Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

During the 1800, gender played a common role in society. Women were known to stay at home cleaning, cooking, and raising their children, and men worked outside their homes. Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” illustrates the nature of women in the 1890. Chopin exposes the reader to a well-crafted plot line through foreshadowing, which is the evident of Mrs. Mallard’s troubled heart. Conflict plays a crucial role throughout the story as Mrs. Mallard expresses her life without her husband, Brently Mallard. Devastated from the news of Mrs. Mallard husband’s death, however, she does not see her husband’s death as tragedy but as an opportunity to be free and independent, which responds to her troubled heart as a symbol to represent her emotions with her marriage. Louise Mallard is given a glimpse of freedom and escapes the stereotypical society for an hour.

Mallard’s troubled heart in the beginning of the story, and then, her unfortunate death at the end of the story. The conflict occurs when Mrs. Mallards thinks about her future without her husband: “[Mrs. Mallard] could see in the open square before her house the top of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain in the air… and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves” (Chopin 550). The weather is dull and cloudy, but Chopin manipulates the setting to plot Mrs. Mallard’s joyful emotions. She feels a sign of relief because, in the 1890, women began to have their own independence, so she’s given a chance to do something on her own without her husband’s