Story Of An Hour Character Analysis Essay

In “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, sadness is portrayed by Josephine when she tells Louise the news, Mrs. Mallard when she hears of her husband’s death, and when Mrs. Mallard realizes that she is tied down in a marriage. These very things craft the outrageous tale of Mrs. Mallard and her life with her husband, Brently Mallard. The character Josephine is portrayed as a worried sister, who fears that the news of brother-in-law’s death may cause the death of her sister, Mrs. mallard. When the author, Kate Chopin, writes “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...” She shows the worry of Josephine. Josephine tells her sister the news in “...broken sentences...” When her sister Mrs. Mallard, is in her room ‘grieving’ in a special way,
Mallard, with her sister Josephine when she was greeted by an unsuspected surprise. She had just moments before been joyous at a death and even went as far as praying for a long and happy life. “...She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long...” As she was coming down the stairs with her sister her husband came into the home. The supposedly dead husband, the one whose death brought her such relief, came into the house in perfect health and with no injuries. That very instant, Mrs. Mallard fell to the ground in not only shock, but grief. She did not want her husband to be alive. She’d been conducting plans and a future of long life without him, eager to be rid of her imprisoning marriage. “The Story of an Hour”, is a story that pulls sadness from even it’s happiest moment; with Josephine, who is genuinely upset at the death of her sister’s husband, and with Mrs. Mallard, who not only is depressed at her husband’s death, but also with his surprising ‘resurrection’ that ultimately caused her own