Analysis Of "The Story Of An Hour"

The first phrase that I think is important, from the short story "The Story of an Hour" is, "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life". I found this to be important because it lets the audience know that although Mrs. Mallard had just suffered a great loss, she was still aware of the ongoing life outside of her. She concentrated on the sky and other images from the window which led her to snap out from her remorse. The next phrase I chose is

"But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome". She welcomed the death of husband as something positive, rather then negative. In this phrase it shows that she probably wanted to have a certain independence and just realized that she finally could. Another phrase that relates to that same situation is "And yet she loved him- sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!". This phrase paints a picture of what the main character is like. It makes her look fickle, and almost selfish. It seems like she could careless that her husband was gone, yet in the beginning she was very hurt by it. The next phrase is "She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long". It is ironic that she prays for her life to be long but she dies shortly after. Finally, I chose the last phrase which read "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- of joy that kill". This phrase sums up the entire story, and also leaves the audience wondering a few things. If she died of joy was it because she felt happy to be free, or did she see that her husband was actually alive and that led to her death?

The story leaves me with questions about Mrs. Mallard,