The Story of an Hour

Story expresses every emotion that Louise Mallard feels after she finds out about the death of her husband. The very first sentence of the story states, "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death". As the news is broken to her as delicately as possible, Mrs. Mallard begins weeping uncontrollably into the arms of her sister, Josephine. Mrs. Mallard is very heartbroken by the report of her husband's death, but when her grief subsides, she goes away to her room to be alone. She sits down in an armchair that is facing a window and looks out at all of the nature. All of a sudden, as she is gazing outside this window, a feeling comes to her. A feeling that she keeps trying to push back, but she is unable to. It is a feeling of freedom. She knows that when the time of his funeral comes and she sees him with his arms folded across his chest, she will feel sad again. But as she looks ahead at her future years without her husband, she feels enlightened. Mrs. Mallard keeps whispering to herself, "Free! Body and soul free!" and as Josephine listens in to her sister from the other side of the door, she gets very worried and tells Mrs. Mallard to open the door or she will make herself ill. Josephine was unable to hear exactly what her sister was saying inside of her room, but as Joseph Rosenblum states within his article, "'The Story of an Hour' by Kate Chopin "Josephine . . . would be shocked if she knew what thoughts were racing through her sister's mind."

Kate Chopin

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