Analysis of Themes in The stories: The Story Of an Hour, The Garden Of Forking Path - Essay Example

? Analysis of Themes in The stories:The Story Of an Hour, The Garden Of Forking Path Kate Chopin’s short story “The story of an hour deals with the variance in the mind of a female protagonist, Louise, after listening to the death of her husband. Mrs. Mallard, unlike an ordinary woman reacts to this unpleasant event in a dissimilar way. The author, being a feminist writer challenges the traditional concept of marriage in a male dominated society and the ardent desire of woman to liberate themselves from the bond of relations. Freedom is a suppressed desire of every person. Even when they enjoy familial relations, the mind is longing to experience the pleasure of liberation. This is evidently explained in the story by Kate Chopin’s. The spontaneous retort of Mrs. Louise to the stunning news of her husband’s death is quite natural and adequate. The slow transformation in her emotional altitude is so strange that it grows to a wild joy and excitement. The sweetness of freedom for both mind and body is the most awaited and unattainable for her. When she moves to her room and pressed herself on the armchair, everyone near to her anticipate an accident due to her illness. But what she was experiencing was an uncontrollable joy of the mind, which confined in the bondage of marital relation. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”. Everything before her attains a newness. When she finally acknowledges the joy, she feels possessed by it and must abandon herself to it as the word free escapes her lips. “Free! Body and soul free! Jamil argues in her article “Emotions in ‘The Story of an Hour ‘that Chopin portrays Mrs. Mallard’s perception of her husband‘s supposed death as fostered by emotions. Never did she express such emotions in her life. The repression of emotion represents her repressive husband. When Josephine asks her to open the door, she is coming out from the room as a new woman. How firm was she to tell” Go away. I am not making myself ill. According to Kate” she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open win. The anticipations about the future fill her mind. At this juncture also she is able to foresee the beauty of the upcoming spring and she expects that all the seasons will bring happiness to her. She does not like to get ill. The attitude of Mrs. Mallard is unacceptable to the society. She is not a sympathetic character, instead within this short time she proves herself as a powerful and strong woman. She feels the life as her own. The arrival of Mr. Brently creates a vague reaction in her., she flies to a world of her own to experience the ‘unattainable freedom ‘not by living but by death. Being a feminist Kate believes in ultimate freedom of women. The marital relations are oppressive. There is no evidence in the story that Mr. Brently was cruel to her or not a kind and loving man. But the then prevailing notions about the role of woman in family and society were not fully enjoyed by them. The independence that she enjoys, the release of the mind, everything indirectly suggests that her soul and body are locked up. This may be true to her husband’s also. The author succeeded in creating an ambiguous ending by twisting the story. Another important theme of this story is the rejection of the societal norms. In many of her short stories Kate Chopin’s employed the theme of marginalization of women who were treated as a inferior class according to the then societal norms. It is to be noted that Kate never depicts Mr. Mallard as a cruel or careless husband in this story. But the security and consideration Louise experience is less powered than the quest for freedom in her. After the procession of the impalpable emotions, she slowly comes to reasoning and thinks that she is liberated from the obligations of marriage and free as bird to fly according to the requests of the mind. It should be noted that Kate never presents the protagonist a wayward woman, but as a sea of exceptional sensations into which the readers have to dive to follow her. The treatment of life and death in the stories of Kate is particular. In ‘The story Of an Hour’ Kate draws the thin line between life and death by the unexpected death of Mrs. Mallard. It is true that the physical livelihood of a person influences his or her mental and emotional livelihood. Mrs. Mallard temporarily comes out of her illness with a desire to live, but dies of ‘heart disease-of the joy that kills’. The line establishes that Louise’s heart condition is more of a metaphor for her emotional state than a medical reality. This is highly ironical. The limitations of marriage are common to both men and women.” There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature”. The story is a controversial one about the wishes of a young married woman which she is unable to realize until the tragic moment shakes her consciousness. Through the death of her husband she recognizes her real self, free her body and soul and a rare feel of joy, what marriage fails to give. The readers are also forced think about and evaluate personnel moral values which are generally considered to bring enjoyment to life. The Garden of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges was a famed Argentine poet and writer, who is well known for his short stories which discuss the themes like labyrinth, dreams, libraries etc “The Garden Of Forking Path “was written in 1941. Borges works of fiction intertwined with the metaphysical have made him one of the most renowned writers of 20th century. The story describes the journey of a man to inform the Germans about British military positions. Borges establishes a relation to the time of infinity and internet in this story. The Major character Yu Tsun is on his way to meet Dr, Stephen Albert, a sinologist. Dr. Stephen Albert tells Yu Tsun , ‘The garden Of Forking paths ‘ deals with the theme of time , it is a parable or a riddle more than a novel. Likewise Borges also uses the same theme of time. At the beginning of the story Dr. Yu Tsun reflects “everything happens to a man precisely now. Centuries of centuries and only in the present do things happen;” Thus Yu Tsun describes time in a linear manner. Men experience time as a series of present moments. The flow of moments constitutes time. Every second is only live. The moments it over, it becomes part of past. It has no relevance, but exists in dominion of memory only; while future go with the region of imagination. The realization that the present is the only aspect of time which is influential in a man’s action leads him to give up his mediation and to act in the present. When he arrives at the home of Albert, he puts arguments about the concept of time coined by his ancestors. The Sinologist argues that his ancestors did not believe in uniformity of time. For him the construction of time closely related to the present past and future. Each decision a person makes leads to different events. So the time is a media through which branching or forking takes place. Thus time becomes a network of possibilities. Yu Tsun also utilizes this concept of time to execute his actions. In his own words “It seemed to me that the humid garden that surrounded the house was infinitely saturated with invisible persons. Those persons were Albert and I, secret, busy, and multiform in other dimensions of time.” He was able to recognize the present in its significance. The story l has the theory of chaos and arrangement in it. According to Thomas P Weissert “the subject of the story is chaos and order. The novel described here which is supposed to be written by the ancestors of Yu Tsun is also said as ‘incoherent ‘, chaotic. But Albert believes that he has corrected the mystery of chaos in the novel. As he says he gives up his life knowingly or unknowingly, he becomes part of the efforts of Dr. Yu Tsun to create order in disorder. The theme of fate is consciously used by the writer to develop the mindset of the protagonist. As a spy to Germans, Yu Tsun is sure about the impending death. But he uses the word ‘implacable ‘frequently. The readers get the impression that he believes in ‘fate’. The signs and omens proclaim the unavoidable death. With Albert he discusses the same irrevocable future of human being. The theme of the novel also reflects on this idea. The human life is a narrative, and has an order of events, which may not repeat in any other time. The divergence in life which takes place very moment in the life is treated in the novel “The garden of Forking Path. Albert talks to Tsun about the infinite paths in life “For example, you come to this house; but in other possible pasts you are mu enemy, in others my friends” Time take specific decisions, in specific manner. We can assume that Tsun experiments with the theory of time by killing Albert. He has chosen the path of enemy at that moment. After that he says “What remains is unreal, unimportant “. Borges is thus able to able to unite the beginning and the end of the story with the similitude. Betrayal plays a prominent role in this story. Spy stories are characterized by the theme of betrayal. He was given diverging paths to the destination. But as a spy he selects the necessary path to perform action. The protagonist was working for his race, but he became traitor to his friend and to his own principles. The end of the two characters is not relevant because it is part of infinite amount of realities. The single man’s dilemma is extraneous in the broad spectrum of time. The ‘alternatives’ are given opportunities for the progress of the story. About World War 1 it is written,” the delay was caused by a torrential rain, an insignificant one.” It was planned for a day. But it took place some other day. Whatever the cause may have been, the delay causes a twist in the beginning. After attending the phone, Yu Tsun speculates the murder of Viktor Runeberg. He says “It meant that Runeberg had been arrested or murdered”. From the beginning onwards the central character is also permitted to have an option. About the Richards missing of train Yu Tsun says” I told myself that the duel had already begun and that I had won the first encounter by frustrating, even if for forty minutes, even if by a stroke of fate…..”. The choice of path is the ultimate freedom of everyone. Through this story Borges ask the readers to set the destination and make choices. The final triumph will be the upshot of choice .Finally the protagonist succeeded in carrying out his mission of sending the message to the Germans. The path taken is irrelevant in this process. He was hanged to death for killing Albert. But the two played no role in the history, but time. Work Cited Chopin, Kate. The Dream Of An Hour ;Vogue , 1894. Borges, Luis Jorge. The Garden Of Forking path ;EditorialSur, 1948. Jamil, Selina S. “Emotions in ‘The Story of an Hour’” Explicator (2009): 215-220. EBSCOhost ‘A labyrinth of Symbols Exploring The Garden Of Forking Path’; n a ,web 01- July- 04 http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3540226/A-labyrinth-of-symbols-exploring.html Notes The Story Of An Hour 1. The story of an hour is linked to the Women Liberation Movement, which was a political movement in born in 1960. The feminist of the time took a stand to fight for women freedom in America. American wives in the late 19th century were legally bound to their husband’s power and status. But the widows were free from their responsibility of finding or following a husband. They had control over their lives. Though there is no such mention about the contemporary second –class situation of women in the text; Mrs. Mallard’s surprising words “free free “highly suggest the then historical context. 2. Impalpable- indefinable. 3. Ironical- Nobody expects such a twist at the end of the story. The irony at the ending is that Louise does not die of joy as the doctors claim, but actually from the loss of joy . Bently’s death gave her a glimpse of a new life , when that is swiftly taken , the shock and disappointment kills her. 4. Heart disease – of joy that kills - It has both physical and mental component. In the beginning it is used as a medical term, but as the story proceeds we see that the term suggest the weakness of Mrs. Mallard, a result of over joy. 5. Repression: The unconscious exclusion of painful impulses desires and fears from the conscious mind. The words “Free free free”- suggest that the she suppressed her feelings and now , the realization of the fact that she is freed let her pour out the emotions in her mind. 6. . The Open Window: The open suggest the freedom and opportunities that await her after her husband has died. From the window she was able to experience the blue sky fluffy clouds, and treetops. Everything she enjoys here suggests a new life. Thus it represents her bright future. 7. The story of an Hour –Feminist reading: Towards the end of the story Loise’s recognition of her unhappiness illustrates Chopin’s commitment to a women’s outlook, and it is beyond the male communication. The Garden Of Forking Path. Historical background of the story: Argentina was under colonial rule for a long period. It was liberated in 1916. It was progressing in a fast manner. Like all, Borges family also adopted Europe for education and culture. Garden Of Forking Paths- The name of a novel, which was supposed to be written by the ancestors of Dr. Yu Tsun. It serves as the stories central metaphor. The gardens forking paths are a metaphor for the infinite diverging narratives of the novel. The garden also shows up literally in the story. It’s an idyllic space in which the protagonist spends his childhood, a place of seclusion for Yu Tsun. Sinologist – A student of Chinese history and language and culture: Albert was a sinologist. A former student of the works of Yu Tsun’s ancestor. Labyrinth: A labyrinth is a maze, or a complex structure of branching paths in which a person can easily get lost. This idea is very important in the story. One of the really cool things about the story is the way the style of the writing mimics the diverging and converging paths of labyrinth. The story itself takes forking paths. But later these branches in the narrative come back together in such a neat way that it seems to have been planned along. Eg: Yu Tsun put an end to his wandering thought and thins how to escape from Richard Madden Genre: The story can be called a ‘philosophical literature, a psychological thriller structure and a spy story of mystery. Abstract Themes The story of an hour: Freedom and oppression Kate Chopins rejects the then social norms through her stories The Limitations of marriage, especially when compared with the freedom and consideration of a widow. The Garden Of The Forking Path: The theme of time and infinity- uniformity of time and space – the relevance of present moment-the past is dead and the future is imaginative The theme of chaos and arrangement – concept of fate –the theme of betrayal The chance of alternatives in the story Read More