The Story of An Hour

Definitely one of the more depressing stories I've read. The girl's husband dies, she's finally free from her loveless marriage, turns out her husband is alive, and BANG, she dies! Really!?!

I really liked the title. I thought it was really creative for Chopin to use. She could have used some generic, sort of romantic title that would have been more fitting to the time period. I really liked the title, as the whole story takes place in the shortest time frame possible. All the drama of the story takes place in an hour (I see what you did there, Chopin!). She hears his dead, contemplates life without him, and dies. Boom. Short, simple, to the point.

One of the most ironic lines in the short story is the closing line, when the doctors come and say "she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills". This is so ironic. I really don't think she died of joy, which I think was the point of the short story. The main character was so happy to have a life away from her husband, a life full of possibilities that she could decide for herself, and when she sees her husband still alive she sees that life disappear. This is what kills her. Her life went from complete freedom to being constrained again.