"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

After reading Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” I recognized the last line of the story to be a major theme. Chopin writes that a character in the story, Louise Mallard, died “of joy that kills,” (Chopin, 327). The strange idea that joy could kill stood out to me after reading of the circumstances surrounding Mrs. Mallard’s death. Because her husband had supposedly died, Mrs. Mallard was incredibly heart broken and upset. She began to think about her husband in Heaven and that she would get to see him again, and the pure joy and happiness she felt over that subject caused her death. In the real world, I believe that this does actually happen. Weeks after a family friend died, her husband died as well. If a person loves another enough that the thought of seeing them again brings them such joy, it, in the end, can kill them just as it killed Mrs. Mallard. Thinking of something unachievable or even dreaming allows a person to let go, and Mrs. Mallard let go in Chopin’s story in order to be with her husband. However, the twist at the end of the story - that Mallard’s husband was still alive - created a sour ending to the story. The original idea that the two Mallards would be together after death was comforting, but the fact that her husband was not even dead was shocking, as Mrs. Mallard would once again be alone, this time having no way back.