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The Story of an Hour and The Horse Dealer's Daughter

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The stories "The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin and "The Horse Dealer's Daughter," by D.H. Lawrence, are closely related in some ways but completely different in others. Using different literary concepts, you can understand the text better as you break different elements down. In this case both authors stories attempt to led us to understand the true qualities of the characters. Through structure, Chopin and Lawrence reveal the characters circumstances of an oppressive relationship. First, the authors develop a complication to expose characters circumstances. Both Mrs. Mallard and Mabel are under similar circumstances of being oppressed. Due to the heart trouble Mrs. Mallard has been inflicted with, the news of her husband's death will need to be broken to her easily so nothing may happen to her. Mable, with the recent death of her parents, is stuck in a house with her rude brothers and about to lose everything as a result of the overwhelming debt of left by her father. Mable describes the weather to be "grey, deadened, and wintry with a slow, moist heavy coldness sinking in and deadening all faculties" (59). Both characters are similar, as they both seem to have lost their care for life. Being overwhelmed, Mable looks for an escape from her reality to something more calm and free. While Mrs. Mallard's has been married to husband, she has always been oppressed by him and treated as low to her. Mable is treated the same from her brothers as well. We understand where Mable and Mrs. Mallard come from as they both are in oppressive households. Next, the conflict is expressed through the oppression of women. Both characters seem to cause a chain reaction of events from either what happens in the home or even outside the home. Mable has a sort of internal conflict. It is hard for her to grasp the fact she is losing everything and has no place to go. Mr. Mallard has died and Mrs. Mallard's friend has to break the news to her softly as

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