Analysis of "The Story of an Hour" When faced with the death of a loved one, numerous individuals would become disturbed and dejected. Some would even think of their life without that particular loved one and would find that new life to be desolated. However, in Kate Chopin's, "The Story of an Hour", Louise Mallard is a young woman who displays an entirely contrasted response when notified that her husband, Brently Mallard, is dead. Despite the disastrous news, she discovers the true feeling of freedom and her new life without her husband's authority. Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" portrays an authentic essence of literary excellence. Through elaborate setting, irony, conflict, and sensory images, Chopin gives her readers a perfect glimpse at the theme of the story.
The setting of the story takes place in both an outside-environment and an inside-environment. When informed of her husband's death, Louise became anguished and went to her room to be alone.
Kate Chopin in 1894
Photoportrait of writer Kate Chopin
English: Underwater photograph of a woman plunging...When Louise enters the room, the audience would suspect her to moan with grief, but instead she sits calmly, facing an open window in "a comfortable, roomy armchair."(311) She describes the smell of the air in the room as "a delicious breath of rain" (311). Through these descriptions, Chopin tells the audience both the mood of Louise and the mood of the inside-environment. A grieving widow wouldn't observe a armchair "roomy and comfortable" nor the smell of air "delicious", which informs the audience that a transformation has occurred in Louise. Also, the audience is also notified that the inside-environment has a soothing appearance, although several paragraphs before the environment appeared gloomy and depressed.
From her location in the armchair, Louise suddenly begins studying several sensory images page 2 in the nature outside the window. She...