The Story of an Hour

The story of an hour assignment

January 28, 2013

ENG125

Instructor: Angela diGualco

In the short literary works, Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, a young woman finds out her husband has been killed in a railroad accident and goes through a wide range of emotions before ultimately feeling joy from his death. The story is told in third person, and because of this the readers are given so much detail about each character and what is going on in the story but not before they are confused by the reaction of the young wife. Third person narration allows for readers to have a good idea of the present but also of the past.

This short-story revolves around what goes through a young woman’s mind when informed that her husband was killed in an accident. However, when one thinks of this situation often times one would think of a grieving heartbroken spouse, that feels as if they can not go on. But in this case, it isn’t so. Louise Mallard, the main character, is a young, married woman who suffers from some sort of serious heart condition. Due to the nature of Louise’s heart problems, her closest relatives feel that they have to break the news to her as gently as possible. Immediately after hearing the shocking news, Louise starts crying, and storms into her room. Since Louise spends the majority of the short-story in her room, this is the setting for this particular short story.

The narrator of this story drops hints about the emotions Louise is feeling. She is upset, then after she calms herself down a bit, she begins to take in all of the goings on outside of the window. She sees the nature outside of the window: "The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." All these descriptions are of wonderful images of life, making the readers confused about why and how...