“The Story of an Hour”
Kate Chopin
An Untimely Death

“Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble…” (425); what
does this immediately make you think?

Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards want to carefully
break the news. Can something like that be done carefully?

What could the open window in Mrs. Mallard’s room represent?

At first, she acts typically, sobbing and locking herself away from everyone
else. However, there is more going on beneath the surface.
Torn Thoughts

Why would she keep muttering “free” after realizing her husband is dead?

She realized she would be upset at the funeral when she saw the “kind,
tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love
upon her, fixed and gray and dead” (426). This would be a typical response
to the death of a spouse.

However, “she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to
come that would belong to her absolutely” (426). What does this indicate?
What has happened while she has been married?
How does she feel?

“There would be no powerful will bending hers” (426). How much of her life
has been controlled by her husband? Is this a feminist author making a
stand?

“And yet she had loved him---sometimes. Often she had not” (426). What is
she starting to realize in regards to her feelings towards her husband?

Her sister is worried she is in the room making herself ill. What does this tell
you abut Louise’s life in recent years?
Surprise!

Right as she gets her thoughts together, the front door opens and her
husband enters. He was not on the train (we don’t know why) and is
definitely alive.

Louise has a heart attack and dies. They claim “she died of heart disease---of
joy that kills” (427). Is there another possibility?

Think about the title. What does it mean? What does it actually represent?