In “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Choppin, Louis Mallard has a heart problem and is therefore carefully informed of her husband’s death. Ms. Mallard does not take this news lightly, she begins to cry and heads up to her room where she can be alone. She sits in front of an open window. There she sees trees and can hear the apprenticing rain. She feels at peace and begins reaping the word “free”. For the first time in a long time, Ms. Mallard feels a sense of freedom and relief over the death of her husband. She can see the years ahead which belong to only her. But all of this is suddenly taken away from when were husband, Brently, came back. Brently had not been an accident, and Ms. Mallard dies of a heart attack brought on by happiness.
The themes in “The Story of an Hour” closely relate to “The Wife”, by Emily Dickinson. They both discuss the topic of how many women were unhappy in their marriages at the time. The poem states “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life”. Women in marriages had to take surrender to another’s demands. In this case, when Ms. Mallard no longer had to follow someone else orders, she felt relieved and free from marriage.
