators Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and others signed.

The lawmakers said the population should be covered under Deferred Enforced Departure or a similar program known as Temporary Protected Status, which has been used to help people from Venezuela, Afghanistan, Ukraine and elsewhere. (Deferred Enforced Departure is currently being used to help people from Hong Kong and Liberia.)

Ahilan Arulanantham, a director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the U.C.L.A. School of Law, said the short-term practical effect was the same under both programs.

“Every qualifying individual would have protection from deportation and the ability to obtain employment authorization,” he said.

But he cautioned that the longer-term differences could be significant. Palestinians could be more at risk of having the protections lapse in 18 months because they are at the discretion of the president, Mr. Arulanantham said.

Temporary Protected Status, by contrast, requires agency officials at the Department of Homeland Security to assess the protections before they expire.

Earlier this month, Mr. Biden ordered financial and travel sanctions on four Israeli settlers accused of violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. While the war is centered in Gaza, there is also growing violence in the West Bank , which Israel has occupied since 1967 and is home to more than 2.5 million Palestinians.

— Hamed Aleaziz Reporting from Healdsburg, Calif.

An Israeli minister blocks flour from reaching UNRWA in Gaza.

The Israeli finance ministry has blocked deliveries of food for Gaza because the shipments were intended to reach the main U.N. agency for Palestinians, Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Tuesday.

Mr. Smotrich, a hard-right settler leader, said in a statement that he had issued a directive not to transfer flour shipments to the agency, known as UNRWA, citing allegations that some of its employees were affiliated with Hamas , including 12 accused of participating in the armed group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Last week, a subcontractor handling the shipments for UNRWA received a call from Israel’s customs agency — which is housed in Mr. Smotrich’s ministry — ordering it not to process any UNRWA goods in its warehouse, said Juliette Touma, an UNRWA spokeswoman.

About 1,050 containers — much of it flour — have been held up at the Israeli port of Ashdod, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters on Friday. The amount was enough to feed 1.1 million Gazans for a month, he said. Mr. Lazzarini said UNRWA still has enough supplies to feed Gazans for three months, but only because the food is now being routed through Egypt rather than Israel.

Israel’s action once again put it at odds with the Biden administration, which has criticized the Israeli conduct of the war in increasingly blunt terms. “That flour has not moved the way that we had expected it would move, and we expect that Israel will follow through on its commitment to get that flour into Gaza,” Jake Sullivan, president Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

Mr. Smotrich said another aid distribution mechanism would be found “that would not reach Hamas,” which he said was utilizing UNRWA as a “key part of its war machine.” UNRWA has said it is investigating the allegations, but has stood by its work as essential humanitarian relief in a complex situation.

In an effort to get more aid into Gaza, American, British and European officials pushed last month for Israel to facilitate the entry of aid through Ashdod . Humanitarian aid already enters Gaza by land via the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, although it can be “very challenging to get deliveries going outside of Rafah north,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, said on Tuesday.

Under the plan, shipments would arrive at Ashdod before entering the Strip through Kerem Shalom. After a visit from Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken last month, Israeli officials indicated that the initiative would proceed. But their signals came before the allegations were unearthed, and the proposal, for now, appears to have been complicated by Mr. Smotrich’s order blocking the shipments.

The move could also complicate Israel’s international standing. The International Court of Justice last month ordered the Israeli government to take action to prevent genocide in Gaza, including by ensuring the provision of more humanitarian aid to ease the enclave’s worsening humanitarian crisis.

Aid officials say far more relief is necessary to ease the humanitarian crisis affecting the more than two million Palestinian residents of Gaza amid dire shortages of food , water and medicine.

Roughly 1.7 million people in the territory have been displaced, many of whom are facing extreme hunger, according to the United Nations. More than one million people have squeezed in and around the southern city of Rafah, joining swelling tent cities near the Egyptian border.

Farnaz Fassihi and Erica L. Green contributed reporting.

— Aaron Boxerman and Patrick Kingsley reporting from Jerusalem

The State Department is assessing reports of civilian harm in Gaza from U.S.-made arms.

The State Department is reviewing reports of harm to Gazan civilians by Israel’s military as part of a new U.S. program that tracks cases in which foreign militaries use U.S.-made weapons to injure or kill civilians.

A State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters on Tuesday that the Biden administration was “reviewing incidents” in the Gaza war under what it calls Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, which The Washington Post reported was established last August, several weeks before Hamas led sweeping attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

The policy was instituted to create greater accountability for the use of American weapons by U.S. allies and partners. It aims to improve assessments of military incidents involving civilians and to create recommendations based on them but does not include automatic triggers for policy responses or penalties.

Mr. Miller suggested that the review was not likely to lead to short-term changes in America’s military support for Israel, which has become a polarizing political issue for the White House. The Biden administration has repeatedly bypassed Congress for weapons sales to Israel since the war began, and the Senate passed a foreign aid package on Tuesday that included more than $14 billion in aid for Israel, though the bill still faces uncertainty in the House.

“That process is not intended to function as a rapid response mechanism,” Mr. Miller said. “Rather, it is designed to systematically assess civilian harm incidents and develop appropriate policy responses to reduce the risk of such incidents occurring in the future.” He added that it also intended to promote “military operations in accordance with international humanitarian law.”

The State Department has not publicly discussed details of the policy before. But President Biden mentioned it in a Feb. 8 national security memorandum.

That memorandum instructed the secretaries of State and Defense to, among many other things, provide an assessment within 90 days of credible reports determining whether U.S.-supplied weapons had been used in ways that did not follow “established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.” It also ordered them to catalog any “incidents reviewed pursuant to the Department of State’s Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance.”

— Michael Crowley

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Tucker Carlson, the fired Fox News star, makes bid for relevance with Putin interview

David Folkenflik 2018 square

David Folkenflik

analysis in the story of an hour

Former Fox News star Tucker Carlson flew to Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, becoming the first American to do so since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago. From left: Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images; AlexanderKazakov/POOL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Former Fox News star Tucker Carlson flew to Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, becoming the first American to do so since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago.

The right-wing television provocateur Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin in Moscow in an exchange fueling both the Russian president's anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and Carlson's drive for renewed relevance in his post-Fox career .

In a video taped after the interview, Carlson told viewers that he found Putin to be sincere, if not adept at making his case to an American audience. "He denied it, but it's obvious he's very wounded by the rejection of the West," Carlson said. "Like a lot of Russians he expected the end of the Cold War would be Russia's invitation into Europe."

It is the first interview Putin has granted to an American since the Russian invasion two years ago.

The pairing should not come as a surprise. Carlson has routinely been lionized by Kremlin propaganda outlets; his clips attacking the Biden administration's support for Ukraine have been routinely rebroadcast, for example. Russian media has fawned over Carlson this week, giving his comings and goings in Moscow a treatment akin to U.S. media's coverage of Taylor Swift.

Carlson filmed a video to promote the interview on the rooftop of the Ritz Carlton Hotel near the Red Square, a location that, according to Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats, spoke volumes of the regard the Kremlin held for Carlson.

"Its roof is controlled by one of the KGB's successors, the Federal Security Service," she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "No one of us, and no one other foreign journalist, except for Oliver Stone, had that luxury of reporting from the roof top."

Few have done more than Carlson to lift up the Russian leader as a figure of admiration in Republican circles, just as he has propelled the otherwise relatively obscure Viktor Orban, Hungary's autocratic leader, to star status .

In that promotional video, Carlson had said he wanted to interview Putin about the war in Ukraine to learn the truth – and because other American journalists were too biased against Russia to want to do so.

This was clearly false; Reporters at CNN and the BBC and executives at NPR and Fox were among those who said their networks would be eager to interview Putin without conditions. Even the Kremlin contradicted Carlson's claims, saying it had received and rejected requests from "exceptionally one-sided" U.S. outlets.

So was it a hard-hitting interview holding a wartime leader to account?

A retelling of history

Putin dominated the conversation – which exceeded two hours – with long, discursive asides relying on propagandistic talking points to argue that Russia's right to eastern Ukraine spans centuries. (Ukrainian leaders and many historians dispute his rendering of the history of the region.)

The Russian leader blamed the Ukrainians for the 2022 invasion. Carlson did not question Putin's framing. Nor did he use the word "invasion" to describe the deployment of Russian troops and missiles into Ukraine that kicked off the war.

"We were protecting our people, ourselves, our homeland and our future," Putin told Carlson, according to the interpreter of the exchange.

Putin appeared to have done opposition research worthy of the KGB agent he once was. He needled Carlson at separate moments about having been a history major and having applied (unsuccessfully) for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency.

At the tail end of the interview, Carlson pressed Putin to release Evan Gershkovich , a Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned by Russian authorities nearly a year ago on charges of espionage - charges the newspaper stoutly rejects. He suggested Putin should not hold Gershkovich as a pawn to trade for, say, the release of a Russian spy.

"The guy's obviously not a spy, he's a kid," Carlson said of Gershkovich. "And maybe he was breaking your law in some way, but he's not a super spy and everybody knows that. And he's being held hostage in exchange, which is true. With respect, it's true. And everyone knows it's true."

Carlson did not raise the fate of Alsu Kurmasheva , a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who is a reporter for the U.S.-funded network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She was detained and charged last year with failing to register as a foreign agent.

And Carlson notably did not press Putin on the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for him and his child welfare commissioner on accusations of war crimes.

"I'm from La Jolla, California. I'm not flacking for Putin. Please," Carlson said in the post-interview video. He then said "professional liars in Washington" want to convince the public that Putin is a modern-day Adolf Hitler, and called State Department officials idiots for thinking Russia has expansionist ambitions into Poland or other countries.

"We are run by nutcases – the president and that poisonous moron, [Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria] Nuland," Carlson said.

Carlson has spent years attacking those who made the case that the Russian regime sought to sow discord in the 2016 elections through online disinformation, that former President Donald Trump's campaign took advantage in the chaos, and that some of Trump's key allies had links to the Russians. Trump's national security advisor, Michael Flynn, resigned after it was revealed he had lied about specific policy discussions with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. ahead of taking office.

You Literally Can't Believe The Facts Tucker Carlson Tells You. So Say Fox's Lawyers

You Literally Can't Believe The Facts Tucker Carlson Tells You. So Say Fox's Lawyers

How Tucker Carlson took fringe conspiracy theories to a mass audience

Untangling Disinformation

How tucker carlson took fringe conspiracy theories to a mass audience.

Carlson also has spent much of his time trolling both his former network and Trump critics, while leaping to defend those who laid siege to the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 in an effort to prevent the certification of President Biden's 2020 win, despite the protests of some of his colleagues at Fox.

A new start on X after Fox News

Fox News fired Carlson – then the network's biggest star – last spring. His key role in amplifying baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 elections had been revealed in a defamation lawsuit against the network that led to a $787 million settlement ; Fox paid another $12 million to settle claims by a former producer that Carlson had created a sexist and bigoted workplace. Evidence that became public demonstrated Carlson's wide-ranging contempt — for his viewers, Trump, his reporting colleagues and, particularly, the executives who ran his network.

After being kicked off Fox, Carlson moved his operation to Twitter, saying it was the last major bastion of free speech. He then launched the digital Tucker Carlson Network.

Carlson has used that platform to interview subjects including the extremist conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who filed for bankruptcy after families of schoolchildren murdered in a Connecticut massacre won a $1 billion settlement against him; Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive convicted of securities fraud; U.S. Rep. Majorie Taylor-Greene, who is known for embracing conspiracy theories ; and the right-wing social media troll who goes by the nom-de-Tweet Catturd.

For a former cable television star seeking to insinuate himself once more into the national conversation, Carlson was thwarted on Thursday by two current presidents and one former. News of President Biden, accused of memory lapses by a special prosecutor, overshadowed Carlson's video drop. The Russian president's tendentious historical claims overtook the interview. And, of course, there was Trump, whose ability to appear on Colorado's ballot dominated a historic Supreme Court argument earlier in the day.

It is hard to gauge how wide an audience Carlson now has. (Statistics on views on X are unreliable.) But it is a far cry from the broad stage he had at Fox News, where he was seen by upwards of three million people on many nights.

  • tucker carlson
  • Vladimir Putin

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a more than two-hour interview to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was released online Thursday, covering a variety of topics, from Ukraine to the Russian economy, but breaking little new ground.

Putin told Carlson that Russia has not achieved its war aims in its widely condemned invasion of neighboring Ukraine , and he began the interview with a roughly 20-minute, mostly uninterrupted, speech about history that included the days of Catherine the Great, the empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796.

Carlson at one point flattered Putin and said it was not boring but added, “I just don’t know how it’s relevant.”

NBC News has not been provided any details about the circumstances under which the interview was recorded. Putin spoke in Russian, and the translation was provided by Carlson’s show.

Putin did not rule out that Russia could release jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich , whom the U.S. says is being wrongfully detained, but suggested that the U.S. would have to make a deal.

There is an "ongoing dialogue between the special services," he said.

"We want the U.S. special services to think about how they can contribute to achieving the goals our special services are pursuing. We are ready to talk. Moreover, the talks are underway," Putin said.

The Wall Street Journal dismissed Putin's claim that Gershkovich, 32, was involved in "espionage," but it said Thursday it was encouraged by any deal that could bring him home.

“Evan is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Any portrayal to the contrary is total fiction. Evan was unjustly arrested and has been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly a year for doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release," the Journal said .

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview with U.S. television host Tucker Carlson, in Moscow politics political politician

It was Putin's first interview with a Western-based media figure since his forces inva ded Ukraine two years ago. He delivered many familiar talking points and was rarely challenged by Carlson.

Carlson has consistently repeated falsehoods, misinformation and conspiracy theories, and he has been a vocal critic of U.S. support of Ukraine.

Referring to sanctions the U.S. and other countries placed on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine , Putin said, “The tools that the U.S. uses don’t work."

Putin also said he had a good personal relationship with former President George W. Bush. “I had such personal relationship with Trump, as well,” he said.

Asked whether there could be renewed communication between the U.S. and Russia in an administration after President Joe Biden, Putin said: “It is not about the leader. It is not about the personality of a particular person."

The interview was posted on Carlson’s website at about 6 p.m. Thursday, with Carlson’s account on X also posting it. X, the social media site owned by Elon Musk, has — along with Facebook and Instagram — been blocked in Russia since the early days of the war. 

The Kremlin has been engineering another expected election victory for Putin in March — and the Russian military has been making gains on the battlefield while aid for the Ukrainians is held up in Congress by Republicans loyal to former President Donald Trump. 

Carlson, who was fired from Fox News in April , has since fashioned himself as an independent journalist. He boasted ahead of the interview that he was the only Western journalist willing to interview Putin — a claim that was undermined by the Kremlin, which indicated that Carlson got the interview precisely because of his pro-Russia stance on the war in Ukraine.

Not only has Carlson questioned U.S. support for Kyiv, but he has also frequently been featured on Kremlin propaganda channels since he left Fox News.

Ukrainians were quick to criticize Carlson for speaking to Putin while Russia continued to bombard their country.

“I hope he will be asked why he kills civilians and hits residential buildings,” said Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "Criminals should be tried, not talked to."

Carlson has also accused the Western media of neglecting to interview Putin while often talking to Zelenskyy at length. 

NBC News’ Keir Simmons interviewed Putin in Moscow in 2021, and former CNBC anchor and correspondent Hadley Gamble also spoke with him just months before the war. In December, NBC News interviewed Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. 

In addition, an untold number of Western journalists have made repeated requests for interviews with Putin, only to be rebuffed by the Kremlin. 

Peskov himself contradicted Carlson’s claim that no Western media had “bothered” to interview Putin, saying Wednesday that the Kremlin receives “many requests” for interviews with him.

But Peskov also accused Western news outlets of being inherently biased against Putin, adding that “there is no desire to communicate with such media.” He said Carlson was granted the interview because his position “differs from the rest.”

Reporting from Russia during the war has proved dangerous for domestic and foreign journalists after Moscow enacted draconian legislation that criminally penalizes criticism of its armed forces. The laws have forced many Russian independent media and Western news organizations to move their operations out of Russia. 

Two U.S. journalists are in Russian custody. Gershkovich is still awaiting trial after he was detained last spring, facing espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. government strenuously deny.

Alsu Kurmasheva , a Russian American reporter with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was detained in October and has been charged with failure to register as a foreign agent. RFE/RL is a nonprofit news organization funded through the United States Agency for Global Media.

“Tucker Carlson should concentrate on his journalism, and stop attacking other journalists — doing so makes himself look like the worst kind of fact-adverse shock jock,” Tim Dawson, the deputy general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, said in a statement to NBC News. “Any honest attempt to understand President Putin is welcome. It is sad that Tucker Carlson is promoting his interview with unevidenced invective and untruth."

Putin rarely interacts with the public, and he has relied on prepared speeches and official events to rail against the West. In December, he held his first big news conference since the war started, a carefully curated event at which only one Western media outlet was given the opportunity to ask a question. 

Carlson has openly questioned U.S. support for Kyiv , accused Washington of provoking Russia to invade and criticized the Ukrainian government. He is popular in Russia and is regularly quoted by Russian propagandist media as an authoritative pro-Moscow voice in the U.S.

In the days leading up to the interview, Russian state media closely followed Carlson’s every move, reporting feverishly on his trips to the Bolshoi Theater and the Russian version of McDonald’s.

For Putin, Carlson's visit was a welcome distraction from a bleak winter in which Russia has grappled with a widespread utility crisis, growing protests by soldiers’ wives and a potential c hallenge from Boris Nadezhdin , a surprisingly popular anti-war politician. 

“Carlson’s help is invaluable for Putin,” Abbas Gallyamov, a Russian political analyst and former Putin speechwriter, said on his Telegram channel. “It is not possible to find momentum inside the country, so Carlson is the main hope here.”

Fox News parted ways with Carlson in April after it agreed to pay nearly $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems to avert a high-stakes defamation trial that had cast a shadow over the network’s future.

In the lead-up to the Dominion trial, Carlson’s internal communications were released, showing him  criticizing Trump  and acknowledging that claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election were baseless.

Since then, he has launched a show on X and a subscription-based streaming service.

Shortly after he left Fox News, Carlson also received offers of employment from Russia’s propagandist RT network and Vladimir Solovyov, a pro-Kremlin propagandist and commentator on Russia state TV.

But Carlson has chosen to build his own brand. In recent months he has interviewed Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orbán, and Argentina’s right-wing president, Javier Milei. 

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said earlier Thursday that no one in the U.S. should be misled by Putin’s attempts to justify the invasion of Ukraine.

“He invaded a neighboring country without provocation — Ukraine wasn’t a threat to anybody, and the American people understand that. And the American people understand what Ukraine is fighting for,” Kirby said.

“Remember, you’re listening to Vladimir Putin,” Kirby said at a briefing. “And you shouldn’t take at face value anything he has to say.”

analysis in the story of an hour

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

analysis in the story of an hour

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

D.C. snow updates: First flakes around midnight, becoming heavy pre-dawn Saturday

Snow could fall very heavily for a time, up to 1 to 2 inches per hour at peak.

7:30 p.m. — Snow timing on target, with questions as to intensity and temperatures

The leading edge of snow continues to advance toward the area. In the last hour snow was reported as close as Johnstown and Altoona in Pennsylvania. More precipitation is barreling through West Virginia on course to hit the area. A bulletin from the National Weather Service called special discussion to this snowfall, which is expected to be heavy as it spreads east.

Snow is coming down in Latrobe, PA, though it isn't laying on the roads just yet. @PAStormTrackerz #pawx #snow pic.twitter.com/FmEQhps3q7 — Connie Brinker👻🌪🌩 (@bink398) February 17, 2024

The onset time for accumulating snow remains mostly on target. It may have slowed a hair, probably spilling over the Blue Ridge and into the local area between around midnight and 1 a.m.

Temperatures range from the upper 30s to mid-40s. The onset of snow will bring readings down rapidly but there is some question as to where they bottom out.

Whether temperatures end up above or below freezing will matter for accumulation given how fast this system is moving. The latest short-range models continue to indicate snowfall totals may well end up nearer the lower end of our forecast ranges.

Our next update will post between 10 and 10:30 p.m.

4:25 p.m. — Precipitation approaching West Virginia, Pennsylvania; snow should reach D.C. region around midnight

Radar shows our storm system progressing through the Tennessee Valley and it’s spreading snow from southern Illinois through Ohio. Flakes should start to fly in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia over the next hour or so.

The snow should reach the Interstate 81 corridor around 11 p.m. and then sweep into the Washington region over the following two hours or so from west to east. This onset time is a little later than some earlier forecasts but should allow anyone out this evening to safely return home before the serious snowfall begins.

Models still show the potential for a very heavy burst of snow between about 1 and 5 a.m. before the storm exits to the east.

Because of the limited duration of snow, some of the newer model information suggests amounts may err toward the lower end of our predicted ranges, especially from the District and to the south, but we make that statement with low confidence.

Our next update will post between 7 and 7:30 p.m.

Original article from midday

The holiday weekend is likely to get off to a snowy start in the D.C. area Friday night.

We have increasingly high confidence in a quick-hitting, accumulating snowfall starting Friday evening and winding down before sunrise Saturday. The overnight timing and the likelihood of a few hours of moderate to heavy snow means that roads could be snow-covered and hazardous, even though temperatures will start out above freezing. However, any travel disruptions should ease by mid- to late Saturday morning.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for most of the region Friday night and says to “plan on slippery road conditions.” A more serious winter storm warning is posted for northern Fauquier, northwest Prince William, Loudoun, Montgomery, Howard and Baltimore counties and points west. The Weather Service says “travel could be very difficult.”

The entire region could see snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour for a time between midnight and 5 a.m. under the heaviest snow bands, and visibility could be reduced to less than half a mile at times, the Weather Service said. There’s even an outside chance of thundersnow — when thunder and lightning briefly occur as flakes pour down.

Accumulation forecast

We’re forecasting 3 to 5 inches across our northern and western zones, including Northwest Washington. Precipitation of mostly or all snow and slightly colder temperatures in these zones should enhance snow accumulation. A few spots could top out around 5 to 6 inches.

We’re forecasting 2 to 4 inches around downtown D.C. and to the south and east, except only a coating to 2 inches in southern Maryland. In these zones, precipitation could start as rain or a rain-snow mix, and slightly warmer temperatures should keep accumulations down a bit.

Slight shifts in the forecast are still possible as new information comes in.

Storm timeline

9 p.m. Friday to midnight: Snow arrives from west to east, possibly starting as rain or a rain-snow mix around downtown Washington and to the south and east, and becoming moderate to heavy to the west. Temperatures: mid- to upper 30s.

Midnight to 4 a.m. Saturday: Snow could be moderate to heavy at times across the entire region, accumulating on roads. Temperatures: upper 20s to mid-30s.

4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday: Snow tapers from west to east. Temperatures: upper 20s to low 30s.

6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday: Improving road conditions on main roads and highways. Side roads could still be snowy or slick; lingering snow shower possible. Temperatures: low to mid-30s.

Temperatures described above will be lowest in areas north and west of downtown Washington and highest to the south and east.

Storm impact

The storm rates as only a low-end Category 2 out of 5 (and a Category 1 in our far-southern areas) on our Winter Storm Impact Scale . It’s occurring at one of the least disruptive times possible — in the middle of the night before a long weekend. And, outside of a lingering snow shower or two, it will be over by the time most people are waking up.

If you’re among the few to be on the roads between midnight and 5 a.m. Saturday, however, driving will be very hazardous because of the snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour and low visibilities. Roads will quickly become snow-covered and slick.

If you have Saturday morning plans, they may be disrupted until crews can treat and plow neighborhood roads, assuming you’re not comfortable driving on a bit of snow. We imagine major roads will be cleared pretty quickly Saturday morning. There could be delays and some cancellations at airports, so check your flight status before heading out.

By Saturday afternoon, snow will be steadily melting, and the area should be able to return to normal pretty fast. Lingering wet and slushy areas will refreeze Saturday night, so watch out for icy patches overnight into early Sunday. With highs well into the 40s on Sunday and sunshine, a lot of the snow will be gone by Sunday night.

How could the forecast go wrong?

There’s a pretty solid model consensus that most places, except areas south of Prince William and Prince George’s counties, should see at least 2 to 3 hours of moderate to heavy snowfall. However, amounts could end up on the low end of forecasts or in our “bust” range if precipitation intensity is a little lighter than simulated and temperatures are on the warm end of predictions. The risk of a bust is highest around downtown Washington and to the south, where above-freezing temperatures could eat into amounts. Also, if the snow moves through more quickly than forecast, that would also reduce totals. Some models show just a couple of hours of moderate to heavy snow.

On the flip side, amounts could end up at the high end of forecasts or in boom territory if the snow is on the heavy side of model predictions, which will cause temperatures to fall faster. Also, if the steady snow manages to linger a little later than 4 or 5 a.m. — when some models cut off — that could add an inch or so above the most probable amounts.

Expert analysis

“A quick-moving storm is likely to produce a narrow zone of particularly heavy snow Friday night. Where this band develops and stays in place the longest is where we could see amounts toward the high end of our snowfall forecasts, especially if it occurs in our typically colder locations north and west of the city,” said Wes Junker, Capital Weather Gang’s winter weather expert. “Areas that miss out on such a heavier band could see accumulations on the lower end of the forecast range, especially in our typically warmer locations from downtown D.C. to the south and east.”

analysis in the story of an hour

analysis in the story of an hour

The Story of an Hour

Kate chopin, everything you need for every book you read..

Louise Mallard has a weak heart that puts her at risk if she becomes too animated. After hearing from Richards —a friend of the family—that Louise’s husband Brently Mallard has died in a train accident, her sister Josephine takes great care to break the news to Louise in a gentle, measured way. Despite Josephine’s best efforts, though, Louise is inconsolable with grief. She weeps intensely into her sister’s arms before fleeing into her bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind herself.

In her bedroom, she collapses into a chair facing a window and, exhausted by her own sobbing, stares outside at a collection of newly blossomed trees and various stretches of blue in the sky. Life on the streets below goes along like normal, and as Louise sits motionless in the chair, she begins to sense with fear that something—some feeling—is approaching her. She is unable to define or name the approaching sensation because it is too abstract, too vague. Scared, she tries to keep the feeling at bay, but it’s no use because everything—the new spring life outside, the smell of rain, the expansive sky—seems to embody the sensation, and she feels it reaching toward her.

Suddenly she lets her guard down and finds herself mouthing the word “free” over and over again. No longer passive, her heart beats fast and her rushing blood enlivens her. Joy floods her and she imagines the life ahead of her with complete excitement and happiness: despite the fact that she and her husband enjoyed a stable, loving marriage, she is flooded with ecstasy by the prospect of no longer being required to live dependent upon her husband, upon anyone. Now the remainder of her life belongs only to her, and she is overjoyed at the idea of this freedom.

Worried that Louise is making herself sick by staying in her room alone, Josephine kneels on the ground and speaks through the door’s keyhole, imploring her sister to let her in. After uttering a quick prayer that her new life will be long, Louise rises and confidently strides out of the bedroom. Together with her sister, she starts walking down the steps toward where Richards waits at the bottom.

The sound of keys fiddling in the front door travels into the house, and suddenly the door opens and Brently Mallard nonchalantly enters. Apparently he had been nowhere near the train accident that had supposedly killed him. In an effort to protect Louise from the utter shock of seeing her living husband, Richards quickly tries to obscure Brently, but to no avail, and Louise lets out her final sound: a sharp scream that startles and mystifies her husband. When the doctors inspect Louise’s dead body, they decide that she died because her heart was too excited—too overjoyed—to see her husband.

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  1. "The Story of an Hour" Summary & Analysis

    "The Story of an Hour" Summary & Analysis Next Themes Themes and Colors Key Summary Analysis Louise Mallard has a weak heart. Her sister Josephine, who is worried that bad news will overwhelm Louise and worsen her condition, tells her as calmly as possible that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed in a train accident.

  2. The Story of an Hour: Summary and Analysis

    Analysis of the key story elements in "The Story of an Hour," including themes, characters, and symbols By the end of this article, you'll have an expert grasp on Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." So let's get started! "The Story of an Hour" Summary

  3. The Story of an Hour: Study Guide

    Overview First published in 1894, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is a poignant and thought-provoking short story. Set in the late 19th century, the narrative follows Louise Mallard, a woman with a heart condition, who receives the news of her husband's death in a railroad accident.

  4. The Story of an Hour: Full Plot Analysis

    As the brief nature of the story suggests, "The Story of an Hour" explores the sudden struggle that Louise Mallard faces as she reaches a major turning point in her life. The possibilities that exist in a world without her husband captivate her, but she also experiences guilt regarding the relief she feels after hearing of his death.

  5. Analysis of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

    Catherine Sustana Updated on May 24, 2019 "The Story of an Hour" by American author Kate Chopin is a mainstay of feminist literary study. Originally published in 1894, the story documents the complicated reaction of Louise Mallard upon learning of her husband's death.

  6. Analysis, Themes and Summary of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

    Oct 7, 2023 12:32 AM EDT Gain a deeper understanding of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." darksouls1 | Pixabay | Canva Kate Chopin's Popular Short Story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is one of the most frequently anthologized short stories. At just over 1,000 words, it's a very quick read.

  7. Analysis of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

    Analysis of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 28, 2021 Originally entitled "The Dream of an Hour" when it was first published in Vogue (December 1894), "The Story of an Hour" has since become one of Kate Chopin's most frequently anthologized stories.

  8. A Summary and Analysis of Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour'

    A Summary and Analysis of Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour' By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Some short stories can say all they need to do in just a few pages, and Kate Chopin's three-page 1894 story 'The Story of an Hour' (sometimes known as 'The Dream of an Hour') is a classic example.

  9. The Story of an Hour Study Guide

    Summary Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides. Story of an Hour: Introduction A concise biography of Kate Chopin plus historical and literary context for The Story of an Hour. Story of an Hour: Plot Summary

  10. The Story of an Hour Story Analysis

    The title "The Story of an Hour" references the amount of time that elapses in Chopin's tale, which tracks the emotions and thoughts of the protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard, upon learning of her husband's death.Though the story barely exceeds 1,000 words, Chopin creates a sense of temporal expansion by intricately plotting the transition of Louise's feelings from grief, to liberation ...

  11. The Story of an Hour Character Analysis

    Louise Mallard A woman troubled by a heart condition who is told that her husband, Brently Mallard, has died in a train accident. Due to her heart problem, she is not supposed to become overly excited… read analysis of Louise Mallard Brently Mallard Louise Mallard 's husband, who is incorrectly reported to have died in a train accident.

  12. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

    In the story, this housewife who has been confined to the social norms of the obedient wife, has an unorthodox reaction to the death of her husband she anticipates her newfound freedom from the suppression of the husband, of men and becomes invigorated by it.

  13. The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin : Summary and Analysis

    The Story of an Hour : Summary Mrs Mallard, the protagonist of the story isn't satisfied with her marriage to Brently Mallard.Some important facts are presented right at the outset of the story : that Mrs Mallard is afflicted with a heart disease and that her husband has just been killed in a railroad accident.Her sister Josephine and her husband's friend Richards are the first (and the ...

  14. The Story of an Hour: Full Plot Summary

    Full Plot Summary Next Louise Mallard has heart trouble, so she must be informed carefully about her husband's death. Her sister, Josephine, tells her the news. Louise's husband's friend, Richards, learned about a railroad disaster when he was in the newspaper office and saw Louise's husband, Brently, on the list of those killed.

  15. The Story of an Hour

    She tries to resist an overwhelming feeling that's approaching her, but she cannot. She gradually surrenders to it and begins repeating, "Free!" Though she will grieve for Brently, whom she sometimes loved, she is overjoyed to be free of the restrictions of marriage and able to make her own choices about her life. She prays her life will be long.

  16. The Story of an Hour Summary & Analysis

    'The Story of an Hour' written by Kate Chopin in 1894 is about the tragic event or events that happened with Mrs. Louise Mallard one day. The story starts with the news that Mr. Brently Mallard has died in a railroad accident. Richards, Mr. Mallard's friend, is first to hear this shocking news and he informed the Mallard family immediately. Mrs.

  17. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

    "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is about Louise Mallard, a woman in a traditional Victorian marriage, who receives the news that her husband was killed in an accident. After her grief...

  18. The Story of an Hour Critical Analysis Essay

    The Story of an Hour Critical Analysis Essay Exclusively available on IvyPanda Updated: Oct 28th, 2023 Looking for a critical analysis of The Story of an Hour? The essay on this page contains a summary of Kate Chopin's short story, its interpretation, and feminist criticism.

  19. The Story of an Hour Historical and Social Context

    The Woman Question. "The Story of an Hour" was published in 1894, an era in which many social and cultural questions occupied Americans' minds. One of these, referred to as the "Woman Question ...

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    Israel carried out extensive and lethal airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel, escalations in recent fighting that threaten to derail ...

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    How Tucker Carlson's two-hour interview of Russia's Vladimir Putin went The right-wing provocateur flew to Moscow to interview the Russian president, becoming the first American to do so since the ...

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    Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a more than two-hour interview to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was released online Thursday, covering a variety of topics, from Ukraine to the ...

  23. Louise Mallard Character Analysis in The Story of an Hour

    An intelligent, independent woman, Louise Mallard understands the "right" way for women to behave, but her internal thoughts and feelings are anything but correct. When her sister announces that Brently has died, Louise cries dramatically rather than feeling numb, as she knows many other women would.

  24. Special counsel feeds frenzy over Biden's age

    The odd assessment in a justice department document created an instant feeding frenzy among Biden's opponents and will last much longer in the public consciousness than any of the other news.

  25. The Story of an Hour Themes

    "The Story of an Hour" The Story of an Hour Themes Next Women in 19th-Century Society Themes and Colors LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Story of an Hour, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Women in 19th-Century Society

  26. Washington, D.C. snowstorm forecast: Up to 5 inches possible

    Capital Weather Gang's snowfall forecast for Friday night into Saturday morning. The holiday weekend is likely to get off to a snowy start in the D.C. area Friday night. We have increasingly high ...

  27. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin Plot Summary

    The Story of an Hour Summary. Louise Mallard has a weak heart that puts her at risk if she becomes too animated. After hearing from Richards —a friend of the family—that Louise's husband Brently Mallard has died in a train accident, her sister Josephine takes great care to break the news to Louise in a gentle, measured way.

  28. The Story of an Hour Structure & Style Summary & Analysis

    In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin employs specific structural and stylistic techniques to heighten the drama of the hour. The structure Chopin has chosen for "The Story of an Hour" fits the subject matter perfectly. The story is short, made up of a series of short paragraphs, many of which consist of just two or three sentences.