Story of an Hour

After I read that story, I sat back and thought WOW! I didn't know what to think about the whole situation. During class when people brought up that she was glad her husband died because he probably abused her, I never thought about that when I was reading the story. To me, when she locked herself in her room, I thought she was dying or letting herself go into the "light". What really made me wonder was the last set of words...."of joy that kills."(194-20) I thought that maybe she saw her husband and had a heart attack. In the beginning it talked about her heart trouble but then it said she was young. So I didn't think that was the likely cause of her death. I guess there are so many conclusions that we could make about this story and we will never know the truth unless the author wrote it down some place. I really liked the story but in the middle it was a little confusing and I got side tracked a lot. I wish this story was longer so we could find out what really went on with her marriage. Then we could tell if he abused her, she married him young and didn't love him anymore, or everything was just fine and dandy with them.

Story of an Hour

My first reaction to this story was that Mrs. Mallard was relieved of her husband’s passing. I read the story to my husband, and his reaction was that Mrs. Mallard was sad of her husband’s passing.
I do not believe that Mrs. Mallard’s husband physically abused her, but I do think he had some kind of emotional exploitation toward Mrs. Mallard. This story was written in the 1800’s, back when women did not have many rights. “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being”, (page 194-15) suggest to me that she is going be able to be her own person again, thinking her own thoughts, making her own choices.
I found the irony in this story to be that Mrs. Mallard was relieved of her husband’s death, and how she finally felt free, when in the end she dies of heart disease when she sees that her husband is indeed alive, and well. “A joy that kills”, (194-20) is such a broad statement. The readers could go either way, thinking that she was so happy to see her husband, that’s why she died, or the disappointment of seeing her husband, and that’s what ended her life.
“Story of an Hour” (Kate Chopin) Compact sixth edition, Literature, reading, reacting, writing (Kirszner, and Mandell)