“The Story of an Hour”

 When I was reading this, it was very surprising to me when I realized that Louise was happy that her husband was dead. She had been grieving him before that, and so it came a bit out of nowhere. It almost got more shocking when I realized that there was no real reason for her to be that happy at first glance - her husband wasn’t abusive, he wasn’t cruel or negligent, and in fact he “had never looked save with love upon her” (266). Those are reasons that I, at least, would expect from that kind of reaction.

But as I kept reading, her actual reasons made sense. It wasn’t that Louise hated her husband, or that she wasn’t genuinely grieving him earlier, but the idea of having her freedom after a lifetime without it was so euphoric that it overpowered everything else. 

I think that this was a realistic way of how someone would actually react in this situation. The care is there, but still resenting the level of power that someone else has over you for no good reason. Being sad that they’re gone but still happy that no one has power over you now. 

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