Franklin Diaz Miras
Professor Cynthia Pittmann
INGL 3104-134
10 April 2018

“The Story of an Hour” Reflection

          The title of this story, written by Kate Chopin, is very important because it provides a hint about the subject matter, gives a clue to the writer’s purpose. In this case, the purpose of the author is basically to entertain and intrigue the reader’s emotions. Also, the writer uses a serious tone during all the story.

          This short story is about a woman, named Louise Mallard, who has a heart condition and everyone treats her very carefully because of this. When her sister and family friend discover Mr. Mallard got killed in an accident, they take time to gently tell Mrs. Mallard that her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard cries and goes to her room to be by herself and locks the door. Inside, she seems terrified of some spiritual force that's coming to her and finally realizes that it's her freedom. Even though she and her husband loved each other, and she's truly sad by his death, she feels liberated and free for the first time. While Mrs. Mallard is having this paranormal, her sister keeps trying to enter the room. Finally, Mrs. Mallard comes out of her room, and she and her sister start to go downstairs. Suddenly, the very alive Mr. Mallard comes in. When Mrs. Mallard sees him, she has a shock and dies.

          The setting of this story is not mentioned and very limited. The story takes place within an hour, so there's not enough time for the characters to go anywhere or do anything. Still, it's woman that the women are always inside the Mallards' house. The atmosphere is dark and frightening because it evolves around death and also the spiritual forces that Mrs. Mallard experienced. 

          A very important aspect is the point of view, which is omniscient third person. The narrator can move in whatever way he/she chooses. This helps the reader to understand every emotion that the main character is experiencing and every thought coming to his mind. Though the conflict is person vs. self; in other words, Mrs. Mallard struggles with herself, with her own soul. Because of this, the point of view is very important to understand the struggles that the character faces.

          This story, like all short stories, doesn’t have too much characters. The main character is Louise Mallard a very developing and dynamic character because of all she experienced while she is alone in her room, many supernaturals things that changed her and the way of seeing death, the death of her husband. The rest of the characters are Brentley Mallard, Josephine and Richards. Each one of them are basically static. Based on what the story says about all this characters they have a few characteristics that never change and are emphasized.

          Finally, the most important themes are freedom and confinement. At the beginning, freedom seems like a terrible thing to Mrs. Mallard, who's restricted in lots of ways. Through her marriage, by her bad heart, and even inside her home, which she doesn't leave during the story. She can tell freedom's coming for her, and she dreads it. Once it arrives, though, it fills her with an overpowering joy. Yet, she experiences this mental and emotional freedom while being confined to a room. As soon as she leaves that room, the freedom she'd only just barely begun to understand is taken away from her.

Works Cited

Cynthia, Pittmann. Reflection of “The story of an Hour”. University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras

          Campus. 10 April 2018.

Chopin, Kate, The Story of an Hour, 1894.