Story of an Hour
The author, Kate Chopin, opens the story with the scene in which Mrs. Mallard is about to be informed by her sister, Josephine, of Mr. Mallard's death. "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" (550). At the end of the story, it becomes clear that this sentence foreshadows the story's climax. Chopin lets the reader in on what fate lies ahead for Mrs. Mallard by hinting at what lies ahead, her death, without giving any major information away. "It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her" (550). Richards is Mr. Mallard's best friend who hears, twice, of his friend's death due to a railroad disaster. He wisely informs Josephine about the tragedy and insists that she cautiously tell her sister about it. Josephine reluctantly passes on the news to Mrs. Mallard. She was reluctant to tell her sister the news because of Mrs. Mallard's heart problem. Josephine worries that her sister's "weak" heart could not handle the bitter news, but it does. Mrs. Mallard's awkward attitude after learning of he
The same sounds, scents, and colors of springtime are now transforming into harbingers of Mrs. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. "And yet she had loved him---sometimes. Inside the house, he hears Josephine's "piercing" cry as her sister falls down the stairs after seeing her husband--a ghost. However, she claims her self-assertive personality to be her strongest quality, which surpasses her ability to love. Mallard is staring at the sky through her open window (a symbol), day-dreaming about her freedom and exit from her current life into a new other. Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Mallard dies from seeing her husband alive, which is, to her, a negative development and not her "joy" as the doctors are claiming. Instead of weeping helplessly or fainting, she gives a shallow cry and suddenly dashes to her room upstairs, making sure no one follows her. Mallard ends up getting her freedom from her own death--a battle that lasted only for an hour. After battling the inevitable she suddenly realizes her ultimate freedom if she dies.
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Acceptance Essays
