Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Sarena Bartrom
Dr. Comber
English 111
Writing Project 1: Final Draft
September 15, 2013

Could It Be Karma?

What could possibly go through a woman’s mind to make her feel overwhelmed with happiness after she finds out her husband has just died? What is the price of freedom? Is karma a real effect of what happens in our lives? These are the kind of questions I asked myself after reading “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. This short story is a beautiful piece of artwork. The details that Chopin shares within the text is beautiful. There is a lot of area for your imagination to wander around and create different interpretations. Chopin depicts the tale of a woman who has just been notified of her husband’s death
She is a very well-known early American female writer. She spent most over her time living in Missouri, but she enjoyed writing about Louisiana, where she lived for twelve years. Kate valued family and enjoyed the ‘home-life.’ She is most known for her novel The Awakening. (Wyatt) Mrs. Mallard suffers from heart troubles. Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, told Mrs. Mallard that her husband died in a train accident. At first Mrs. Mallard was saddened and wept. After a brief period of grieving, Mrs. Mallard was overcome by joy and excitement. She was so happy that she will finally be free and independent. At that point, she felt glad that her husband had died. Mrs. Mallard looks up to her husband walking through the door, and is so shocked that she actually dies. There are many questions that run through my mind as to why Mrs. Mallard felt these ways. Why was Mrs. Mallard happy that her husband was dead? Did Mrs. Mallard’s husband beat her? Did Mrs. Mallard want him to die because of something he did? What I really had trouble understanding was why Mrs. Mallard thought that her sister actually told her that her husband had died. Was she just dreaming? Was she hallucinating? Or was it all a plan, possibly a
Mallard wanted a divorce from her husband, but the thought of being alone terrified her, so she has just stayed with him. “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 to follow her.” (Chopin) The way that Chopin describes the way she wept “with abandonment,” and “would have no one to follow her” (Chopin) means that now Mrs. Mallard knew she was going to be alone and she was saddened. The emphasis that Chopin puts on the fact that Mrs. Mallard would now be alone supports my theory. I believe that since Mrs. Mallard was happy that her husband was dead, she received her death as a dose of