Settings of The Story of an Hour are significant for us to understand it impossible that Mrs. Mallard escaped her fate. From the opening sentence of the story, we watch the unfolding of a dramatic situation: Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble in conflict with the sad message of her husband's death. As the story unfolds, the conflict ceases. The story is at turning point. She was in conflict with herself. "She said it over and over under her breath: free, free, free!"(p927). She was not insane. The specific social and culture contexts provided by the setting, the time of the story, help us understand that Mrs. Mallard was reasonable. In 1900's, women did not have any equal position as men. Men dominated. Mr. Mallard " had never looked save with love upon her"(p927). Even thought she had not loved him, she could not escape because all ethical and conventional standards constrained her like a cage. She would be shamed and condemned if she broke out. After she knew her husband's death, another setting, a garden in spring, prompted Mrs. Mallard to reveal her inmost feeling. "She would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers..."(p927). The feeling, "free! Body and soul free"(p927), strikes us. We are tinged with her bliss when "there was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory"(P927). When we feel relief and wonder how it will all turn out, the story turns abruptly again. It is also the setting that determines the story ended tragically. The reality is that women could not have body and soul free at that time. The house caged Mrs. Mallard. The new spring life and blue sky she perceived through the open window were far from her reach. Complete desperation killed her and with the death of her body, her soul was free finally. All in all, with the settings, the story happened and, with the set...