Kate Chopin -- The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour is the short-lived liberation of a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage.
Louise Mallard finds out about the death of her husband, which has her shed tears at first, until she starts to feel the beauty of that "new spring life" by herself.  However, after an hour of breathing 'fresh air', she finds that her husband is still alive and has returned to their home. She dies immediately from a heart attack, which is traced back by doctors to "the joy that kills", yet it's apparent that she died out of shock for losing what she had just found - her self assertion and liberation.

I think that Louise was of high intellect and had many wishes and dreams, probably just like any other woman of her time, and obviously just like Kate Chopin. But as so many like her, it was impossible. She was lonely, repressed, sad, unhappy, unsatisfied and had given up on living out any emotions. She probably didn't even think that she had any emotions left inside of her. I don't think that life was that bad. We don't know if she was in an abusive marriage, unbearable to take, but she most definitely was provided for. But I don't think any of what she had in her marriage was fulfilling to her. Every human being has dreams and emotions and wants something good, well, most likely the best, out of life, and so did Louise.

When I first read the story, I could feel that her husband would return in the end, however, I didn't think Louise would die. I figured she would use her newly found free will and self-assertion to be stronger in their marriage and find ways of being happy with Brantly. I was shocked Chopin had Louise have a heart attack and die, since I wished for her so much to break free without Brently being dead, which would have been a TRUE liberation, rather than just a temporary naive high of emotions that came with his sudden death.