A Story of an Hour - Critical Essay
...iage exemplifies the status of women in this time that was subject to the patriarch’s “powerful will bending hers” (13). Brently was fairly well off took good care of his wife (assuming because they live in a home with an upstairs, comfortable furnishings, had occasion and reason to travel, and could afford a doctor’s diagnosis for her heart condition), “had never looked save with love upon her”(12), and Louise sometimes felt mutual from this statement, “and yet she had loved him--sometimes”(14). He was a good man with great stature. What satisfaction could a woman derive from the loss of a good quality husband? Breaking that security, it is uncertain what fate lies ahead being alone in such an oppressive world for women. Louise was clearly not happy with the death of her husband. At the beginning of the story after she learned of his death it says, “She wept at once, with sudden, and wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her” (3). That doesn’t spell out joy to me. I don’t think she knew what to feel. While Louise was her room, “soaking in” her environment she began to realize certain things. One monumental thing was that life was moving on despite her...