The Infinite Hour

The Infinite Hour

There is so much that can happen in such a short time. From a day to an hour to a minute to a second, you never know what is going to happen. In the short story "The Story of an Hour" it helps prove how much can change in an hour, the different things that happen in such a short time. You never know for sure what exactly is going to happen in life, so you have to treasure each moment because it can change so quickly.

I found this story to be a story that made me think of all that can happen in an hour, or even a minute. Changes can happen so fast in this life that we are usually always affected by this change, may it be big or small. In the story, the main character, Mrs. Mallard, receives devastating news; her husband has been killed. What makes it even more drastic is the fact that she is told this news by her sister and in her home of all places. When you think of home, you think of safety, comfort, and familiarity; you never think something bad can happen in a home. This theory is blown out of the house when she learns of the death of her husband. Now, the home is a symbol of the memories she had with her husband, and the memories she will never be able to make again. She goes to her room to think deal with the pain of losing her husband.

In this room, she observes all the happenings and places around her. She is overcome with emotion of sadness, but then is overcome with a feeling of "a monstrous joy" (Mrs. Mallard 1). There is irony in being so sad over a loss, but so happy because of what that loss gave her. She came to realize at that time that she will be sad over her husband, but that she can still go on to be happy and to live for herself. As Mrs. Mallard says, she is "free, free, free!" (Mrs. Mallard 1). She feels free from the restrictions put on her from becoming a wife. In the hour that she had to herself, her entire life changed. From being a wife to being a widow, and from being restricted to free in body and soul, the changes are so drastic, and this all happened in an hour.

When her sister comes to her room to get her, she is a triumph in her eyes and carries herself proudly. She is a new woman, until she finds at the bottom of the stairs and the door opens to reveal her dead husband. She is so surprised that her diseased heart died, from a joy that kills. This is the climax of the story, the surprise of finding the husband alive once again, or more correctly alive still. The theme in the story influences the story greatly at this part of the story. In a short hour, you can go from being depressed from the news of a death of a husband to being happy because of the freedom it gives you, to death from the surprise of a live husband again.

My focus in this story is the changes that happen so quickly in such a short time. This is related to the story as a whole because in the