Story Of An Hour Summary

The Story of an Hour is very brief and, as seen from the title, only spans the length of an hour. It describes how Louise Mallard reacts to the death of her husband, who died in a train accident. From the news of the husband’s passing in the beginning, I expected this story to be about how Louise Mallard was so devastated about this news that she decided to end her life. I based my expectations on the time period this story was written in, as many women in that time had to rely entirely on their husbands.
This story begins in Louise Mallard’s house. Josephine, Louise’s sister, is going to break the news that Mr. Mallard has died to her, but is cautious to do so because she knows her sister has a heart condition. Once the news is broken to her, Louise weeps for a few minutes, then goes upstairs to her room because she wants to be alone. In her room, she sits in her chair by the window in shock. She begins to feel a sense of freedom, which scares her at first, but then she starts to embrace this feeling with a newfound joy. Louise knows she will live the rest of her life free, free to spend her days as she likes, “Spring days and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (279). She exits her room feeling
I like the way this is done because of the way it takes the reader through Louise’s thought process throughout the entirety of the story. I was shocked at her reaction to her husband’s demise, as I didn’t expect her to feel free or overjoyed without him in her life. When she spoke of the way her husband “Had never looked save with love upon her” (279) and that he was overall a good husband, to me this makes her happiness and lack of concern for the death of her husband seem inconsiderate. However, she also said that she never really loved him, “And yet, she had loved him- sometimes. Often, she had not” (279), this makes it obvious to me as to why she was so insensitive to his