"The Story of an Hour"

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" is about much more than a woman who is grieving over the recent death of her husband in a railroad accident. This story is about a woman who because of trajedy of her husband has come to the realization that life is a more precious comodity than she thought and is not always as long as one thinks either. The death of her husband causes Mrs. Mallard to begin noticing the small things in life like the beautiful trees or the blue sky, and causes her to have a sudden revelation to live every day to its fullest. This plays on the saying "you never know how valuable something is until it is taken from you". The ending of this story is a surprise, when the reader believes that Mrs. Mallard is done grieving over her dead husband and is ready to go out and live her life on her own for the first time and she sees her supposedly dead husband walk in at the bottom of the stairs. It is right after this you find out that Mrs. Mallard is already dead of either heart disease or failure. Ending the story with "a joy that kills". Did Mrs. Mallard really die of joy, grief, shock, or medical reasons only, the reader is left to figure this question out on their own and the story is better for it becuase it allows the reader to connect with the story on a more personal level.

Mrs. Mallard is very different from Shaila in "A Management of Grief" because unlike Shaila who will not except the death of her husband and children for the longest time, Mrs. Mallard has a brief moment of grief weeping in her sisters arms and then isolates herself in her room and basically puts her husbands death behind her in a very short amount of time.

The situations for Mrs. Mallard and the woman from "The Yellow Wall Paper" are quite different. Mrs. Mallard is surrounded by people who are understanding of Mrs. Mallards difficult situation and are willing to help her in the grieving process and to deal with her suffering. The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" however is surrounded by people (her husband and brother)who do not believe that she is sick even when she says she is.

The point of view in "The Story of an Hour" is third person and told by a narrator. This does not allow for the reader to get the true feelings of Mrs. Mallard however because the reader cannot gain access to her thoughts and inner emotions in order to connect with her on a deeper level.