Monday, March 26, 2012

#15 Week 10 Kate Chopin "The Story of an Hour" pg.293-295


Summary

Mrs. Mallard, a young, pretty woman who had heart problems is unaware that her husband had just died in a terrible railroad accident. Her sister, Josephine, along with one of her husband’s friends Richards, go to break the news to Mrs. Mallard. When Josephine finally broke the news to her sister, Mrs. Mallard went to her room in tears, and wanted to be alone. She sat in a large comfortable chair facing a window. As she looked out the window at every little feature outside including the smell, Mrs. Mallard was overcome with an indescribable joy; she told herself repeatedly that she was “free”. The reader can only assume that Mrs. Mallard was often put down by her husband and possibly abused by him.   When she emerges from her room, Mrs. Mallard has come to terms with her husband’s death and is embracing life as she never had before. But at that very moment Brently Mallard walks through the door and had no idea a crash had even occurred, as Josephine and Richards run toward Mr. Mallard, in amazement Mrs. Mallard dies of heart failure, to do her overwhelming joy.

Reader Response      

This was such a weird story! I thought Mrs. Mallard was dying when she went to her room, and that she was having like a spirit like encounter with her dead body as a spirit. The story definitely had a cool twist of fate.  I liked how Mrs., Mallard was finally at peace and happy that her husband was dead, only to die a few moments after her husband arrived home. The irony in this story was just ridiculous, in a good way. I love stories that have such powerful irony like this one did I also like stories that have a turn of events and this story had not just a twist, like the majority of stories do, but two twists which really worked for the story. I also enjoyed the voice as well as the tone in this story, it was well written.

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