The Story of an Hour

by Kate Chopin

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as
gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half
concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the
newspaper office when news of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading
the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and
hurried so that no less careful, less tender friend deliver the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its
significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of
grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down
by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all shaking slightly with
the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a salesman was
shouting his products. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and
countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there
through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob
came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its
dreams.

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But
now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off over there on one of those
patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent
thought.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not
know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her
through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was
approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two
white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her
slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and
the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat
fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. She did not stop to ask if it
were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss
the suggestion as trivial.
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that
had never looked, save with love, upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter
moment a long series of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread
her arms out to them in welcome. There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she
would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with
which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind
intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief
moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! 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!

"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring to enter. "Louise,
open the door! I beg, open the door — you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For
heaven's sake open the door."

"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open
window. Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and
all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only
yesterday she had thought with a palpitation that life might be long.

She arose from the chair and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph
in her eyes, and she carried herself like a goddess of Victory. She held her sister's waist, and together
they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Someone was opening the front door with a key. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-
stained, calmly carrying his suitcase and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and
did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick
motion to hide him from the view of his wife.

But Richards was too late.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease — of the joy that kills.
Glossary
Her fancy was running riot → her imagination was running wild/ unrestricted
her sister’s importunities → her repeated and annoying requests to open the door
travel-stained → dirty from traveling

Irony - The difference between what someone would reasonably expect to happen and what actually
does.
Situational Irony - When one’s efforts produces the opposite results of what was expected.
Verbal Irony - A contrast between what is said and what is actually meant.
Dramatic Irony - When the audience knows things the characters do not.

The story of an hour questionnaire

1. From what ailment does Mrs. Mallard suffer?

 kidney failure
 heart trouble
 detached retinas
 H1N1

2.What might Mrs. Mallard’s ailment symbolize?

 her inability to see things as they are
 her inability to filter out less important things in life
 her unhappiness and troubling emotions
 a raging desire for pig flesh

3.Who breaks the news of Mr. Mallard’s death?

 Richards
 Roberts
 Josephine
 Friar John

4.What is significant about the story’s setting?

 The story’s set in a time period that afforded women very few rights.
 It takes place in a large house.
 The story encompasses one hour.
 The setting makes no difference.

5.How could we best characterize Brently Mallard

 He is an abusive husband who deserves to die in a fiery train wreck.
 He’s a conniving man who set up the train wreck story so he could scare his
wife and kill her.
 He’s a typical husband in the late 19th-century.
 He’s an adulterer.

6.How would the story change if it were written today?

 There’s no way Mallard leaves the house without permission.
 Richards calls Mallard on his cell phone and realizes he’s alive.
 Mrs. Mallard smashes Mr. Mallard’s SUV with a golf club and demands a
divorce.
 Richards tells Mrs. Mallard that her husband’s dead in order to get her in
bed. It works. Mallard walks in on the two in a passionate embrace and Mrs.
Mallard dies of a heart attack.

7. In what season does the story take place and why is it significant?
❐ The story takes place in Spring and symbolizes a new beginning for Mrs.
Mallard.
❐ The story takes place in Summer and symbolizes the burning hot love Mrs.
Mallard has for her husband.
❐ The story takes place in Winter and symbolizes that everything dies.

8. What is the main idea of The Story of an Hour?

9. What is the message of The Story of an Hour?
10. What happens at the end of the story The Story of an Hour?
11. Why does Mrs Mallard die at the end of the story?
12. Why was Mrs. Mallard happy her husband died?
13. Did Mrs Mallard love her husband?
14. What are the major conflicts in The Story of An Hour?
15. What is the irony in the story of an hour?
16. What does “The Joy That Kills” mean?
17. Why is Mrs. Mallard death an example of situational irony?
Put the pictures in the order the events happen.