Some of you have begun to consider the issue of narrator reliability. Compare narrator reliability in “The Cottagette” and “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” or compare one of these with the reliability of the narrator in “The Story of an Hour.” Include examples by quoting from the text to show what informs your sense of reliability.
In “The Story of an Hour”, according to the narrator, Mrs. Mallard did not know how to deal with her husband’s death at first. She seems confused. First she starts crying hysterically then when she is in her room alone, she starts thinking about beautiful the spring was which clearly indicated that she knew that was a new beginning for her. She was also thinking about how she would have her freedom now that her husband is gone. The narrator wrote “And yet she had loved him-sometimes-often she had not”. This also shows confusion for the reader. I asked myself two questions; Did Mrs. Mallard really love her husband? Why is that she was not clear as to how much of Mrs. Mallard loved her husband? Also in the story Mrs. Mallard often talk to herself. She lacks emotional skills to deal with her situation and this makes the reader question her reliability, just as in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator seemed confused about her emotions and often talked to herself.
Be careful not to conflate narrator with protagonist. Is Mrs. Mallard the narrator of “The Story of an Hour”?
In narratology, the study of narrative, we would consider her the narrative’s focalizer, since the narrator is essentially looking through her point of view to relay the story. Note, though, that the narrator is a separate entity. Let’s talk more about these terms here and in class.