Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour” is a thought-provoking short piece of fiction. The story is very short; but it does not reflect the depth that the story gives. The third person narrator gives the readers limited insight on Mrs. Mallard’s health and how the breaking of the news that her husband had died would affect her.
“Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was suffering with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 554). Although Mrs. Mallards sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards was cautious and sentimental when delivering the news to Mrs. Louise, to begin with she is overcome with sadness and sorrow; but once she is left to be alone in her room, she suddenly begins to get this feeling of true joy and freedom by thinking that her husband’s death will finally free her to live her life as she wished.
While Louse is upstairs in her room feeling the joy of her newfound freedom, “Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering” (Chopin 556) However, she does not get to feel this joy long. Just as Mrs. Mallard had come to terms with the fact that her husband had passed, “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered.” (Chopin556) As she sees her husband walk through the door the “joy” she had begun to feel was soon replaced with disbelief, that Brently is still alive. It was almost immediately after which Mrs. Mallard then “died of heart disease- of joy that kills.” (Chopin 556)
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Chopin uses imagery to enhance Mrs. Mallard’s feelings of freedom and joy and to also help the reader to see the situation from Mrs. Mallard’s belief. “But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (Chopin 555). Furthermore, that Louse finds her joy and freedom from the death of her husband and sees Brently is still alive, she herself then passes of a heart disease- of joy insinuates the tone of the story to be a dramatic irony tone.
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a great short story in which such a proficient use of the literary elements in their best way is quite remarkable.
