The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour, is a short story which openly exposes a true feelings of women who ended up involving herself in a marriage. The story was set in the late 1800's on a southern plantation. The story's main character, Mrs. Mallard, who is inflicted with heart trouble, must face the news that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Her initial feelings of grief are put on hold with the possibilities of the type of life that she, as an unmarried woman, can now live. Mrs. Mallard loved her husband, because he had been a good man and treated her right. Still she can't help from contemplating a new life, free from the conformities of married life in the 1800's. Mrs. Mallard is fascinated with the idea of being free and living her life to the fullest. The story has an unexpected ending; Mrs. Mallard dies of heart failure when she learns that her husband is still alive. Chopin's real life experiences share some commonalities with this short story. For instance Chopin experienced married life on a plantation, as well as the sudden deaths of her husband, father, and mother. It is possible that her own live experience combined with her creative imagination was the inspiration of "The Story of an Hour."

Kate Chopin was an American writer, known for her depictions of southern culture, and of women's struggles for freedom. Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1870 she married Oscar Chopin, a Creole cotton trader, and moved with him to New Orleans. After a business failure, the family moved to a plantation near Cloutierville, Louisiana, where her husband died in 1882. In 1884 Chopin returned to St. Louis with her six children. There she ...