This story by Kate Choppin ” The Story of an Hour” is really interesting. I admit I was becoming bored in the beginning but the story really picked up. It begins when Mrs. Mallard receives horrific news from her sister Josephine. She tells her in broken words because she doesn’t know how to break it to her sister. After all the grieving time spent with her sister and Richards, husbands friend, she made her way into her room alone. She “sank” in her chair staring out the window. Sank is a perfect word because that describes exactly what she’s feeling, emotionless and emptiness. This is where the story gets interesting. All of a sudden a “physical exhaustion” haunts her body and reaches to her soul. Her lips whisper ” free,free,free”.
Surprisingly her conscious is happy with the death of her husband because now she feels free. She sat in front of the window with her arms wide open, letting the world know she is ready to start a new life. She then whispers ” free! Body and soul free!” After she makes a quick prayer that life may be long, she opens the door, with the acceptance of a new life. The look on her face expresses joy and triumph. This is where the twist begins. As she walks down the stairs, the front door starts to open and it’s her husband who everyone thought was dead. When the wife sees her husband, she ironically dies. Doctors later confirm the cause of death was a heart disease. The real question is what caused the heart disease? Was it extreme joy seeing her husband is alive after all? Was it disappointment of seeing her husband alive after she already had moved on? Or was it the guilt she couldn’t deal with after she moved on so quickly?

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