The Story of an Hour: Mrs. Mallard's Ethically Tragic Song

• Published in: ANQ (Lexington, Ky.) Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 141 - 147
• Main Author: Hu, Aihua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 03.04.2022; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: American literature; Ethics; Literary characters; Literary criticism; Literary theory; Professional ethics; Short stories; Women
• ISSN: 0895-769X; 1940-3364
• DOI: 10.1080/0895769X.2020.1743637

American novelist Kate Chopin's short story The Story of an Hour has attracted wide attention since its first publication in 1894. This article focuses on the ethical implications of the characterization of the heroine Mrs. Mallard from the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism, a literary theory and critical method initiated by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao in 2004 and popularized in China's literary arena ever since. Mrs. Mallard's ethical identity is constantly changing from an obeyer of traditional social ethics to a caged bird under traditional marriage ethics, from a new woman whose self-awareness awakens under modern ethics to being passively labeled as "Mrs. Mallard" again by traditional social ethics. The transformation of Mrs. Mallard's ethical identity during different periods of time presents an ethically tragic song about the living conditions of American women during the late nineteenth century and confirms how difficult it is for them to pursue their modern ethical identities. The Story of an Hour highlights via the characterization of Mrs. Mallard the fact that it can provide some ethical instructions for modern people and urge them to cherish women's hard-won rights today.