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 her husband's death establishes an irony. Josephine and Richards, certainly, were expecting far more emotion than she gives. Instead of weeping helplessly or fainting, she gives a shallow cry and suddenly dashes to her room upstairs, making sure no one follows her. "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her" (550).
             Mrs. Mallard quickly sits on her armchair out of exhaustion from her b...

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Story of an Hour. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 03:02, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/88897.html