The Story of an Hour

I really enjoyed reading The Story of an Hour. Chopin effectively used the setting to portray Mrs. Mallard's true inner feelings. Death is generally a mournful time for most people. It is associated with dark, dreary, sadness, black, all negative feelings. Not for Mrs. Mallard. The way the scene is described depicts very well how happy she is to know of her husband's death. The description of the outdoors, such as "new spring life",  "delicious breath of rain", and "countless sparrows were twittering in the leaves" all reflect the inner peace Mrs. Mallard feels now that her husband is gone. Spring is symbolic of new life coming forth and for Mrs. Mallard, her life is set anew. She is now free to live her life "free, free, free!" A normal, loving, and mournful wife would be in a winter setting possibly. Throughout the story, there are several little details about the scene that give away Mrs. Mallard's true feelings on the matter.

 She died because she realized her new found freedom had been stripped from her when her husband walked in the door at the end. I find it interesting how in almost all of the stories we have read in the past couple weeks, the one common theme is the suppression these women feel. Their husbands seem to be completely dominant. They all end with these women trying to find themselves, to find who they really are. All with drastic measures.