The Story of an Hour Group

Question:


sparks108
Student
High School - 12th Grade

In The Story of an Hour, Louise died from a joy that kills. How exactly did she die?

Did she die from being overjoyed at seeing her husband alive, or was it the shock of realizing her hope of freedom was crushed with her husband alive, and that the joy that kills is hers?

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Posted by sparks108 on Thursday February 21, 2008 at 8:35 PM and tagged with characters, dramatic irony, moral, plot, the story of an hour.

Answers:


  1. linda-allen Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    In the first sentence we learn that Louise has heart disease:

    Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

    Her sister and friends fear that news of Mr. Mallard's death will shock Louise into a heart attack. When she is sitting alone in her room, however, we learn that his death is not really unpleasant news to her. So we can infer from her thoughts that she's not too happy to see him walk through the door at the end. She thought she was going to be free of him. Her heart just couldn't take the truth.

    Since the other characters in the story aren't able to hear her thoughts the way we can, they assume that the great joy of seeing her husband alive is what causes her heart attack.

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    Posted by linda-allen on Thursday February 21, 2008 at 8:47 PM