Loss & Death In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the author shows death as a way of relieve, as in “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop show us that losing something is not a big deal as she states “the art of losing isn’t hard to master” (Bishop, 1). By this, we can say that death or losing something is the main idea of the two stories. “The Story of an Hour” is very explicit and takes death to a more serious situation where the wife finds out that her husband has been in a mortal accident. “One Art” talks about losing something and talks about the loss of a lover. Grouping these ideas, we can say that the two stories join a special part which is the loss of someone special or a loved one. “Lose something every day” (Bishop, 4). This is the 4th line of the poem. It is telling us that we need to practice to lose something every day, and day by day we will get used to it. The narrator is giving a general idea of how easy it is to lose something. In life people can lose things very easily and in a very silly way. Losing someone, a loved one, can be devastating. This is a way to show how the nature of the world is, how common it is to lose someone and how easy it is to lose something. A woman is told that her husband has been in an accident and that he has died. The loss of her husband turns out to be something no one would have expected. At first, she feels miserable as described in the story; “she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (Chopin, 66). After this feeling, she suddenly starts to feel something different. Her mind starts to give her commands and she starts to whisper “free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin, 67). This clearly tells us that her husband death is a way of her freedom. Diction is a choice of words or phrases used by authors. In “One Art,” the author makes repetition of a phrase that says “the art of losing isn’t hard to master” (Bishop, 1). Using these repetitions, we can tell that the author wants to make herself believe that losing something is not a big deal and that people need to let go of things they have lost. In “The Story of an Hour,” the author uses words of freedom to describe the feeling of the wife after getting to know about apparently her husband’s death. Ironically, after finding out her husband has died, it turns out that her husband is not death and she dies. She could have died of emotion; “joy that kills” (Chopin, 68). “Loving hate” is an example of a figure of speech called oxymoron. With this example, we can relate to the wife’s feelings in “The story of an hour” when she feels peace in her soul and when she suddenly starts to say “free, body and soul free!” (Chopin, 67). The love of the wife towards her husband is strong but not as strong to feel relieved after his death. In “one art,” the author states that “loss is no disaster” (Bishop, 3), trying to emphasize that losing something cannot be something really important because usually people go crazy when they lose something. The contradictions of words of phrases tend to trick us. Probably it is a way to make us think the ways a feeling or a piece of work are being described with more than one significance. The point of view of a work tells us to whom the work is written to and how the author refers to its audience. “One art” starts the poem with 2nd person. An example is, “lose something every day, accept the fluster” (Bishop, 4). We can perfectly notice that this is being directed to us. As the poem keeps going, the author changes the point of view to 1st person. She starts to talk about the things and people she has lost. In “The Story of an Hour,” the point of view is 3rd person. The author talks about the wife’s lost; the death of her husband. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (Chopin, 66). We can relate that both works talk about two women that have lost someone very important in their life. The imagery that is being described in the works show us a very descriptive environment of where the works are taking place. In “The Story of an hour,” the situation is happening at a house. Then, it takes place in a room, where the wife calms herself down and feels peace. “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair” (Chopin). In “One Art” the author is very descriptive too. She gives examples of things we can lose as in car keys, time, etc. “Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent” (Bishop, One Art). The two works that are being presented, “One Art” and “The Story of an Hour,” are great examples of loss and death. Both talk about losing something or someone. The examples that are given give us an open idea of how is it to feel the way the authors are feeling in the works. The point of view helps us to understand more about the author’s feelings or to who it is being written. Both works represent the true meaning of loss, how easy or hard it can be.
Works Cited
Bishop, Elizabeth. One Art. n.d.
—. One Art. Massachusetts: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. Copyright, Alice Helen Methfessel, 1979, 1983.
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. 1800.