Commentary on The Story of an Hour Essay

The short story The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, is a story about an hour in the life of the main character, Mrs. Mallard. Because she is afflicted with a heart problem, her sister was hesitating in breaking the news of her husband's death. At first, she is extremely sad and locks herself in her room and will not let anybody in. However, when she looks out of the window it becomes apparent to her that she is free. Mrs. Mallard is overwhelmed with the thought that her body and soul are now free. After a while, she heads back down stairs. As soon as she gets to the bottom of the stairs Mr. Mallard walks into the room looking a little travel stained. The shock of seeing her husband alive causes her to have a heart attack and die.

The theme of the story is, that things we want in life might come too late so live your life for yourself to the fullest while you can. Some of the major literary elements within the story are imagery, similes, metaphors and irony. These literary terms enhance the meaning because they allow you to feel the emotion of the character and the irony enhances the bitter sweetness of the ending.

It seems that she dies because of the joy of seeing her husband alive. I think she dies because of an entirely different reason. She had a history of heart problems but those could be attributed to the fact that she was unhappy and felt like she was in captivity. When Mrs. Mallard realized that she was free it seemed like an elixir ran through her body and made her feel brand new and wonderful. I believe that if her husband had really died she would have lived for many more happy years.

This story symbolizes the way many women feel in the world today. Too many women feel that they are prisoners in their relationships. Not very many women feel that they have the freedom they deserve. Most women do not have the courage to end unhappy relationships so they just go on being miserable. Mrs. Mallard had a very little pleasant way of obtaining her freedom but she did it nonetheless. Her husband never did anything wrong and always showed her love, but she just was not happy.