一个小时的故事

一个小时的故事 大家都知道马兰德夫人的心脏有毛病，所以在把她丈夫的死讯告诉她时都是小心翼翼的，尽可能地温和委婉。 坏消息是由她姐姐约瑟芬告诉她的，连话都没说成句，只敢遮遮掩掩地向她暗示。她丈夫的朋友理查兹也在场，就在她的身旁。当火车事故的消息传来的时候，理查兹正好在报社里，遇难者名单上布兰特雷•马兰德的名字排在首位。他只等到紧接其后的第二份电报证明了消息的真实性后，就急忙赶在了那些不太心细也不太温柔的朋友之前先把这个不幸的消息带了回来。 她不像许多别的女人那样，只是带着麻木接受的神情听着这个故事，而是立刻疯狂而绝望地扑倒在姐姐的怀里泪如泉涌。当这暴风雨般的悲伤过去后，她独自回到了自己的房间里，不让任何人跟着她。 窗户是开着的，对面放着一把舒服的大扶手椅，她筋疲力尽地沉了进去。这种疲惫不仅折磨着她的身体，似乎也浸入了她的灵魂。 透过窗口，她可以看到屋前广场上的树梢在新春的气息中兴奋地颤抖着。空气中弥漫着芬芳的雨的气息。窗下的街道上，一个小贩正在叫卖他的器皿。远处依稀传来缥缈的歌声，数不清的麻雀也在屋檐下叽叽喳喳地唱个不停。 对着她窗口西边的天空上，云朵层层迭迭地堆积着，间或露出一绺绺蔚蓝的天空。 她把头靠在椅背上，非常地平静。除了偶尔会呜咽一两声，使她有点颤抖，就像小孩子哭着睡着了，但在梦中还会继续呜咽一样。 她还很年青，白皙而安详的脸上的线条，显示着一种压抑甚或说是一种力量。但是现在，她的目光有些阴郁，呆呆地凝望着远处白云间的绺绺蓝天。这并不是匆匆的一瞥，而是一种长久的深思熟虑。 有一种感觉正在向她靠近，那正是她带着恐惧等待的。是什么,她不知道。这种感觉太微妙，太难以捉摸，她说不清楚。但她感觉得到，它正在空中蔓延，穿过弥漫于空气中的声音、气味和颜色慢慢地向她靠近。 现在，她内心骚动不安。她开始认识到那种向她步步进逼并渐渐地控制她的感觉是什么了。她努力地想用自己的意志力把这种感觉打回去——可是她意志就像她那白皙纤弱的双手一样软弱无力。 当她稍稍放松了抵抗的时候，从她微微张开的双唇间喃喃地溢出一个词。她屏住呼吸一遍又一遍地重复着:“自由，自由，自由～”随着那种感觉而来的茫然的目光和恐惧的神色从她的眼里消失了。现在，她的目光透着机敏，炯炯有神。她的心跳加快，沸腾的热血温暖了身体的每一个部位，使她感到身心完全地放松了。 她没有停下来问问自己，是不是有一种邪恶的快感在控制着她。一种清清楚楚的、兴奋的感觉让她根本无暇去顾及那些个琐事。 她知道，当她见到丈夫那双温柔亲切的双手变得僵硬，那张从不会对她吝啬爱意的脸变得毫无情、 灰白如纸的时候，她肯定还会哭的。但在这痛苦之外，她看到了长远的未来，那些只属于她自己的未来岁月。而她张开双臂去迎接那些岁月。 在未来的岁月里，她不再为了别人而活着，而只为她自己。那时，她不必再盲目地屈从于任何专横的意志。人们总是相信他们有权把个人的意志强加于他人。无论其动机是善良的还是残酷的，她突然感到这种做法绝不亚于犯罪。 当然，她是爱过他的——有时候是爱他的。但经常是不爱他的。那又有什么关系呢～有了独立的意志——她突然意识到这是她身上最强烈的一种冲动，爱情这未有的神秘事物又算得了什么呢～ “自由了～身心都自由了～”她不住地悄悄低语着。 约瑟芬跪在紧闭的门外，嘴唇对着锁孔，苦苦地哀求着让她进去。“露易丝，开开门～求求你啦，开开门——你这样会得病的。你干什么哪，露易丝,看在上帝的份儿上，开开门吧～” “走开。我不会让自己生病的。”不会的，她正陶醉在窗外那不息的生命里。 她的想象像脱僵的野马一样狂奔着。她想象着未来的日子，春天的日子，夏天的日子，所有将属于她自己的日子。她快速地祈祷着生命能够更加长久，而就在昨天，一想到生命那么漫长她就瑟瑟发抖。 她终于站了起来，在她姐姐的强求下，打开了门。她眼睛里充满了胜利的激丨情，她的举止不知不觉竟像胜利女神一样。她紧搂着姐姐的腰，一起走下楼去。理查兹正站在下面等着她们。 有人正在用钥匙打开大门。进来的是布兰特雷•马兰德，虽略显旅途劳顿，但泰然自若地提着他的大旅行包和伞。事发当时他离现场很远，甚至根本就不知道发生了车祸。他愣在那儿，对约瑟芬的尖叫感到吃惊，对理查兹快速地把他挡在他妻子的视线外更感到吃惊。 但是理查兹还是太迟了。 医生来后，他们说她是死于心脏病——说她是死于极度高兴。 In 1870, at the age of 20, she married Oscar Chopin and settled in New Orleans. Chopin had all six of her children by 29. In 1879 Oscar Chopin's cotton brokerage failed, and the family moved to Cloutierville in south Natchitoches Parish to manage several small plantations and a general store. They became active in the community, and Chopin absorbed much material for her future writing, especially regarding the Creole culture of the area. Their home at 243 Highway 495 (built by Alexis Cloutier in the early part of the century) was a national historic landmark and the home of the Bayou Folk Museum. On October 1, 2008, the house was destroyed by a fire, with little left but the chimney.[4] When Oscar Chopin died in 1882 (like his half-brother two decades earlier), he left Kate with $12,000 in debt (approximately $250,000 in 2009 money). According to Emily Toth, "for awhile the widow Kate ran his [Oscar's] business and flirted outrageously with local men; (she even engaged in a relationship with a married farmer. )".[5] Although Chopin made an honest effort to keep her late husband's plantation and general store alive, two years later she sold her Louisiana business. Her mother implored her to move back to St. Louis, so Chopin did, and the children gradually settled into life in St. Louis, where finances were no longer a concern. The following year, Chopin's mother died. Chopin now found herself in a state of depression after the loss of both her husband and her mother. Her obstetrician and family friend, Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, felt that writing would be a source of therapeutic healing for Kate during her hard times. He understood that writing could be a focus for her extraordinary energy, as well as a source of income.[6] By the early 1890s, Kate Chopin was writing short stories, articles, and translations which appeared in periodicals, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was quite successful and placed many of her publications in literary magazines. But she became known only as a regional local color writer and her literary qualities were overlooked. In 1899, her second novel, The Awakening, was published, and the book was criticized because of its moral as well as its literary standards. This, her best-known work, is the story of a woman trapped in the confines of an oppressive society. Out of print for several decades, it is now widely available and critically acclaimed for its writing quality and importance as an early feminist work. Some of her writings, such as The Awakening, were too far ahead of their time and therefore not socially embraced. After almost 12 years in the public eye of the literary world and shattered by the lack of acceptance, Chopin was a virtually nonexistent author. Chopin, deeply discouraged by the criticism, turned to short story writing. In 1900 she wrote The Gentleman from New Orleans, and that same year she was listed in the first edition of Marquis Who's Who. However she never made much money from her writing, and depended on her investments in Louisiana and St. Louis to sustain her. While visiting the St. Louis World's Fair on August 20, 1904, Chopin suffered a brain hemorrhage and died two days later, at the age of 53. She was interred in the Calvary cemetery in St. Louis. Summary An American Writer Kate Chopin’s short story Story of an Hour(1894) describes the series of emotions Louise 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 an 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. Themes [edit] Emotional RepressionIn 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. Jamil 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 even 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, so that one way of interpreting this is that the repression of Mrs. Mallard's feelings is what killed her in the end. In the same article, Jamil shows that the repression that Mrs. Mallard faces as a wife. She realizes how after her husbands apparent death that she was "free, free, free". This shows how her life would change and 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 she was now removed from and would be able to be free. [edit] Marriage Kate Chopin negatively portrays marriage in the story as being the “blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (Chopin). Instead of the story being about a poor wife who has just lost her beloved husband, the reader now can perceive the situation for what it is. A wife finally free of the domestic servitude called “marriage” she was trapped in. The main character Mrs. Mallard is liberated from husband Bentley Mallard through his death, because when he was alive, he would use his “powerful will” to bend hers. Criticism In "The Teeth of Desire: The Awakening and The Descent of Man," critic Bert Bender summarizes the theme of the story: In "The Story of an Hour," on the other hand, Mrs. Mallard feels the ecstasy of being liberated from what seems of love. (463) [2] While many critics do believe that Chopin's tale is about female liberation, in Lawrence Berkove's criticism he brings up several points that counter this theory. Berkove points out there is no significant evidence to suggest Mr. Mallard was an awful husband. Lawrence L Berkove, in his article "Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour,'" challenges that notion of Mrs. Mallard's death being a tragic one after she was finally freed from a constricting marriage. Berkove argues that this may not be the case, and that the "heroine" of the story may have instead been used as an immature egotist whose own extreme self assertion led to her own downfall. Berkove strongly contests the notion that Chopin intended for the views of the story's main character to coincide with those of the author. Berkove also argues, Louise’s “self –assertion,” really in her case is a manifestation of an extreme of self-love, which is exposed in this story as an emotional affliction of her heart that has physical consequences.[