The Story Of An Hour
Zhen Zhang English 105 Matt Alberhasky Oct 13,2008 Through the window, she sees the trees in the open square before her house are aquiver with new spring life, breathes the air of the rain, and hears the crying of a peddler and the notes of a song. The description of such surroundings reveals Mrs. Mallard’s hope for her self-assertion and self-existence, which are deprived by her husband before. The spring, rain, clouds, sparrows and song symbolize her hope and joy in the heart.
The story’s plot can be divided into five parts. At the beginning of the story, the author used the technique of foreshadowing to foretell Mrs. Mallard’s heart disease in the end. The second part is the exposition of the story, in which Mrs. Mallard knows her husband’s death from her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards. The third part—the complication of the story—is about Mrs. Mallard’s reflections and actions at the loss of her husband. At first she weeps, goes into her room with great grief, and sits in the roomy chair seeing the outside through the window. After a little while of meditation, she turns his grief of loss of husband into the hope and joy of the regaining of her freedom. The crisis and climax of the story comes at the moment when Mr. Mallard get back home far from the scene of accident. The resolution of the story is about the doctor’s confirmation of Mrs. Mallard’s death caused by heart trouble.
The main character in the story is Mrs. Mallard, who is killed in the end by the joy brought by her husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard is a free-minded woman who is eager to get back the freedom and independence deprived by her husband. As a round character, she weeps with great grief at the moment of knowing her husband’s death as women usually do. Through some thoughts and reflections, her joy of getting back her independence exceeds her grief of the loss of husband. However, during the course of her changes in the thoughts, she feels her sin in her heart,...
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