Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

“The story of an Hour,”tells the tale of Mrs. Mallard who has fallen victim to the misogynistic oppression of the late nineteenth century. She receives word of her husband’s death, and upon hearing news is filled with a mix of emotions. Ranging from anger,and sorrow, to relief, and joy. She is torn between her desire to be free and her sense of obligation to mourn the loos of her husband. This crates an internal conflict for her, as well as a character verses society conflict due to the fact that she did at times lover her husband and truly feels bad about his death but is also unable to repress her joy, and dreams of her freedom which was not exemptible at the time.
The reader first becomes aware of theses conflicts shortly after

Mrs. Mallard storms off into her room by herself. The manner in which she does this leads the reader to believe that she is emotional distraught and would prefer to be alone rather than share her sorrow with those who broke the news to her. However while in the room she gazes out a window and first begins to imagine what life would be like without her husband. As is made evident by the passage.”She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.” This passage perfectly embodies the two conflicts. The character verses society conflict is depicted by her effort to keep her face looking calm because being happy about her husbands death would not be socially acceptable. The internal conflict is portrayed by her trying to repress her feelings about her husband’s death. Which shows she wants to feel sad but can’t because she knows her life is going to be better without her him.
Further evidence of the character verses society would be the passage.”Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” This shows that she is existed that her husband is dead and that she will finally be free,and hopes her life will be long. But it was only a day before that she wished that she would die soon because she knew she would never be happy if her husband was alive.
The passage,”And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” Supports the internal conflict because it shows that she did love him sometimes. Which means that his death was somewhat hard on her. But most of the time she did not love him, and therefore felt happy about his death. She is excited to be able to assert herself,but also feels that a little sad that her husband has died.
In the end Mrs. Mallard comes out of her room. She still has to hid her feelings about her husbands death from her sister. They are standing in front of the door to their house when all of the sudden Mrs. Mallard’s husband opens the door. Mrs. Mallard is so surprised that she dies of a hart attack. She is pronounced dead due to overwhelming joy. But the reader can infer that the actual cause of her death was sock and a broken hart brought on by the soul crushing realization that the better life she had dreamed for herself would never be.

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