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Personification
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
“The Story of an Hour” was published in 1894 and is set around the same time. As such, the story is set during the women’s suffrage movement that was gaining traction in the United States in the late 19th century. At this point in history, people widely believed that women were weaker and less competent than men, so most women were limited to being housewives, mothers, or domestic servants. But women’s rights activists at this time, who were called suffragists, believed that women deserved the same rights as men (e.g., voting in political elections, owning property, and freely participating in public life).
These sentiments are reflected in the story. Louise Mallard, a housewife, has long felt stifled in her marriage, dependent on her husband, and controlled by the people around her. So, when she finds out that her husband, Brently, was killed in a railroad accident, after a moment of shock and dismay she finds herself overjoyed that she can finally think and act independently. In this sense, she suddenly has the type of freedom that the suffragists advocated for.
“The Story of an Hour” specifically takes place in Louise and Brently’s home—mainly in Louise’s bedroom, where she locks herself after learning that Brently died. It’s significant that Louise is isolated in her room upstairs, while her houseguests, Josephine and Richards, are downstairs. This literal, physical separation reflects the more figurative, emotional gap in understanding between Louise and her guests. While Josephine and Richards believe that Louise is making herself sick with grief over Brently’s death, in reality, she’s excited about her newfound freedom.
But perhaps the most important aspect of the setting is the view outside Louise’s bedroom window, which the story describes in rich detail:
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
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 which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
The reader is able to engage with the setting on multiple levels—seeing, smelling, and hearing the invigorating sights and bustling activity of the town outside Louise’s window. The very fact that the armchair has been positioned to “fac[e] the open window” implies that this view is important to Louise, and that gazing out at the world is a pastime for her.
By contrast, the bedroom and the rest of the house aren’t described in any detail. This gives the impression that Louise’s attention is directed outward, and that the reader’s should be as well. Louise is captivated by her town’s natural beauty, novelty, and liveliness—perhaps because, as a married woman, she’s forbidden to experience these things firsthand.
In this way, the juxtaposition of the two settings in the story—outdoors and indoors—calls attention to men and women’s very different gender roles at this time. Men like Brently were free to experience all of the “life” and “delicious breath” that the outside world had to offer, while women like Louise were largely confined to unremarkable, unchanging lives spent inside their homes.
Related Themes:
