The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

New Life for Mrs. Mallard

The third person short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, takes place in the 1800’s in late spring, late afternoon in a two story house. This ironic short story looks at her joy that her husband is dead and she is free. But then it ends with her own death when she learns he is alive.

As she is downstairs in the house, there she mourns the death of her husband. But she doesn’t spend much time mourning the death of him: “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” This ends all mourning from her downstairs.

Mrs. Mallard goes up the stairs to a new outlook on life: “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.” One where she is free without having to be held down by her husband. Upstairs in her room she looks out of her window and sees spring time. She feels a sense of new life, a new beginning: “Aquiver with the new spring life.” She hopes for a new life after she has been through one that she hasn’t really