"The Story of an Hour- by Kate Chopin .
"The Story of an Hour- is a startling portrayal of a woman's awakening upon receiving news of her husband's death. Written in the 19th century, this was very much considered a feminist' story, as it harboured disapproving attitudes towards marriage.
In the first sentence, readers were told that the woman was (Louise Mallard) afflicted with heart trouble, foreshadowing danger, fragility, and unwell-ness. Louise did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, but rather, with an immediate acceptance. She mourned to her sister, as if she was mourning for show, in front of family and friends, as it was the right' way for a newly widowed woman to behave.
So far, Louise's actions and feelings were nothing surprising. However, from the moment she entered the room, readers are at odds with the direction Chopin takes. Once alone, the reader's expectations would be for Louise to take her anger out on the furniture, or to reminisce and weep for her husband. Instead, Louise settled, comfortably, into a couch. That is not all. Where Louise should have looked out the window and see signs of darkness or hopelessness, she ironically noticed qualities of renewal and birth. Delicious breath of rain singing reached her faintly countless sparrows patches of blue sky through the clouds ' are images furthest away from death, or even negativity.
Readers, although puzzled at first, will soon come to understand Louise's call and meditated manner. Indeed, she was racing with thoughts, but not of the kind that would bring her to commit suicide. What she had in mind was quite the opposite. The something coming to her' had her wishing for life to be long. Looking beyond the sadness, what Louise's husband's death really meant, dawned on her. This realization caught her in a violent trance, a climax, accompanied with sensual images as Louise's bosom rose and fell tumultuously parted lips vacant stare ' and a whispered, hurried chant.
