The Story of an Hour
...fact: losing someone is a sad thing. We spend weeks, months, and even years dealing with feelings, thoughts, physical reactions, and behaviors. Sadness is a big part of grief. We may feel like crying most of the time, and we may feel so overwhelmed with sadness that we become depressed. Right after someone dies, it’s normal for people to feel like they have no emotions at all, like they’re numb or are “sleepwalking” through their days. The emotional pain caused by losing somebody can be overpowering, so people “shut down” their feelings without even knowing they’re doing it. Everybody is unique, so everybody grieves a little differently and for different amounts of time. When dealing with a death, the emotions that come out of the subconscious may be uncontrollable, and yet unimaginable. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (138). Mr. Mallard has been treating his wife as if a domestic servant; no wife wishes to become free unless there are unbearable circumstances that hold the marriage together. “And yet she had loved him - sometimes. Often she had not. What does it matter!” (139), She claims love to be an unsolved mystery; she had never found love with her husband. Her self-assertiveness is her strongest quality, which transcends her capability to love. As Mrs. Mallard is daydreaming of her newly found freedom, her sister Josephine is pounding at the door. “ Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door – you will make yourself i...