The Story of an Hour Quotes Analysis

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. I believe that someone that was diagnosed extensive heart trouble in the mid 1800’s would be easily be susceptible to heart attack, or death. Another main point in this sentence is the immediate introduction of the death of Mrs. Mallards husband, as it strives to enlighten the reader quickly of the correlation between her heart trouble and her husband.

This gives rise in suspicion towards a possible heart attack over the news presented before her, thus giving the reader a plot to follow along too closely.

Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” When her husband’s friend Richards decided to let news to her, he was demonstrating an act of common grievance, but also showing a broader aspect in that brotherhood was much more important in the 1800’s.

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She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The breath of rain, and its metaphorical meaning of washing away past moments to create a new wave of renewed existence, helped start the healing process, the peddler being the social aspect of her life laying a seed to form new relationships as well.

The end of the paragraph extended its visual experience to the sound of a distant song from someone singing softly, this particular action helping Mrs. Mallard to understand the need to regain a sense of individualism and cultural refinement, the singing pulling emotions of mental chains that she was imprisoned upon.

There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistance with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination…and yet she had still loved him—sometimes. Throughout this entire text, Mrs. Mallard makes a clear statement to the audience, and that
was the true definition of women’s suffrage and explains the suppressed situation of women throughout the 1800’s.

The text also explains her point of view in regards to her husband’s possible mishandling of her in a physical or emotional standpoint, both of which looks to severely impact her thought process in a almost revengeful and at the same time enlightened standpoint. This is also contradicting because of the last sentence, “…and yet she had still loved him---sometimes.” This blurred the emotions quite a bit as the reader was forced to imagine physical and emotional abuse, but yet still loving the husband for his hard work and the love she knew he had at least partly toward her.

Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel stained, composedly carrying his grip sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife. But Richards was too late. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills. This in its entirety shows that her husband didn’t cease to exist, and that he had no idea it had happened, this giving rise to the question of the newspaper’s credibility in the 19th century.

It also shows a questioning rising in Richard’s part in this, pointing out the fact that he did indeed work for the newspaper company, and breeds a craving to understand why Richards ran to prevent Brently from viewing his wife. The last part of this text describes heart disease as the cause of death, of a joy that kills. I believe that this realistically explains her heart issue, but also gives a metaphorical status of emotional extremities, the final result of such a burst of energies dealing her fatality. As Mrs. Mallard had heard the door opening, she knew it was her husband, and her thoughts of finally experiencing freedom in her life came to a fatal halt as her greatest fears yet mixed feeling of love have tipped the emotional balance, and the chains of human existence locking her away eternally.