The Story of an Hour

"The Story of an Hour" was a peculiar love story that did not follow the plot of other typical love stories. There was definitely not a happy ending. In the story you almost have to interpret two point of views. In the story a accident occurs and they have to break the news to the wife of a man who was pronounced dead. At first she cries into her sister's arms and then she secludes herself. From the outside the woman looks very sad and like she is almost in shock because her husband is dead. However this is not what the woman is feeling at all. She is actually relieved that her husband passed away because she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being(Chopin). After the death she felt free, her body and soul were now free. She no longer had to deal with the mistreating from her husband. Back in this time of the realism period women had far fewer rights compared to now and compared to men. Even if she was in a terrible marriage she could not divorce him nor even speak how she really felt(Diamond). However women's rights were on the up rise which is why literature was more commonly about women. Emerson and Thoreau believed in equality and equality means everyone so women should be equal to man. At the end of the story the wife is surprised with her husband walking right through the door, she actually dies of a heart attack when she sees him. Again there are two interpretations. She may be so happy he is alive that she was shocked and had a heart attack, but actually she was right back in her terrible life because he was still alive(Chopin). Very sad, but probably very common in the time.

Chopin, Kate. ""The Story of an Hour"" Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 23, 2012).