The Story of an Hour Book Analysis

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In Kate Chopin’s unraveling story The Story of an Hour, shows Mr. Mallard’s marriage behind closed doors and in the public. Mrs. Mallard has just found out that her husband has passed away in an accident, and her sister fears that it’s something that she will not be able to handle with her failing heart. After she finds out she find out from her sister, Josephine, Mrs. Mallard weeps a little but behind closed doors she ponders the idea. She comes up with the idea that she can be free and happy again. Mrs. Mallard get excited about the fact that she can now live her life as her own, but then something shocking happens. Her husband walks through the door, and she is beyond shocked, so shocked that her heart actually gives out. The doctor said it was “… of the joy that kills” (Chopin 58). In this story Chopin exhibits symbolism, the spring that represents her new life and her new found happiness, the armchair represents a place of rest and letting go of her old life, and the heart trouble that represents her the emotions of her marriage and the freedom being ripped away when Mr. Mallard returns, to show how Mrs. Mallard had been oppressed and unhappy in her marriage

First, the symbol of spring represents new life and new found happiness. To Mrs. Mallard now that her husband has died she sees a new future for herself. “Patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” (57). This is the hope of new life even though the past was dark. The sun peeking through the clouds shows that even at the darkest moments there is still light, there is still hope of getting through everything regardless of the doubt that appears. She begins to think about his death and then she finds all the opportunities that are ahead of her. She wants...

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...ally wasn’t, and seeing him literally killed her. The doctors said it was the “ joy that kills”, but the reality of the situation is that the fact that her freedom was ripped away without even getting to live it broke her heart to the point of a death. Spring was the hope of a new life and the happiness that she found after the “death” of her husband. The armchair was where she got to rest her exhausted soul and where she was comforted. The heart was the a unhappy marriage, and the oppression that she dealt with her whole marriage. Although the roles were reversed at the end of the story with Mr. and Mrs. Mallard in a sick way Mrs. Mallard got her freedom that she always wanted.

Works Cited

chopin,kate. "the story of an hour" literature for composition.

ed. sylvan barnet, william burto, and william e. cain

9th ed. new york: longman.2011 45-47. print.

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