McConnell 1

Maggie McConnell
Ms. Dockus
1st Hour American Literature
11 December 2015
Response to The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin
While we like to think we are in control of our emotions, often we repress or ignore them
to the point of their concealment from even our own conscious. In Kate Chopins The Story of
An Hour, Chopin chronicles one womans discovery of her own hidden emotions following the
shock of a traumatic event. Initially, after being informed of her husbands death, Louise Mallard
is stricken with grief based mostly on shock, but slowly, The notes of a distant song which
someone was singing reached her faintly(13-14). She is consumed by a new and unfamiliar
notion which is not quite clear to her at first, but soon she comes to realize the overwhelming
sense of freedom and liberation she has gained from the death of her husband. Chopin conveys
this by describing Mallard as [saying] over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!"(26).
Although it may not require the death of a spouse, discovery of emotion can have a large impact
on ones life and can be caused by an array of different outside influences.
Chopin implies, in her story, the oppression Mallard felt in her marriage but suppressed
for so long. She describes Mallards realization of this oppression with her words, There would
be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe
they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel
intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of
illumination (34-35). The emotion Chopin conveys in this passage is that of a woman
discovering sentiments within her that had become so strong as to,when realized, lead her

McConnell 2
dismiss the love she had followed for so long in the face of her own oppression. Mallards
revelation is further described with her thoughts, What could love, the unsolved mystery, count
for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest
impulse of her being! (36-37).
The continual human struggle to define and process emotion is captured movingly in
The Story of An Hour with Chopins portrayal of one womans liberation from a lifetime of
imprisonment she had not yet realized. Discovery can lead to our understanding not only of the
world around us, but also of ourselves. Self discovery, however, differs from that of the physical
world in that our own minds can stand in the way of valid emotions and thoughts.