“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is the best short-story from the list provided due to the plot, point of view, and setting of the story which shows the strains of a relationship and the freedom one might experience after a lifetime of marriage. The theme of self-discovery in women and being able to have a true identity after learning of her husband’s death contribute to the overall journey of the character in which Chopin is conveying to the reader in order to show the importance of experiencing freedom in her life. In “The Story of an Hour”, the main character Louise Mallard learns of the unexpected news that her husband has tragically passed away in a train accident. A woman who was plagued by heart trouble, the passing …show more content…
Mallard is originally struck with grief and frightened of what is to come with her now widowed life. But within the hour of this story, the revelation of the emotional annoyance and joy of independence for Mrs. Mallard are experienced and really show the reader that the life after death for Mrs. Mallard may indeed be the life she has longed for all along (Kirszner & Mallard, 2012). I found it extremely interesting and entertaining, the fact that Chopin chose to describe the events that had taken place and the fact that Mrs. Mallard will no longer be subjected to her husband’s will. For the one hour of the story, she is for once a person who can live her own life and be on a new path to the discovery of what is to come. Maybe this is why this short story was originally titled “The Dream of an Hour” when it was first published in Vogue Magazine in 1895 (O’Conner, 2012). The story could have just been a dream that Mrs. Mallard had always wished would happen, as would many woman of this time period, when the feeling of being trapped in marriage with no escape. Ultimately within the plot of the story, the joy and freedom that Mrs. Mallard was about to experience caused her very own death upon her husband’s return. Her death was not caused by the joy of seeing her husband, but from “the joy that kills” when this joy is taken from her when he