The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is both ironic and controversial. At the very beginning of the story we clearly see that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble, this is a sign of foreshadowing. The story basically revolves around four characters, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, Josephine and Richard. Richard is Mr. Mallard's close friend, he is the one that tells Josephine, Mrs. Mallard's sister, about the death of his friend. The plot in the story evolves when Mrs. Mallard is told that her husband has died. Any one's initial reaction would be that of agony, pain and sorrow. I can only imagine the pain that one could feel when they are notified of a death of a relative. The first thing one naturally could do is mourn that persons death. In the story we see a sense of sadness from Mrs. Mallard, but this only lasts for a couple of minutes. This is where the conflict begins in the story.

After being notified of her husband's death Mrs. Mallard quickly begins to speak of freedom. She mentions that now she can do all the things that she's always wanted to do but could'nt for whatever reason. Now she would begin "living for herself." This is controversial because as the readers we can only interpret what is said. At least in my case this meant jumping to conclusions and believing that her husband did not love her or he treated her bad, thus taking her to feel a sense of relief now that her husband is dead. Finally, the story becomes ironic at the ending. At the very ending of the story we find out that her husband, Mr. Mallard is not dead. The irony becomes when Mrs. Mallard dies of a "joy that kills." As the audience we can interpret it in two separate ways. One, Mrs. Mallard died because she was happy and then she found out her husband wasnt dead so she died because she began thinking of all the things she would now miss out on. Or two, she died because she was happy that her husband was not dead. But, once again the ending is not too specific rather its vague because the author wanted us to interpret it in our own way.