True Love A Self–Assertion

Marriage according to the legal definition is a union between two people with common interests and commitment to one another. In the late 1800s, people with marriage relationship and family problems had no options to divorce. The only choice which they had was to wish that either the husband or the wife to die. In the present day, you can divorce whenever you like, as long as there is a problem in marriage relationship. True love according to definition is a feeling of strong attachment induced by that which delights or commands admiration; preeminent kindness or devotion to another; affection; tenderness (www.dictionary.com). “The story of an Hour ” by Kate Chopin and “The painted Door” by Sinclair Ross displaced the element of true love that is self – assertion. Both story portrayed one similarity, which was the true love self - assertion. Mrs. Mallard wanted the freedom but still had love for her husband (now dead), but as for Ann, she loved John very much but the problem was that John was always hardworking.

When the news got to Mrs. Mallard, her mood rapidly. She didn’t “take it to heart as other women did” (77). She was totally paralyzed, and we are been told that she had heart problem before. So the mood she is in could affect her condition. According to the story, she still “loved her husband sometimes”(79). The reason she never really loved him was because he never showed the love wanted by her but to treat her badly.

After lamenting the death of her husband, she went to her room and locked her self up there. According to what she said, “But she felt it creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.” her view of long life changed from horror to hopefulness. She saw the world entirely new. At that moment she realizes that she got what she wanted, self - assertion (the freedom). The reason she wanted freedom is because the husband go to work and never come back to make love but would be heavily tired (my hypothesis). Well she ended up of dying from a “heart disease- joy that kills.” as in, after seeing her husband (who was presumed dead).

In “the painted door”, most of the time John and Ann would work all day, never having time for fun or relaxation time except in the night. Ann has always loved John, but John doesn’t notice the true love she shows him. John wanted everything for Ann, new clothes, and money to pay off their mortgage. Ann always cared about him, even the morning before he left to this father’s farm, she wanted to know that he would be safe, john wasn’t just ready for the love relationship. Meanwhile after he left, she became lonely, making her to rethink the past of how they met and married. Also she thought of Steven, about the dance and how they talked about it for years. That is the self-assertion she wanted, someone to be there for her every time. Even when John didn’t come home, she was still worried about him. “The storm was a metaphor for her anxiety” (http://www.essaysample.com/essay/002994.html) because it represented the regrets of having marrying him and of her present life. According to Ann, she didn’t really want the nice clothes John wanted for her because she said, “she would be too old to wear them.”(161).

Life back then on the prairies was terrible, because they lived in harsh conditions (snow and hail), there were no vehicles, lived in sod houses, must be hardworking to gain food. Theses things might be the reason that John had no time for Ann. At last John came home only to be disappointed that Ann slept with Steven. Before that, she had a feeling that John would come home and that he had always survived other storms and blizzard from the past. The ending was tragic, because she found out that he actually came home because of the paint on his hands from the painted door. Now she got the self-assertion she wanted.

In comparing these two stories, I found out that both characters Louise Mallard and Ann wanted really love but didn’t get it. So the only way they could get it was to be free. As in the case of Mrs. Mallard, she wanted the freedom, and she got it for some minutes before the fall of her death. She knew after hearing the news, which she would learn from her experience when choosing her partner. As in the case of Ann, there was the love but she would have to be patient enough until the right time. Even though she still loved John, she also liked Steven, because Steven was there to fill the loneliness she was in after John had gone to his father’s farm.

True love self –assertion is basically what both stories are based on. One was satisfied in hearing the news of her dead husband and choosing a new partner, while the other still had the love for her husband but the friend was the problem she had. They both want to fulfill their self – assertion. The difference are the setting that the story took place because one was in the 1800s and the other in 1900s, city while the other was on a farm, and opposite characters died in both story (a twist to “the story of an Hour were the main character dies).

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