"Story Of the Hour" Response

I really enjoyed this story and its unexpected twist. I liked how Mrs. Mallard’s death was not what any reader would have originally jumped to. I also thought it interesting that Mrs. Mallard was seemingly happy over her husband’s dead. This is again a twist to the expected. The author Kate Chopin was really playing with the unexpected and the effects it has on the reader. I connected this to the idea that every person can guess the ending of a story to almost all the literature and story lines they come across. This idea is used in “The Story of an Hour”, to change the direction the reader follows the story. I found this to be clever. Mrs. Mallard’s joy over her husband’s death is the first twist thrown into the story to get a reaction out of the reader. When I read of her joy and the peacefulness and new beginnings around her, I had a immediate reaction of surprise. But then as I thought deeper about it I came to understand Mrs. Mallard’s joy. This twist and the imagery provided to prove such joy allowed me to feel for the character and her oppression and unhappiness with her slow “long” life with Mr. Mallard. Just as the reader comes to terms with Mrs. Mallard’s happiness from finding out her husband is dead, Kate Chopin throws in another twist. Bentley Mallard walking through the door and Mrs Mallard’s death is the next twist in the story. I had an emotional reaction to this twist as well. I felt, as a reader, utter shock at Mrs. Mallard’s death and the reason behind. Her reason for death is hidden within the words: she dies from grief and not joy like all assume. This idea was hard for me to grasp even though I felt sympathy for Mrs. Mallard’s life. This concept is cover up almost by Kate Chopin. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” This quote is the final phrase used to drive the point home that no one knew Mrs. Mallard’s real desire to be free. This can be directly connected to the time it was written and the average role of the women during the time.