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English 102 Fitction Essay

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English 102 Fitction Essay
Tiffany McDonald
Mrs. Pothier-Hill
English 102
Rough Draft Assignment

Fiction Essay: “The Story of an Hour”

In Kate Chopin’s short tale, “The Story of an Hour”, the protagonist Mrs. Mallard seems to ride a rollercoaster of emotions and feelings about her husband, Mr. Mallard’s, death. The story begins by informing us of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition which leads us to believe that the heart condition will affect the story. Many times in the story we see that Mrs. Mallard does not handle situations in the way most woman did in that time. She doesn’t seem to know how to really feel about the tragic situation of her husbands death. Mrs. Mallard goes through so many changes in such a short period of time that some readers would believe it is the amount of drastic changes that caused her to pass of a heart disease When the story begins, Josephine Mrs. Mallards siste,r is very careful on how she was to break the news to her. “knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her gently as possible the new of her husband’s death (Chopin, 13) She cried in her sisters arms unknowing of who else to handle such tragic news. “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with a sudden, wild abandonment, in her sisters arms.”(Chopin, 13) This quote shows us how she handled the situation differently from the way most woman would have upon hearing the news. “On the contrary, she is roused from her passivity by an uncontrollable flood of emotion. This storm that haunts her body and seems to reach into her soul ultimately purges her of the sufferance of a meaningless life, as it becomes the impetus for the revelation that leads to her new freedom.” (Selina, Jamil S. ) When Mrs. Mallard was done crying in Josephine’s arms she then retreated to her room where she wanted to be left



Cited: Chopin, Kate. "Chapter 1: The Story of an Hour." Literature Craft & Voice. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 13-14. Print. Selina, Jamil S. "Emotions in the Story of an Hour." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, Spring 2009. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.

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