"The Story of an Hour"

"The Story of an Hour"

Kate Chopin

The first thing I noticed was the time the story took place.  Kate Chopin tells us that Richards recieves the news about the railroad disaster and the lists of deaths by telegram.  During this time marriage was not ended at the drop of a hat like it is today.  Men and women both just lived with their decisions of getting married whether they were happy or not. Women in this time devoted all of themselves to their husbands and I think a lot of them lost their self along the way.  When Mrs. Mallard's sister tells her about her husbands death "she wept at once, with sudden,wild abandonment," as Kate Chopin puts it.  I think that her actions are true to her feelings because she did love her husband, but when she went to her room looking out the window she sees "new life".  She realizes that she had lost herself and can now live the rest of her life being who she chooses.  Her sister wants her to open the bedroom door because she thinks Louise is going crazy with grief, but the whole time she is taking in the new feelings of being "free".  Louise opens the door for her sister to reassure her that her troubled heart is fine.  The show people put on is what counts right?  When they walked down the stairs and Mr. Mallard walks in the door everyone is stunned.  I think the feelings that Mrs. Mallard had was to much.  One minute being sad about the death of her husband, realizing she was finally free to live her life, and then in a blink of an eye her freedom was gone again.  That would have killed me too!  The funny thing is it wasn't the joy of his return home that killed her it was just the simple fact he returned at all.