Heart Troubles

In the essay "The Story of the Hour" Mrs. Mallard has a heart issue and had to be told in gentle ways that her husband had died in a unfortunate and tragic train accident. When she was told, she breaks down into tears and locks herself into her room and at the end of the story when her husband, Brently Mallard, walks in, Mrs. Mallard collapses and dies. The ironic part of this was that Mrs. Mallard did not have a heart attack when she had found out that her husband had died, but was so surprised when her husband walked in, she did. Throughout the whole story, Mrs. Mallard looked out of her window and thought to herself. She realized that she had never known how much she had longed for time to herself and freedom from her husband. Even though she was still sad that her husband had died, she had the feeling of hope rising inside of her. She had the hope that with the days to come, she could live her life freely and have fun by herself. At the end of the story after Mrs. Mallard had died, her family was told that she died of a heart attack of joy. This did not seem to be true and it seemed that she really only died of a heart attack of surprise.