<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section may require copy editing for separating mix of summary and analysis . (September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> "The Story of an Hour" expresses every emotion that Louise Mallard feels after she finds out about the death of her husband . The very first sentence of the story states, "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". As the news is broken to her as delicately as possible, Mrs. Mallard begins weeping uncontrollably into the arms of her sister, Josephine . Mrs. Mallard is very heartbroken by the report of her husband's death, but when her grief subsides, she goes away to her room to be alone . She sits down in an armchair that is facing a window and looks out at all of the nature . All of a sudden, as she is gazing outside this window, a feeling comes to her . A feeling that she keeps trying to push back, but she is unable to . It is a feeling of freedom . She knows that when the time of his funeral comes and she sees him with his arms folded across his chest, she will feel sad again . But as she looks ahead at her future years without her husband, she feels enlightened . Mrs. Mallard keeps whispering to herself, "Free! Body and soul free!" and as Josephine listens in to her sister from the other side of the door, she gets very worried and tells Mrs. Mallard to open the door or she will make herself ill . Josephine was unable to hear exactly what her sister was saying inside of her room, but as Joseph Rosenblum states within his article, "' The Story of an Hour' by Kate Chopin", "Josephine...would be shocked if she knew what thoughts were racing through her sister's mind ." </P> <P> After a few minutes, Mrs. Mallard gets up out of her chair and opens the door for Josephine and they both walk downstairs together . Upon arriving to the bottom of the staircase, the front door to Mrs. Mallard's house began to unlock and open . It was Mrs. Mallard's husband, Brently Mallard, who is alive and well . Startled, Josephine cries out and tries to hide the sight from Louise, but it is too late . Mrs. Mallard was so immensely shocked at the sight of him that her poor, weak heart gave out right then and there . "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of joy that kills". The cynicism of this sentence can be detected almost immediately, and as explained by ThoughtCo, "It seems clear that her shock was not joy over her husband's survival, but rather distress over losing her cherished, newfound freedom . Louise did briefly experience joy--the joy of imagining herself in control of her own life . And it was the removal of that intense joy that led to her death ." To further express the meaning of this "joy", Selina S. Jamil explains in the article, "Emotions in the Story of an Hour", "...the "joy" that kills Louise is the joy that (doctors assume to be joy of finding out that Brently was not actually dead) she refuses to surrender, as the patriarchy would require her to do at Brently's return . But, for one climactic hour of her life, Louise does truly taste joy . For one hour of emotion, Louise does glimpse meaning and fulfillment . To be fully alive, then, is to engage in heightened consciousness, to observe and connect with the world around one's self ." This helps to show just how powerful the emotion was that Louise had felt . For one hour, Louise had a sense of freedom and was so ecstatic to begin her new life, but that was stripped away from her far too soon and her heart was unable to bear the shock that she felt about seeing her husband alive . </P> <P> The heroine of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour", Louise Mallard, is known to be suffering from a weak heart . After the death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard was unable to shake the thought of being free from her husband . The word "free" began to haunt her mind, free from oppression . Daniel P. Deneau mentions about a continuous debate about Mrs, Mallard's personality . "Is Louise a normal, understandable, sympathetic woman, or is she an egocentric, selfish monster or anomaly?" What is understood is that Mrs. Mallard's reaction to her husband's death allowed readers to view the "selfish monster" side of her . After being released of her husband's grasp, she began to find relations to the world . Normal women would have gone into grief and weep in sorrow; however, Mrs. Mallard's reaction towards her husband was a passionate reaction that had caused the audience to question her personality . Mrs. Mallard's irregular reaction caused readers to question her emotions towards the husband's death . Throughout "The Story of an Hour", her constant baffle on freedom had led readers to confusion whether her heart condition has anything to do with her reaction . Selina S. Jamil exclaims to her audience that," Mrs. Mallard's "heart trouble" (193) is not so much a physical ailment...as a sign of a woman who has unconsciously surrendered her heart (i.e., her identity as an individual) to the culture of paternalism ." in which she goes through a stage where she appears "optimistic" towards life . Then, in result, Mrs. Mallard's weak heart, which is supposed to be frail, and her fear soon transforms into joy that is uncontrollable to begin with . Chopin's interpretation of Louise Mallard is not similar to most women at all . "As her body responds to her emotions, she feels a rhythmic connection to the physical world" (Jamil), by repeating words like "free" in her head has shown that her emotions towards the loss of her husband has enhanced her connection to world . </P>

Who dies in the story of an hour