For this paper I decided to compare and contrast Louise Mallard from The Story of an Hour and Mattie Silver from Ethan Frome. I thought these two would be easy to compare and contrast since they’re both love stories and take place in different settings.
The first person I want to look at is Louise Mallard. In the story she finds out that her husband has been in an accident and is dead from her sister. This shows that her family cares about her, especially since they were more worried about Louise’s reaction of the death than their own. If you look at Louise herself you can see that she is very Independent. After she gets the news of her husband dying she wants to be by herself. She goes to her room and thinks because she doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her. Louise knows how women should behave, she doesn’t cry in front of her family and she is very proper. Like most women Louise is sad and devastated when she finds out about her husband, this shows she is emotional. Soon after she realizes that now she does not have to be tied down, she is now independent. When Louise walks downstairs and sees her husband alive she dies from loss of joy.
The second person I chose was Mattie Silver. The story isn’t told from her point of view so you don’t really know what she is thinking or feeling, this makes Mattie very mysterious. Most people are mean to Mattie, including her family. She comes from a wealthy family, but you can tell she has no education. Mattie goes from being pampered and spoiled to having to find ways to survive. Mattie is a hard worker, and when she is sent to take care of her cousin Zeena Frome she does take care of her and tries to help her