The Story of an Hour analysis

¶ … Story of an Hour

The title itself tells a lot about the theme of the story. "The Story of an Hour" tells about the final hour of a repressed woman's life. The readers saw what happened to the main character in the story, Mrs. Mallard, an hour after she had learned about the alleged death of her husband, Brently Mallard. Her final hour was spent in crying over her husband's death right away for a while ("She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms."), savoring her newfound freedom (the word free was mentioned a number of times in the story. "Free, free, free!" And "Free! Body and soul free!"), and learning that her freedom was all taken back from her in the end ("It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know that there had been one."). In my opinion, the theme of the story can also be that a lot of things can happen in a span of an hour. In the case of Mrs. Louise Mallard, the protagonist in the story, the readers saw a play of emotions in her character in a span of an hour upon hearing about her husband's alleged death. Her emotions changed drastically from that of grievance ("When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.") to that of elation ("Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.") and ended with a shock ("When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-- of joy that kills." (www-rohan.sdsu.edu/course/morgris/killjoy.html") in a span of an hour. The story is also a story of irony. Situational irony was evident when Mrs. Mallard was told about the news of her husband's death very carefully because of her heart condition and in the end she died of heart disease upon seeing that her husband was still alive. The last phrase in the story is also ironic in itself. The doctors thought Mrs. Mallard died because she was so happy to see her husband alive, but the readers knew that Mrs. Mallard was elated when she learned that her husband allegedly died because she would have the freedom she longed for at last. Death seemed to be the only solution to Mrs. Mallard to escape her husband's grip on her life.

The story is about a woman with heart ailment who heard the news of her husband's death from her sister Josephine and his husband's friend, Richards. Josephine broke the news to her very gently because of her sensitive condition. Unlike other women who were in denial and having difficulty accepting the news upon hearing about their husbands' death, Mrs. Mallard accepted the news about her husband's death very graciously. She wept to her sister right away and locked herself up in her room after her grievance. Alone in her room, she saw life in a different perspective. She was now able to appreciate the beauty of life outside her window. A single sob made her realize something. It dawned upon her that she was finally free from her husband's subordination. Right there and then, she became overwhelmed with joy. Although she sometimes loved her husband, the idea that she would have nothing to live for but herself excited her tremendously. Upon savoring her newfound freedom, she even prayed that her life would be long even though just yesterday she dreaded that life would actually be long. She went out of the room with victory on her face. When she and her sister went downstairs, her alleged dead husband opened the door. Brently was shocked to hear Josephine's cry and Richards' futile attempt to block him from the view of Mrs. Mallard. It was too late for Mrs. Mallard saw her husband. The story ended with the idea that Mrs. Mallard was killed by a heart failure, "a joy that kills." On the contrary, Mrs. Mallard probably died of shock or extreme sadness upon learning that her husband was still alive. What she thought was her newfound freedom was lost in just a flicker of a moment.