Analyzing The Story of an Hour The Story of an Hour is a short essay that describes what Mrs. Mallard goes through when she finds out her husband has been killed in a train accident. At first she is extremely sad but when she looks out the window it becomes apparent to her that she is free. Mrs. Mallard is overwhelmed with the thought that her body and soul are now free. Despite the loss of Mr.
Mallard she is overcome with happiness and feels rejuvenated with the prospect of being free in years to come. In a sense she feels like a bird that has just been let out of its cage after years of captivity. After a while she heads back down stairs to talk to Richards, the man that brought her the news of her husband’s death. As soon as she gets to the bottom of the stairs Mr. Mallard walks in looking a little travel stained.
The shock of seeing her husband alive causes her to have a heart attack and die. Mrs. Mallard plays a character that has to deal with very serious emotions. Her emotional state goes from one end of the spectrum to the other in only an hour. It seems that she dies because of the joy of seeing her husband alive. I think she dies because of an entirely different reason.
She had a history of heart problems but those could be attributed to the fact that she was unhappy and felt like she was in captivity. When Mrs. Mallard realized that she was free it seemed that an elixir ran through her body and made her feel brand new and wonderful. I believe that if her husband had really died she would have lived many more years. Upon finding out that her husband was indeed alive she died. The doctor said that it was over joy that caused her heart to fail.
The way M The protagonist character Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” portrays a wife’s unexpected response to her husband’s death. The narrator divulges to the reader modest but convincing hints of Mrs. Mallards newly discovered freedom. This newly discovered freedom would be short lived for Mrs.
Mallard. Mrs. Mallard, who suffers from heart disease, was portrayed as an average wife who breaks down into a fit of distress from the fateful news of her husband’s death. She retreats to her room to come to grips with the tragedy but finds instead something unexpected in herself. The tears and emotions soon turned to confusion as Mrs. Mallard came to realize the reality that she was not necessarily crying over the loss of her husband but of his death.
Mrs. Mallard admits that Mr. Mallard is a good husband but that she detests the bondage of being husband and wife and she no longer wants the will of another forced upon her. The time of her new found freedom was revealed when she begins to whisper “free” over and over to denote that she is no longer under the will of another person. The depth of Louise’s bondage known as marriage was more than she.