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The Story of an Hour Essay

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The Story of an Hour

In 1894, Kate Chopin wrote, "The Story of an Hour." In this fictional tale the author describes the experience of Louise Mallard, a woman with heart trouble, immediately after receiving news of her husbands death. Unlike the expected reaction, Louise actually has a moment of relief realizing the freedoms she now has, which were taken from her by an unhappy marriage. All the events of the story take place within an hour in Louise's home. In the final minutes of the hour, Mrs.
Mallard is shocked to see that her husband walks through the front door alive and well, which causes her to have a heart attack and die.
While her family believes she had a heart attack because she was overjoyed, the author leads us to …show more content…

We learn that there is no feeling of guilt whatsoever in this moment.

As we stroll through the short paragraphs we see how this feeling of joy becomes greater as she expresses it more through her body, mind, and her words. Her pulse was beating faster and this actually relaxed her. She envisioned what her life was going to be like in the future now that she was on her own and all the visions were of happiness and freedom. She whispered words to herself about her freedom in order to embrace the reality through the sounds of her own voice. Though she came across a couple of moments that suggested she loved her husband dearly and he was a kind man, her feeling of joy obviously overpowered her memories of having loved her husband. She completely recognized the strong possibilities of crying over her husband's death in the future, yet nothing could ruin the beautiful future she felt was in store for her.

During Louise's experience in her room, Josephine was kneeling on the other side of the door begging for Louise to unlock and open it.
Josephine was concerned that her sister was stressing herself and it would have negative effects due to her heart problem. Eventually
Louise does open the door and walks out with her sister towards the stairs. To everybody's surprise, Brently Mallard walks in the house through the front door. During this moment Josephine yells out while

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