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"Penny and Louise"

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a riveting tale of repression. The story is quite clenching and the ending blooms with irony. Mrs. Louise Mallard is nothing short of a loving wife, however, when news of her husband Brently’s death penetrates her heart, she is changed. Weeping violently in front of her sister, she escapes to her bedroom so she may allow the news to absorb. Like a sponge in placid water, she begins visualizing the reality of a life of her own. Allowing, for what seems like the first time, the true emotion that she has felt for many years to seep out of her pores. For Louise has always lived for Brently, she had loved him, but the sudden burst of self-assertion took over. Unsure of what bestow upon her, her body and soul were now free. Louise drank in his death not as an ending, but as her new beginning. The irony is overwhelming when Louise descends the staircase, regains her composure, only to see her husband walk in the door very much alive. T...

Posted by: Tricia F. Doyle

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