Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin published “The Story of an Hour” in 1894. This short story presents how a sick woman named Louise Mallard dies of a broken heart, but not over the loss of her husband but over the loss of her recent independence. She appears distraught about Mr. Mallard’s death, but realizes when one door closes, another door opens. She puts aside this time of mourning to instead rejoice about the days ahead of her. Louise’s weak heart does not falter during any of the commotion until she sees her not so dead husband in her doorway. In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin shows how Mrs. Mallard handles the news of becoming a widow, finding her new freedom, and when she discovers these two concepts are not entirely true. Her heart stands the test of

Mallard’s passing. As soon as word falls on her ears, she breaks down: “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (Chopin 128). These are unusual characteristics of someone with a feeble heart. Typically, one in her condition will not conduct in this behavior due to increased risks; therefore, it seems it is all an act. When Louise is alone in her room, the grieving is put to a halt, and she starts processing what this entails for her: “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” (Chopin 129). She understands her days of answering to another are no more. Mr. Mallard’s death brings out to the surface her true feelings: “And yet she had loved him – sometimes.

Mallard because this means all her plans will never happen. Cardiac symptoms only exhibit when she acknowledges she is unrestrained: “Her pulse beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 129). Her heart reacts to this current love for life but not to the ending of her husband’s. Louise’s new breath of existence is soon her first and last. Everyone responds differently to Mr. Mallard’s presence: “He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife” (Chopin 130). Louise’s reaction however is eternal rest from “heart disease – of joy that kills” (Chopin 130). It is not from the joy though but rather sorrow. She conveys more appreciation and delight toward her new independence than her husband, which is why she can handle the loss of his life but not of this unused privilege. She admits to the lack of love in her marriage, so she might already feel she lost him a long time ago. She trades places with her spouse by dying of a broken heart from losing her latest object of