Dream Of An Hour Feminist Analysis Essay

Originally published in Vogue on December 6, 1894 as “The Dream of an Hour” and later reprinted as “The Story of an Hour” is a story of feminist ideologies set in the home of Brentley and Louise Mallard in the mid 1890’s. Louise Mallard, who has a bad heart condition, has just recently been notified of her husband’s accidental railroad death. Her husband’s friend Richards heard about Brently’s death while at the newspaper office. She weeps after her sister Josephine breaks the news to her. Upon retiring to her room, Louise contemplates the rest of her life without her husband Brently. She feels free from the bondage of marriage and openly welcomes her newfound freedom and independence. Brently wasn’t a tyrannical or controlling husband infact he was the quite opposite and she will truly mourn for him at his funeral After a while, Josephine begins to beg Louise to leave her room so that she won’t grow sick. Louise opens the door and walks down the stairs with Josephine. The front door begins to open and enters Brently. He was completely unaware of an accident …show more content…
Their descent down the stairs is Louis’s return back into hell where she sees that her dreams of freedom were all just dreams just as Brently enters through the front door. Brently can be attached to a devil role where he (even though he was a loving husband) was the master of the home and imposed on her will. The doctors conclude that she has died from joy but the quite opposite is true, Louise died because there was no other reason to live. Her thirst for freedom would never be quenched with Brently alive and well. If only someone else would have known about Louis’s epiphany in her upstairs room then our characters would have walked away with a different outlook on life. Instead they have no clue that Louise was pleased and overjoyed that Brently was no longer in