Subtle yet Cruel

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 559.

Tone

The Story of an Hour Narrator: Third Person (Omniscient)

The use of an omniscient third-person narrator enables Chopin to tell a complete story that's not limited to the protagonist's point of view. This is key because the opening of the story begins with us readers knowing something Mrs. Mallard doesn't, and because the story ends after Mrs. Mallard has already died. If Mrs. Mallard were telling the story in first person, readers would be exposed to a whole different explanation of her weak heart, and the story would end very differently – and somewhat earlier.

The narrator's description of Mrs. Mallard shows someone who brushes off the notions of love and even the best of marriages for the glorious idea of pure freedom. 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 passed away from a sudden shock of extreme happiness from finding out that her husband lived after all: from "joy that kills" (23).

Only readers and the narrator know that Mrs. Mallard had already experienced a potentially "monstrous joy" (12) earlier, alone with the knowledge of a lost spouse and the free life stretching out ahead of her. Which "joy" is more "monstrous"? And what is it that really killed Mrs. Mallard? Was she happy? Surprised? Horribly disappointed? Well, the narrator leaves that question up to you.