In Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” the plot is essential to supporting the theme of freedom and confinement. A woman with a weak heart, Mrs. Mallard, can get a shock at any moment and die. She receives bad news that her husband has died from her friends, Josephine and Richards, and begins to mourn. Within the hour, she decides that she is free and feels the joy of her newfound freedom. Next, Mrs. Mallard’s world gets turned upside down. This short story begins with an important piece of characterization that Mrs. Mallard has a weak heart and could have a heart attack at any moment. The reader needs to know this fact for all the events to come. This changes the way that her friends speak and behave to her. She has to be handled …show more content…
Once she exits the room, she is feeling like a new person and has a different look on life. She is excited about her life ahead and is filled with emotion and adrenaline as she keeps fixating on the idea that she is free at last. The reader senses foreshadowing that something bad is about to happen. The short story ends with Mr. Mallard walking into the house and shocking everyone that he is not dead. Although Josephine and Richards are surprised as well, they try to keep Mrs. Mallard from receiving shock. They fail at this task and Mrs. Mallard dies right after seeing Mr. Mallard alive. The events foreshadowed in the beginning of the story have come true- Mrs. Mallard’s had heart trouble. The doctor concludes that she died of joy, but the reader can tell that she really died from loss of her new freedom. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin explains how marriages were like in the 1800’s. Mrs. Mallard was sad that her husband died, but she was happy to finally be set free from her marriage. She did not have many legal or fiscal rights so she felt a sense of relief after her husband’s death. She is filled with an overpowering joy, mental freedom, and emotional freedom while being confined in a room. As soon as she leaves that room, her freedom is taken away along with her