The Story of the Hour

"The Story of the Hour" is refreshing, but tragic. The main character in the story has a heart condition. With a heart condition you really do not know how long you have to live. Her family and friends all know that her husband has died in an accident, and they are figuring out the best way to tell her, without sending her over the edge. Like any woman would be, she is very upset. She goes up to her room alone and locks the door. She cries to herself and she prays, mourning the loss of her husband. She then has this reoccurring voice in her head that says "free" and "free body mind and soul." These powerful voices that she hears coming to her give her a sense of reassurance. The mood in the story quickly changes. The woman becomes happy. She wishes for a long life, and she stands to unlock the door. She held her head high and for a moment she was the strongest person. She walked down the stairs with her sister, and when they reached the bottom, a guy named Richard was waiting at the bottom. He had not heard of the accident of the husband. The woman then drops down, dying of a heart attack. Her heart condition was what gave her strength and it ultimately killed her.

I find the story very powerful because the woman found strength in one of the darkest times of her life. She got a sense of hope and freedom. She was very strong anyway because of her heart condition. She knew that life could be long or life could be short, and she did not let her heart condition get in the way of her life. She found a new light with the acceptance of her heart condition and the dying of her husband. She felt free.

I find the word free in this story is used kind of freely. I am not too sure if she was sad at first that her husband had died, but she got happier because she realized she was free from him, or if she felt free and hopeful that she would see him again when eventually her heart condition would bring her back to him. Either way the story reflects romanticism because it shows how life really is. There was no sugar-coating anything in this story. It was a good example of explaining the process of death and grieving. I do not think her views were like Thoreau's though. She was very calm and accepted things how they were whereas Thoreau was a motivational person and looked for change everywhere he could.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of the Hour." Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Douglas Fisher. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 554-55. Print.