In “The Story of an Hour” I think that Mrs. Mallard being youthful and being married to Mr. Mallard so young, seemed to be an unknown burden to her, until she heard that he had been killed in the accident. Especially in the 12th paragraph when she mentions there being “no powerful will bending hers.” She had been longing for her freedom from this marriage, and now saw that she had the world at her finger tips. I think this is where it parallels with Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Wife”. In this poem, the paragraph is “She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.” I think this paragraph ties in with what I spoke about above. Mrs. Mallard is thrilled at the opportunity to go live her life as a single woman, and to see what the world can give to her. This has similar themes as the second paragraph from “The Wife”. “If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away.”
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