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The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

Decent Essays

In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin focuses on the idea of freedom throughout the story. Mrs. Mallard is a lonely wife who suffers from heart trouble. She is told by her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards that her husband has passed away in a train accident. She locks herself in a room expecting to be devastated, but instead feels freedom. Later, she exits her room and her husband walks through the door, causing her to die of a heart attack. Chopin uses this story to demonstrate that too much freedom is often dangerous. Mrs. Mallard is not a positive character. She is portrayed as lonely, tired, and depressed. She is the character who holds the story together. She is the protagonist and everything in the story seems to revolve around her. She is well taken care of by the other characters because of her heart disease. Louise Mallard is also described as “young, with a fair, calm face,” which tells the reader that she is not only young, but she is also a calm and relaxed person (288). It does not seem like she worries much. From the story, one can tell that the reason she is tired and sad is that her life has become a never- ending circle. She lives the same routine every day of her life. There is nothing exciting about it in her mind. She feels exhausted to have to go through her day. Living a normal day should not be something one dreads, but once every day starts to feel the same, the sense is overwhelming. After Louise Mallard finds out about the

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