How Does Mrs. Mallard Change In The Story Of An Hour

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Written by Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour,” begins with a one-sentence paragraph. “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (par. 1). Based off of this first statement, one may believe the story will be about the mourning process of a woman who already has a broken heart. However, the story quickly evolves into a more complex plot that ends with the death of the main character, Mrs. Mallard. In fact, Mrs. Mallard dramatically changes from the beginning to the end as she reached her emotional renaissance. The overall goal of this paper is to first properly analyze Mrs. Mallard’s character from the start to finish and conclude how Mrs. Mallard contributes to the overall message of the story. In the beginning, the reader is lead to believe once Josephine tells Mrs. Mallard about Brently Mallard’s death; she will be distraught. Unlike most women, who would be mute with shock when discovering their husbands’ death, Mrs. Mallard did quite the opposite. Mrs. Mallard recovers from the news of her husband’s…show more content…
Mallard’s character from beginning to end proved difficult. There are many different possible reasons behind her behavior. On the other hand, the analysis of Mrs. Mallard was crucial to figuring out the overall theme the author was trying to emphasize in “The Story of an Hour.” On first glance, one may think that the reason for her death was joy. However, when one analyzes the overall story one realizes that the author was using Mrs. Mallard to display how freedom once given cannot be taken without ramifications. Although the doctors said that Mrs. Mallard’s heart stopped because of joy, the reader knows the real reason for why her heart stopped that fateful day. Mrs. Mallard’s heart stopped because of the realization that her freedom disappeared. In the case of Mrs. Mallard, Freedom truly was “a joy that

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