“She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance.” After learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard immediately accepts it as fact and breaks down into a heap of grief. She acts on what she thinks is right, rather than what she actually feels, and yet, it begs the question; is the death of a spouse always a tragedy, or does it hold the potential to be a relief to the widow? Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” conveys the theme of positive consequences following an oppressive husband’s death, supported by the shift from the initial sorrowful tone, to an empowering one.
When Mrs. Mallard is told her husband has died in a train accident, she mourns him deeply, but unsettlingly
When Mrs. Mallard is told her husband has died in a train accident, she mourns him deeply, but unsettlingly