"The Story of an Hour" is a short story that leaves the reader with many
unanswered questions about what is going on in the story. Although what is going on in
the story is unclear at times, the author really gets inside the mind of the main character,
Louise Mallard, who is the wife of Brently Mallard. Brently is apparently killed in a
gruesome train wreck, but then later comes back suprising her to death, literally. She dies
of a heart attack at the sight of him. This story also leaves the reader with many unknown
facts about time period, theme, and background of characters.
Although it is hard at first to predict whether the author is male or female, there
are certain significant aspects of the story that help the reader decide that the author is
female. The reader sees that Louise, after she learns of her husband's untimely death,
does not seem to be showing her sadness very much, and is saying repeatedly that she is
free from something. This shows that even though she is somewhat upset that her
husband is dead, she is glad to be free of him for some reason and now feels somewhat
liberated. This kind of writing seems like it could only come from a woman who too has a
need for liberation from something. This kind of writing would most likely not come from
a male writer because it is hard for male writers to have this kind of sensitivity about
issues that deal with women and women's rights and freedoms. This writer is most likely
The time period in this story seems to be the early 1900's and the time that it was
written was most likely set in the same time period. One clue that might lead the reader to
believe this is that when Louise learned of her husband's death she did not receive a phone
call as she would have today but rather she received a telegram. Although this is a small
detail it is most significant in telli
...