What was coming to her in the story of an hour?
How does the news of her husband’s death affect Mrs Mallard?
How does Mrs Mallard think of her future?
How does Mrs Mallard’s death contribute to the story’s overall meaning?
At the end of the story, it is revealed that her husband is still alive. He enters the house while his wife is descending the stairs, and she falls and dies of a heart attack.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”–which takes only a few minutes to read–has an ironic ending: Mrs. Mallard dies just when she is beginning to live. True, Mrs. Mallard at first expresses grief when she hears the news, but soon she finds joy.
At the end of the story, it says that “when the doctors came, they said she died of heart disease– of a joy that kills.” They assume that her weak heart could not handle the happiness she felt when her husband walked through the door alive. They do not know- or refuse to acknowledge- the actual cause for her death.
For those who just need a refresher, here’s “The Story of an Hour” summary: Mrs. Louise Mallard is at home when her sister, Josephine, and her husband’s friend, Richards, come to tell her that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed in a railroad accident.
