story of an hour

A detailed Summary of story of an hour


In "The story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the complex character, Mrs. Mallard, In a most unusual manner. THe reader is led to believe that her husband has been killed in a railway accident. The other characters in the story are worried about how to break the news to her; they know whe suffers from a heart condition, and they fear for her health. On the surface, the story appears to be about how Mrs. Mallard deals with the news of the death of her husband. On a deeper level, however, the story is about the feeling of intense joy that Mrs. Mallard experiences when she realizes that she is free from the influences of her husband and the consequences of finding out that her new-found freedom is not to be. At First, Mrs. Mallard seems to be genuinely affected by her grief: "She wept ar once, with sudden, wild abandonment....When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. SHe would have no one follow her"(14). At this point in the story, the reader is able to look into the mind of Mrs. Mallard; she now noti


The story unviels its theme at this point: Mrs. Mallard, for the first time in her life, experiences a new-found freedom. Instead of dreading the future without her husband, "she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely"(15. She could now live her life and be absolutely free of the imposing will of her husband:

On the surface, this story appears to be about how Mrs. Mallard accepts the news of the death of her husband; on a deeper level, however, this story examines how Mrs Mallard accepts the possession of her own being which she recognizes as "the strongest impulse of her being"(15). As she looked out of her window, she was looking at life as she had never seen it before: "she was looking drinking in the very elixer of life"(16). SHe had never before looked to the future with any optimisim, only dread. She could hardly live with this new-found joy that she had discovered within herself, and ironically, she would not live with new discovery for long. As the story takes

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 702
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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