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The Story Of An Hour

Decent Essays

“The Story of an Hour” For this story, I will use Mrs. Mallard as the example, and will discuss her challenges and struggles. According to the text, she was “afflicted with a heart trouble," so based on that alone we know that she struggled with delicate health issues. The narrator further described her as, “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.” The ‘lines’ or wrinkles of repression that he speaks of is most likely caused by the stress of suppressing feelings or emotions in her life. Although she described her husband in a positive light, I do not believe she was happy and/or in love with him. My assumption is based on the fact that she demonstrated an incredible sense of relief when she thought he had passed on. A good example of this conclusion is the following quote: “And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” I can only assume that she loved him, but was not “in love” with him. Once he supposedly died, she was consumed with happy thoughts of freedom. Her husband may have very well restricted her freedom, but then again, most husbands in his position may have done the same. She gave a small glimpse of his authority over her, when she stated that his influence on her day-to-day life was an occurrence of “powerful will.”

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