The Story of An Hour

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is one of the most frequently anthologized short stories.
This article includes a summary, as well as a look at themes, symbolism and irony.
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break
to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
Summary
Mrs. Mallard, who has heart trouble, is gently given the news that her husband has been killed in a train
accident. Her husband’s friend Richards found out at the newspaper office, confirmed the name, and
went to her sister Josephine immediately.
Mrs. Mallard weeps wildly and then goes to her room alone. She sits in an armchair, tired, and looks
outside at the spring day. She sobs occasionally.
While in a stupor, a thought starts coming to her that makes her afraid. As she identifies it, she tries but
fails to push it back.
She lets her guard down, realizes she is free, and relaxes. She knows she’ll be sad at her husband’s
funeral, but she looks with hope on all the coming years she’ll have to herself.
She won’t have to consider her husband’s opinion on anything anymore.
Josephine urges Mrs. Mallard, whose name is Louise, to open the door, concerned about her well-being.
She stays in her room, her feelings of optimism for the future increasing.
She finally opens the door to her sister. They walk downstairs together with Louise feeling triumphant.
Richards stands waiting for them at the bottom.
Mr. Mallard walks through the front door. He hadn’t been at the scene of the accident, and didn’t even
know there had been one. Josephine cries out. Richards tries to shield him from his wife’s view.
The doctors say Mrs. Mallard died “of joy that kills”.
Themes
Women's Freedom in Marriage
This theme has to be examined in the context of when it was written. It was before women had the right
to vote, and when being a devoted wife and mother was the feminine ideal.
The sensation that creeps up on Louise after processing her husband’s death is one of freedom. The
freedom she feels here isn’t relief because her husband mistreated her, as his face “had never looked save
with love upon her.” It’s simply that she’s no longer subjected to a “powerful will bending hers”.
But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would
belong to her absolutely.
Whereas before, Louise shuddered at the thought of a long life of subjection, now she anticipates “all
sorts of days that would be her own.”
Indeed, the joy that Louise feels over this freedom is so strong that the sudden loss of it, seeing her
husband walk through the door, is too much for her heart, figuratively and literally, to take.
Additionally, Mrs. Mallard is first identified as a wife. We don’t know her as Louise until later, implying that
her role as a wife subsumes everything else about her.
Theme
Death as a Release
The socially acceptable way to react to death is with grief and only grief. As with the previous theme, this
is less pronounced today, but still applicable.
Louise is genuinely saddened by her husband’s death, and she shows this openly. However, the
experience of her fancy running riot over her newfound freedom happens completely in private.
She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was
striving to beat it back with her will . . .
When Josephine is concerned that Louise is making herself ill, she only replies that she’s not doing that.
Understandably, she doesn’t say anything about feeling happy or relieved.
This theme is felt by the reader emotionally more so than intellectually. Some will find they automatically
make a negative judgment on Louise based on her reaction. Some will take the view that this is a complex
situation and that both of her emotional reactions are understandable.
1. What is symbolized by the spring day that Mrs. Mallard observes?

2. What is the significance of finding out Mrs. Mallard’s first name late in the story?
3. What are some examples of irony?

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"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin is one of the most frequently anthologized short stories.

She won’t have to consider her husband’s opinion on anything anymore.

1. What is symbolized by the spring day that Mrs. Mallard observes?

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