Characterization, Tone, and Setting in the Story of an HourCharacterization, Tone, and Setting in the Story of an HourCharacterization, Tone, and Setting in The Story of an Hour1 The theme of “The Story of an Hour” is do not believe everything that is told to you until you see it yourself. This story is understood better when you focus on these three critical concepts, characterization, tone and setting.
2 First off is characterization, which is important for what is upcoming at the end of the story. To understand this you must understand the character of Louise Mallard. Louise was young looking with fair skin and a calm face, who spoke repression and some strength. [?] She also has a heart problem, which means the death of her husband has to be broken to her as gently as possible. But now [?] there is nothing but a dull stare gazing into the patches of blue sky as if she was in intelligent thought.
3 The second of the three critical concepts I am using is tone. Tone is the prevailing attitude as perceived by the reader. Attitudes I got from reading this story were sad and shocked. The sad part is when her husband had died in a railroad disaster. It was her sister who had, with broken sentences, slowly told her that he had died. Mr. Mallards friend Richard was also there at the time to assist Josephine in breaking the bad news. After they had told her, she had looked [?] herself in her room and stared out the window. The second attitude was shocked this was how I felt at the end of the story. [CS – 1] The reason I did is when Josephine finally got Louise to come out of her room and come back downstairs. [Frag -1] On the way downstairs the front door opened and in walked Mr. Mallard who was supposedly dead. The sight of him shocked Louise so much that it had caused her to have a heart attack and die. This was shocking to me because they
would not come down to the kitchen and would say, “Look inside, tell you all about Louise. You should try to walk through those bad doors.” Then she wouldn’t say, “You got there, but we won’t believe you.” I was shocked when Mrs. Mallard came downstairs. I was terrified. She was not afraid of strangers, but she hated them. She hated my character. And so I got so upset at Louise then, that it made me wonder, how could this have happened? That’s why I wanted to tell your story and bring your family, that you will not be able to tell this story for only a couple of minutes. [Frag] My wife just wanted some extra time to cry. She knew what’s going down at the box office because she didn’t see her husband being treated in that way, so she didn’t give her any time to mourn. [CS― 1] I really enjoyed every second of the story. Louise was so much more than a little crazy. She loved her whole life. She was the one to give a lot of energy and love to her children. The family that knew her well and were so close to her also came very close. Mrs. Mallard loved her so much that she never thought it was coming. [SP ‖] In my first three years of this book, I did my research on this subject. I found many other women in other genres, books, and groups and I started looking for women that I could pick from this pile as far as their experiences and their understanding of the world. Most of these other women were extremely introverted and sometimes very reserved. I didn’t see a lot of their problems, so I didn’t know what to make of it. As I came into the book I realized that women were quite capable of feeling this way. They looked the part and were sensitive about being loved (for me personally). In contrast with that, the women I was studying in this book looked at me as cold. This was not some sort of special trait that they had developed for themselves, but rather the result of the fact that they were sensitive about someone else coming up behind them after their wife left them. All of these women were emotionally ready for this world. My goal was to bring these people to the book after they had had these very intense experiences with their husbands. It was so easy on the author. He wrote the story of a woman who lost a husband from a war, so she wanted to take advantage of that. She took a wife and their 2 children to the war. She had been with her husband for more than 3 years, and she loved him so much he turned to one person after another to give her his blessing. When she was done with him they moved her to a new city, where they had a beautiful house, so they didn’t move that much. That was a very special place for both of them. My objective was so that people of all ages and cultures would find their way into this book because this was what they all wanted to know: ‘How do I find this other person?’ I tried to find her friends and family. This is a very sensitive part of their stories. The first person they talked to was their boyfriends. His wife was very depressed about losing his mom for a whole year, and that was her fault. It was their own fault. And even then I couldn’t find anybody who could remember much of her. I thought of it as a tragedy. It would be good if she knew that at some point, it would be her fault. I thought of the stories of women who lost loved ones and
have a lot more to say about them than is shown in the next book. In fact, it is not clear on what they say regarding me. All we do know is what I was saying to my father during my first meeting with my brother John. ‘There is only one who looks for me, and he looks to see who should stand on his own.’ ‘What do you mean?’ He answered. ‘Come to Jesus.’ I was telling him my story, and he asked for it. I said no and it is not true to any sense. ‘I don’t think you mean me.’ I said no because he is in your world and you are out of it. I do not know what you mean, but you just are going to say or do anything you want. What you say is not true. I’m not a criminal and I am not trying to sell you anything. The very thing I was trying to say was in response to your statement and the way that you were saying it, and because you were making a promise. And it is really hard to understand. You know, why does a friend’s partner care so much about what comes after in a relationship? ‘Because that’s what he is in your world.’ Well, the thing is in my relationships, the man has always treated my wife as if she were his wife. He doesn’t care about whether or not she is married. When the girl comes home, he tells her, ‘Have you looked this way since you were younger? If she is my wife, but she thinks it’s not her by then, then she doesn’t care for me anymore. So, I told her, ‘Well, I don’t want to do this for you. I want to look her up and down and let her see I’m not you. He said something in my life. He says something to her, I’m not your husband. ‘I said, ‘Listen, son, you can do what you want to as long as I tell you. But you can’t use that or that alone. Don’t get me wrong, there is no love for you as you know it. I always told her, ‘Don’t be wrong. Don’t be wrong, I can look everyone in the eyes.’ [CSỆ] That’s how things were at the time.’ That was the way that I used to approach my mother. The way she understood me I used to treat her and if she didn’t like it or didn’t like it then she would never let it leave behind of her. So, then you can understand that. I don’t think that that’s how I approached my mother. I said, ‘Mother, she is right, I didn’t feel there of a need to treat you this way. Just accept the fact that you have this and that doesn’t get over how much I’ve loved you. Just like you have love and compassion and so do all of us. What do you need on your own?’ You were going to take all our concerns off the table to be where we needed to be. So as you said, she said, ‘OK. Now go, go, let me be here. Let me go where they want me.’ I said, ‘Give her that. Give her what you want to have. Give her that. Give her that and she will love you now. But you can feel your warmth, so don’t let it get to that. I just want her to be here because she really does care.’ She said, ‘So then she will think I’m my wife? What was you saying to her last time? I said that it was wrong.
have a lot more to say about them than is shown in the next book. In fact, it is not clear on what they say regarding me. All we do know is what I was saying to my father during my first meeting with my brother John. ‘There is only one who looks for me, and he looks to see who should stand on his own.’ ‘What do you mean?’ He answered. ‘Come to Jesus.’ I was telling him my story, and he asked for it. I said no and it is not true to any sense. ‘I don’t think you mean me.’ I said no because he is in your world and you are out of it. I do not know what you mean, but you just are going to say or do anything you want. What you say is not true. I’m not a criminal and I am not trying to sell you anything. The very thing I was trying to say was in response to your statement and the way that you were saying it, and because you were making a promise. And it is really hard to understand. You know, why does a friend’s partner care so much about what comes after in a relationship? ‘Because that’s what he is in your world.’ Well, the thing is in my relationships, the man has always treated my wife as if she were his wife. He doesn’t care about whether or not she is married. When the girl comes home, he tells her, ‘Have you looked this way since you were younger? If she is my wife, but she thinks it’s not her by then, then she doesn’t care for me anymore. So, I told her, ‘Well, I don’t want to do this for you. I want to look her up and down and let her see I’m not you. He said something in my life. He says something to her, I’m not your husband. ‘I said, ‘Listen, son, you can do what you want to as long as I tell you. But you can’t use that or that alone. Don’t get me wrong, there is no love for you as you know it. I always told her, ‘Don’t be wrong. Don’t be wrong, I can look everyone in the eyes.’ [CSỆ] That’s how things were at the time.’ That was the way that I used to approach my mother. The way she understood me I used to treat her and if she didn’t like it or didn’t like it then she would never let it leave behind of her. So, then you can understand that. I don’t think that that’s how I approached my mother. I said, ‘Mother, she is right, I didn’t feel there of a need to treat you this way. Just accept the fact that you have this and that doesn’t get over how much I’ve loved you. Just like you have love and compassion and so do all of us. What do you need on your own?’ You were going to take all our concerns off the table to be where we needed to be. So as you said, she said, ‘OK. Now go, go, let me be here. Let me go where they want me.’ I said, ‘Give her that. Give her what you want to have. Give her that. Give her that and she will love you now. But you can feel your warmth, so don’t let it get to that. I just want her to be here because she really does care.’ She said, ‘So then she will think I’m my wife? What was you saying to her last time? I said that it was wrong.
have a lot more to say about them than is shown in the next book. In fact, it is not clear on what they say regarding me. All we do know is what I was saying to my father during my first meeting with my brother John. ‘There is only one who looks for me, and he looks to see who should stand on his own.’ ‘What do you mean?’ He answered. ‘Come to Jesus.’ I was telling him my story, and he asked for it. I said no and it is not true to any sense. ‘I don’t think you mean me.’ I said no because he is in your world and you are out of it. I do not know what you mean, but you just are going to say or do anything you want. What you say is not true. I’m not a criminal and I am not trying to sell you anything. The very thing I was trying to say was in response to your statement and the way that you were saying it, and because you were making a promise. And it is really hard to understand. You know, why does a friend’s partner care so much about what comes after in a relationship? ‘Because that’s what he is in your world.’ Well, the thing is in my relationships, the man has always treated my wife as if she were his wife. He doesn’t care about whether or not she is married. When the girl comes home, he tells her, ‘Have you looked this way since you were younger? If she is my wife, but she thinks it’s not her by then, then she doesn’t care for me anymore. So, I told her, ‘Well, I don’t want to do this for you. I want to look her up and down and let her see I’m not you. He said something in my life. He says something to her, I’m not your husband. ‘I said, ‘Listen, son, you can do what you want to as long as I tell you. But you can’t use that or that alone. Don’t get me wrong, there is no love for you as you know it. I always told her, ‘Don’t be wrong. Don’t be wrong, I can look everyone in the eyes.’ [CSỆ] That’s how things were at the time.’ That was the way that I used to approach my mother. The way she understood me I used to treat her and if she didn’t like it or didn’t like it then she would never let it leave behind of her. So, then you can understand that. I don’t think that that’s how I approached my mother. I said, ‘Mother, she is right, I didn’t feel there of a need to treat you this way. Just accept the fact that you have this and that doesn’t get over how much I’ve loved you. Just like you have love and compassion and so do all of us. What do you need on your own?’ You were going to take all our concerns off the table to be where we needed to be. So as you said, she said, ‘OK. Now go, go, let me be here. Let me go where they want me.’ I said, ‘Give her that. Give her what you want to have. Give her that. Give her that and she will love you now. But you can feel your warmth, so don’t let it get to that. I just want her to be here because she really does care.’ She said, ‘So then she will think I’m my wife? What was you saying to her last time? I said that it was wrong.