Emily and Mr. Mallard: The Torture of Love

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the contradictory emotions surrounding love in the form of fiction. It specifically explores the "nasty underbelly" to love through the prism of two short stories that grapple with these less pleasant aspects of love. It examines "A Rose for Emily" written by William Faulkner and "Story of an Hour" written by Kate Chopin.

From the Paper:

"Both Mrs. Mallard and Emily are victims of more than just lost love or broken hearts - they are presented as victims of extreme circumstances. Both Faulkner and Chopin seem to infer, through their characters, that the rights of women in the south were so restricted by the roles they were expected to play that their freedom was inevitably stifled. This restriction would prove to be a major interference in their love lives, in addition to their general well being. Emily feels the effects psychologically - by turning into a psychopathic, necrophiliac murderer - while Mrs. Mallard internalizes her oppression to the extent that her heart ultimately gives out on her. As Anais Nin once wrote, "Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source." This is a lesson that both Mrs. Mallard and Emily must learn the hard way."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Atkinson, Ted. Faulkner and the Great Depression: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Cultural Politics. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 2006.
• Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." 1894. Retrieved November 26, 2007 from http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/.
• Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." 1930. Retrieved November 26, 2007 from http://www.ariyam.com/docs/lit/wf_rose.html.
• Hannon, Charles. Faulkner and the Discourses of Culture. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
• Papke, Mary E. "On 'The Story of an Hour,' " in Koloski, Bernard, ed. Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1996, pp. 132-134.

More papers on Emily and Mr. Mallard: The Torture of Love:

• Essay # 138078 : "The Emotion of Love"
• Essay # 143611 : "The Role Of Love In Rossum's Universal Robots: An Analysis"
• Research Paper # 75103 : "The Science of Love"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: