Both the young soldier and Louise Mallard contend with substantial physical challenges, but, in the latter's case, the disability is hidden. As for the young soldier, his impairment is clearly visible to the human eye.
In "The Story of an Hour," Louise Mallard suffers from a heart malady and, therefore, cannot endure sudden shocks. In the poem "Disability," however, the young soldier has just returned from war and is missing his legs. He must get around in a wheelchair, and his disability clearly draws attention (and pity) from onlookers.
Both Louise Mallard and the young soldier share a similar dissatisfaction with life. Louise, although married to a reasonably amiable man, harbors ambivalent feelings about him. Although he has always been kind and tender with her, a strain of discontentment yet mars her happiness. When Louise receives news about her husband's supposed death, she gives way to her surface emotions. Privately, however, she revels in the knowledge that she will enjoy many freedoms in the foreseeable future. For Louise, a release from her private miseries appears to be on the horizon.
Meanwhile, the young soldier's new disability renders him a second-class citizen. He is no longer popular among the ladies. His "ghastly suit of grey" is pinned at the end of his leg stumps. The women's eyes pass from him to men who are still whole. Despite his sacrifices, the young soldier is forgotten and relegated to the margins of society. For him, there is no hope of release from his private sorrows. He must endure until death releases him from his emotional pain.
So, both Louise Mallard and the young soldier endure discontentment. It is the former, however, who dies a quick, unexpected death, which automatically frees her from all of life's attendant challenges. As for the soldier, he must endure "a few sick years in institutes" and take whatever meager joys the world hands him. In Louise's case, she dies quickly. The young soldier, however, must live in his broken body until death takes him.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Compare the characters Louise Mallard from "The Story of a Hour" and the young solider in "Disabled" by Wilfred Owen?
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