The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour

        This piece of literature is about the story of a woman with some important heart trouble. Mrs. Mallard is the protagonist of this story. Starting from that point, she received eventually news about a train accident that may have involved her husband Brently, the news were delivered by her sister Josephine, but the one who confirmed the accident was her husband’s friend Richard, who found the name of Brently in the list of people dead due to the accident. Sobbing was the immediate reaction, and then she went to her room to be alone.

        She sits in front of an open window, and starts realizing everything that surrounds her.  Trees, the smell of rain, and voices come to her attention while she keeps crying. Suddenly, a mix of emotions embraces her, and all the thinking went gone. As the shocking moment ended, she felt the pressure of something coming. Uncertainty reigned on this new feeling, but she was not afraid to face it. Words of freedom escape from her mouth right after giving herself entirely to this feeling.

        The feeling about seeing the dead body of her husband, and knowing that she would be alone from that moment gave her a sense of joy. Joy due to many years to come dedicated uniquely for herself without feeling oppressed by someone else. At some point, her sister went to check on her afraid of Louise making damage to herself. She opened the door and went downstairs to join Richard. All of the sudden, the front door opens and there he was, Brently was alive. Richard knowing the condition of Louise tried to prevent her from seeing her husband, but he was late. Doctors announced that a boost of happiness killed Louise through a heart attack.  

Through the story we can see that Louise develops an inner desire for freedom, meaning she would rather live freely that being attach to other person in marriage. However, she realizes that, when the idea of independence overcomes her love for her husband.  Independence was like a forbidden pleasure for a woman, which you can only think about it in your private thoughts. At that time society will never accept that kind of thinking from a woman, because they were expected to get married and keep the house, cook, take care of the children, etc.

Even though a wave of emotions, about she now is independent, embraces her, she first tries to extinguish the joy she feels, to “beat it back with her will.” Nevertheless, when she finally does recognize that joy, she feels taken over this feeling and abandons herself entirely as the words “free, free, free!” escapes from her mouth. Now she feels like the owner of her life and her new independence was the reason, she even pray hoping for a long life to enjoy this feeling.

Although that feeling goes away very quickly when her husband Brently returns, she had a taste of that forbidden pleasure, and that taste was strong enough to kill her.