Analyzing Kate Chopin's Short Story Of An Hour '

1. This short story grabbed my attention from the moment I finished the first sentence to the end of the story. During the first few paragraphs I thought that she was very depressed and saddened from hearing about her husbands death. Of course as soon as she whispers the words “free, free, free!” I knew that she felt happy about her husband’s death. I detect that no one else knew of these feelings of contempt for husband but herself, or she would not have kept these feelings inside of herself. In the fifth paragraph, after just being told of her husband's death, she is very descriptive of everything that she sees at that moment, as if she wants to remember every detail of this moment. But why would one point out “delicious breath of rain,” “notes of a distant song,” and “sparrows were twittering in the eaves” at the time of their spouse's death? When I think of these things that she is describing they are happy scenes, scenes of serenity. This was my first clue that there was more going on in this story than just someone who lost her husband.

2. The Genre is Literary Fiction. …show more content…
Exposition: Mrs. Mallard has been told that her husband has died in a railroad accident. Her sister Josephine has to break the news gently knowing she has heart trouble. Rising Action: Mrs. Mallard starts going crazy and not really thinking about what she is doing, which is scaring her sister. Climax: She opened the door for her sister and started walking down the stairs, grabbed her sisters waist and they both fall down the stairs at the view of her "dead" husband. Falling Action: After the fall, her husband walks in and finds that Louise Mallard is dead. Denouement: At the end, the doctors find out she has died of heart disease-of the joy that kills from seeing her husband is actually