A Joy that Killed

A detailed Summary of A Joy that Killed

"A Joy that Kills" (1) was the given diagnosis for Mrs. Mallard's death. But was it the joy of seeing her "dead" husband alive, or from another joy? A Joy that no one could have suspected or even guessed; or was it a joy that came only from finally being free. 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, and soon thereafter dies herself of an apparent joy. It is then left up to us to determine what we believe to be the real cause of her death.

When Mrs. Mallard first receives the news of her husband's death, sadness takes over her body as, "she wept at once with sudden wild abandonment."(2) Only after heading upstairs to her room to be alone did she slowly but surely realize that her body and soul were now free. Despite the loss of her husband, she is over-come with a happiness and rejuvenation at the prospect of being free after so many years. Mrs. Mallard "saw beyond that bitter moment, a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to welcome them in."(3) 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 with Richards, the man that brought the news of her husband's death. As soon as she reaches the bottom of the stairs, Mr. Mallard walks in "looking a little travel-stained. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one." (4) The shock of seeing her supposedly "dead" husband alive causes her to have a heart attack and die.

Since this story was told from Mrs. Mallard's point of view, the story then contains meaning. If it had been told from another view, it would have just been about a women dying of heart disease because she could not take the emotional roller coaster of finding out her husband was dead and then seeing him alive. People could argue both points, but the clues that Mrs. Mallard provides show us the way to the real meaning of this story. The story being told from Mrs. Mallard's point of view is essential in making the readers aware of the underlying reasons of her death. When she dies everyone has a positive memory. Mrs. Mallard is happy because she finally gets the freedom she wanted so desperately an

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Approximate Word count = 798
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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A Joy that Killed

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