"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

“The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin fascinated me with the surprised ending. The main character of the story, named Mrs. Millard, is told the news of her husband's death. With this news she locks herself in her room and finds some joy and sense of liberation in this death. For one blessed hour, she believes Henry dead, and in her own mind she sets about rebuilding her future, imagining her infinite possibilities; when he arrives at home safe and sound, however, Louise drops dead of a heart attack. Her family assumes, of course, that the shock of seeing Henry alive after believing him to be dead was too much for her; but Chopin implies otherwise. It seems more likely that Louise could no longer bear the thought of returning to a life in which she was always the "little woman," and never in control. She would rather be dead than go back to that way of living, and consequently, she dies. I guess women of that century had to pretend that they are happy in marriage, since the men managed everything, and Mrs. Millard was one of them.