A lot happens in one hour in this very short story by Kate Chopin. It is not an action filled story, but the emotions of the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, are racing up and down like a roller coaster. We learn in the first sentence that she is “afflicted with a heart trouble.” Perhaps her heart is weak from a previous illness, but no details are given. Her sister and her husband’s best friend have come to tell her very gently that her husband has been killed in a train accident. They want to be able to tell her before she hears the news any other way. It seems as if they want to protect her as much as possible from going into shock when she hears the bad news.
The third paragraph is very important as it sets up a transition in the plot and understanding of Mrs. Mallard’s mood. In the first sentence the author mentions that her reaction is much different than other woman’s would be under the same circumstances. Then there is an indication that the “heart trouble” may be an allusion to another kind of problem because of her reaction to the news; “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment.” The next sentence describes her crying as “a storm of grief” and then Mrs. Mallard goes alone to her room.
When she is alone in her room her true feelings start to become more evident. The death of her husband has given her a thrilling feeling of freedom. She is thinking ahead to how good her life will be when she can do whatever she wants to do. She had only “loved him—sometimes.” Her heart ailment seems to be that she is married to someone who she does not love very much. Maybe she does not love him at all.
Now her crying with wild abandonment makes more sense. To learn of a death in the family and then cry that way seems out of place; she is expected to cry with great sobs of sorrow. But she is crying like some children dance when they are happy “with sudden, wild abandonment.”
But then another twist enters the story. Someone is at the front door, it is her husband, and he had not been anywhere near the train accident. He is fine.
Ironically, the doctors say “she died of the joy that kills.” But maybe she died from the shock of gaining and then losing her freedom in one short hour. Or maybe she died from a broken heart.
Reference
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Literature: An introduction to reading and writing. 5thEd. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts & Robert Zweig. New York: Longman, 2004. 293-295. Print.
