『一時間の物語』の名言
Kate Chopinの『The Story of an Hour』（1894年）から、有名な一節を10か所、一字一句そのまま紹介します。それぞれの意味と出典も示します。
4分で読めます
- 1
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
意味： Louise’s heart condition makes her family especially cautious about telling her that her husband has reportedly died.
Narrator第1段落 - 2
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air.
意味： The lively spring scene outside contrasts with Louise’s grief and exhaustion.
Narrator第5段落 - 3
She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!”
意味： Louise recognizes that her husband’s apparent death offers her an unexpected freedom.
Louise Mallard第9段落 - 4
There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself.
意味： Louise imagines a future guided by her own wishes rather than the demands of marriage.
Narrator第10段落
- 5
There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.
意味： Louise sees marriage as allowing one person’s will to override another’s independence.
Narrator第10段落 - 6
And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.
意味： Louise acknowledges that her love for her husband was real but inconsistent.
Narrator第11段落 - 7
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
意味： Louise celebrates an independence that she feels throughout her physical and inner life.
Louise Mallard第12段落 - 8
No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.
意味： The prospect of independence renews Louise’s energy and desire to live.
Narrator第14段落 - 9
She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
意味： Louise now welcomes the long future she previously dreaded because she believes it will belong to her.
Narrator第14段落 - 10
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.
意味： The doctors attribute Louise’s death to happiness, overlooking the devastating loss of the freedom she had just imagined.
Narrator第18段落
これらの一節についての質問
What does “free, free, free” mean in The Story of an Hour?
Louise realizes that her husband’s presumed death could let her direct her own life. Her response expresses a desire for independence rather than simple happiness about his death.
Why is the ending of The Story of an Hour ironic?
The doctors believe Louise dies from happiness at her husband’s return. Readers know she had been celebrating independence, so the ending suggests that losing this imagined future, rather than gaining her husband back, overwhelms her.
