A Comparison Between “Paul’s Case and “The Story of an Hour”
...father discovered what Paul did and paid Paul’s debt. Paul decided that he could not return home to face his father and his life, so he committed suicide. “The Story of an Hour” is about a young woman with a heart disease who has just received word that her husband has died in a train crash. As it is stated, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same. (p542)” Louise did not respond to her husband’s death like other wives would; instead, she accepted it as freedom from the trials and tribulations that a young married woman in the Nineteenth century would endure. Ironically, Louise’s husband turns out to be alive, and was actually far from the crash site. Louise observes her husband and dies because once she felt relief and the emotions of freedom, she could not return to her life as a married woman One comparison between Paul and Louise is that they both had to deal with life’s possibilities and choices. At times the characters did not make the right choice, or did not even have any options. Paul was faced with many choices. He could have worked hard in school, and respected his father’s wishes; Instead, Paul decided to rebel, and chose to show everyone that that was not the life he was intended to live. Paul made a bad decision to steal money from his boss and run to New York. Even though Paul got to live the “good life” for a week, it all came to an end. Paul decided that he could not face his life and he decided to jump in front of a train. Paul knew he made a wrong choice because at the last minute he thought about his life’s possibilities. Louisa did not look at her possibilities in life. She decided that she did not have any options, except to get married. She felt trapped. When she got word of her husband’s death, she for once felt free and had a chance to see her life’s possibilities as a single woman. Another similarity between the two characters is their burden of expectations from their family and society. Both characters were expected to perform duties in certain ways. Paul was expected to grow up and work in a factory or steel mills like his father and neighbors, but Paul was rebellious and decided he deserved a better life. Society had many expectations of young women in the N...