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The Mallards in The Story of an Hour


            The story of an hour is a short story with a powerful message. This story takes place in the Mallards home during the late 1900's. The whole incident takes about an hour total. The story is written with an ironic undertone. The very first sentence shows this. "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death" (Baym,425). Then the story goes on to show how after her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard looks forward to living again only to die soon after she realizes this. It is written in third person and this helps the reader understand Mrs. Mallard and feel more sympathetic towards her.
             This story takes a tragic accident and shows a response from a spouse that is unexpected but believable. Mrs. Mallard's friend has to break her husband's death to her gently because of her heart problem. While you can see that Mrs. Mallard is indeed upset by her husband's death you also see her relief and desire to be free of him. She struggles with feeling sad and happy at the same time. When Mr. Mallard turns up alive, at the end of the story that is when Mrs. Mallard dies of a heart attack. One of the themes present in this story is the desire to be free. Although Mrs. Mallard loves her husband "sometimes", she secretly was relieved to know that her husband was no longer around to make decisions for her. "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature"(Baym,426).
             The open window that Mrs. Mallard stares out of through the story symbolizes her desire to be free. This window is showing her the opportunities that are waiting for her now that no one is there to interfere with her or stop her. Her heart ailment symbolizes the trouble she feels that her marriage puts on her life when it comes to making her own decisions and living the way she wants to and also the guilt she feels because of that.


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