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The Story of an Hour

 

            In Kate Chopin's short story, The Story of an Hour depicts a short hour of a woman's life. This story has little dialogue and little information which keeps the reader guessing and anticipating what is going to happen next, thus, making it a very creative story. In the story, Louise Mallard hears the rumor of her husband's sudden death and begins to think of what lies ahead of her now that she is "free". .
             At the beginning of the story, we are told that Louise Mallard has a heart condition. This is the first sign that something might happen and is great foreshadowing of things ahead to come. Since this is a short story it gets right to the climax. Richards, who is a friend of Brently Mallard, walks through to the door to alert Louise and her sister Josephine that Brently had been killed in a horrible train accident. This is the first dialogue we have seen in the story thus far. Louise then comes into shock and starts to cry. She immediately ran upstairs and shut the door behind her. After seeing this reaction by Louise, I immediately begin to feel that she truly loved her husband and was devastated by this tragedy. .
             Louise sits in a chair facing the window for an hour in her room. She had been staring off into the beautiful spring life and the blue sky trying to come out. After she was done sobbing, the author says how she began to think intelligently into her future. Louise began to whisper such things like, "Free, body and soul, free!" After she says these things to herself, it got me to thinking. Did she really love her husband? Was he abusive or good to her? This is where I became very curious and uncertain. The story was written in 1894, husbands I assumed were controlling and there could have been many reasons why those two were married. These questions will always be left unanswered and questioned with uncertainty. .
             After a good solid hour is up, Josephine comes up the stairs to her bedroom door and asks Louise to come out.


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