The story of an hour is about a woman who gained the “precious” freedom when informed the accidental death of her husband, but disappointed to die when she saw her husband alive. All these things happened within an hour. I will analyze it from these four perspectives: figure of speech, volatility of emotion, environmental description and the theme.
Figure of speech
In this story, writer uses several figures of speech which are so specific and vivid that readers could easily make sense of the story. Take symbolism and euphemism for example. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it…..she was striving to beat it back….”. Actually, “this thing” refers to the joy or freedom of her husband’s death. Writer’s subtle symbolism tells the woman’s real feeling euphemistically. And this suspense causes a mysterious veil that readers will be attracted to uncover it.
Volatility of emotion
I counted carefully. Women’s emotion varied about 6 times. They are: suddenly sad weeping, calming down, feared, excited, joyful, disappointed. In the whole story, writer uses most of his ink describing the women’s volatile psychological emotion, which succeed to attract reader’s attention and contributed to the development of the whole story.
Environmental description
After the woman went back to her room alone, she saw “the delicious breath of rain”, “countless sparrows’ twittering”. All these are “new spring life”. Actually, these are pleasant things which seem unfit for the sad atmosphere. But they signify a “new spring life” of the woman. All these vivid environmental describes are the hints for shadowing the later developments of woman’s emotion.
Theme
This ironic story reflected women’s freedom is shackled by men. Women are eager to get rid of it. But it seems that women are always belonging to the weak group. So the theme of this story is to appeal feminism.
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