“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a tale of unexpected joy and sorrow. In the beginning of the story, Josephine and Richards had to carefully tell Mrs. Mallard, who suffered from a heart condition, that her husband had died in a railroad accident. Once Mrs. Mallard had learned of this news she went to her bedroom alone. At first she was filled with sadness and then rather quickly became elated after she realized she was free. Overcome with this joy, she celebrated until she heard someone coming through the front door. She saw her husband, who had not died in the accident but was alive and well, and she died. This story reveals the joy that self-discovery and independence can bring.
Louise Mallard was a young, married woman in fragile
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In society it is expected that great sorrow and pain is felt by people whose loved ones have died. While this is the initial reaction Louise experiences, she quickly starts to feel another emotion. “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will” (Chopin 1). Once Louise realizes that the emotion she is experiencing is that of great joy, she tries to resist being overcome with it as she knows that it would be seen as inappropriate. However, Louise cannot stop the excitement over being free from the constraints of her marriage and eventually lets the feeling be revealed, regardless of the perceived correctness of …show more content…
While the story starts with Mrs. Mallard being a two-dimensional person, it quickly switches to sharing all of Mrs. Mallards thoughts and feelings. “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully” (Chopin 1). Telling the story from the omniscient point of view was incredibly beneficial because it allowed the readers to see the inner conflict Mrs. Mallard was having with her emotions. Without knowing all of the joy and excitement Mrs. Mallard felt after learning of her husband’s death, the story would seem to say that Mrs. Mallard died of great sadness instead of great