A Comparison of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour and Thomas Wolfe's The Far and the Near

The structure and style of writing play a major role in both Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Wolfe’s “The Far and the Near”. Especially, the use of the climax and anticlimax structure and emotional style of writing make these particular works very powerful.

Chopin employs the climax and anticlimax structure to heighten the drama of the hour. In the same fashion, Wolfe is able to utilize climax and anticlimax as ways to enhance his depiction of the human predicament in “The Far and the Near”. “The Story of an Hour” is short and made up of a series of short paragraphs, many of which consist of just two or three sentences. Likewise, the short, dense structure mirrors the intense hour in Louise Mallard’s life – from the moment she learns of her husband’s death to the moment he unexpectedly returns alive. Chopin surprises us initially with Louise’s elated reaction when she first murmurs “free” to herself, which accounts for the climax of the story. Comparatively, the use of climax is one in which Wolfe taps into the ever present aspect of hope within the construction of human identity. When the main character, an engineer, decides to approach the house with the mother and daughter, especially seeking to enhance the experience that he had felt for two decades, it becomes a moment of climax and building tension. Wolfe develops this in the hope and promise that the engineer has towards his approach of the woman’s home. The stepping off the platform, and the walking through the town are examples of the building tension in the moment. The moment in which the engineer approaches the house is where this climax is felt as the pinnacle of human hope and anticipation: “Yes, this was the house he sought, the place he had passed so many times, the destination he had longed for with such happiness.” It is important to realize that Wolfe builds up the climax as a reflection of human hope in the desire to make something better. There is a sense of optimism in the engineer, the realization of a vision he has had for some time. It marks the emotional culmination of a life’s hope.

This is also a unique human experience that combines curiosity with hope to transform what is into what can be. Uniquely, Chopin shocks us again at the conclusion when the Louise dies upon Brently’s return, thus appointing the anticlimax. The “heart disease” mentioned at the end of the story echoes the “heart trouble” discussed at the beginning, intensifying the twist ending and bringing the story to a satisfying close. Furthermore, The engineer in “The Far and the Near” has seen life from a distance and wishes to interact more closely with it, unaware that in touching it, he might actually corrupt it. This corruption of a pristine vision from a distance is what forms the anticlimax in Wolfe’s work. Wolfe uses the anticlimactic feel of the work to enhance the condition of regret and pain that is intrinsic to human consciousness, Chopin succeeds in making every sentence important by employing an almost poetic writing style. She uses repetition to highlight important points, such as when she repeats the word open throughout the story to emphasize the freedom of Louise’s new life. She has Louise repeat the word free over and over again as well, which is one of the few words Louise actually speaks aloud in the story and indicates how much she cherishes her newfound freedom. Besides repeating words, Chopin also repeats phrases and sentence structures to highlight important points. For example, Chopin writes, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.

It was only yesterday that she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” Additionally, Chopin makes the prose of the story beautiful by using alliteration and internal rhymes. For example, Josephine “revealed in half concealing” when she tells Louise the news, and Brently reappears “composedly carrying” his belongings. Similarly, Wolfe uses language to accentuate the climactic feel of “the moment.” This is seen in language such as the man walking “slowly in the heat and dust” and how he saw “the lordly oaks before the house, the flower beds, the garden and the arbor, and farther off, the glint of rails.” These experiences help to enhance the climax feel of the story.

In conlcusion, although Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” might have been a little bit more intense than Wolfe’s “The Far and the Near”, where one described an hour while th other span over years, both works are incredibely powerful and emotional and suggest a more condensed view on the inner workings of humans against the harsh reality of the world.

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