Kate Chopin portrays the internal and external emotions felt by a newly widowed female in the nineteenth century in "The Story of An Hour." The story's first sentence plunges us into an immediate sense of conflict. The mention of Mrs. Mallard's "heart trouble" emphasizes its later importance in the plot, and the pairing of her weak heart with the "news of her husband's death" creates tension that grips the reader and propels the story forward.
             The openings in the house, the windows and doors, are all significant in this story. Mrs. Mallard's upstairs vantage point, where the "comfortable, roomy armchair" counters her "physical exhaustion," offers a place away from public view where she can explore her individual reaction to her husband's death. Sensory images from the window establish a positive and fertile mood around her. The "delicious breath of rain" can almost be tasted, and Mrs. Mallard hears the peddler, "the notes of a distant song some one was signing" and the twittering sparrows. These vibrant images, which suggest a richness to be noticed in normal, natural life, differ with the expected grief, and the mood around the window is one of development. Mrs. Mallard seems able to reach out through the window with her senses even though she cannot physically exit.
             "She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to posses her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will-as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. " (Chopin, par. 10)
             Images of stilled hands are used symbolically in the story to indicate powerlessness. In this passage, Mrs. Mallard's lack of power against her future sense of freedom is compared to the lack of strength in her hands. The description of the "white slender hands" brings to mind the domestic female role that has kept Mrs. Mallard powerless a...