Story Of An Hour

"The Story of an Hour" is overflowing with vivid imagery to reveal Mrs. Mallard's emotions and accentuate her feelings towards her situation at the time. The imagery is used to portray the unexpected and guide the reader to formulate their own conclusions, instead of simply stating them. The first example of imagery doesn't appear until Mrs. Mallard has received the news of her husband's death. "When the storm of grief had spent itself," conveys a violent and dismal tone, setting the story up for contrast when juxtaposed with the imagery later in the story. As Mrs. Mallard proceeds into her room, a peculiar shift in the imagery is immediately noticed. The dark and gloomy atmosphere is broken by her sitting in "a comfortable, roomy armchair," a less than distressing description. As she gazes outside and an array of serenities further the shift in the story. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." The unexpected twist that a distraught widow would notice such a radiant image as "new spring life," atop the trees outside her window serve to represent Mrs. Mallard herself. An important reference to the time of the year is made, spring, which is associated with new life and growth. As she breathes in a "delicious breath of rain," she is being reborn without the oppression in her past. In the next paragraph, Mrs. Mallard notices "patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds." This imagery is bursting with metaphorical connotation. The blue sky, symbolizing her serenity, is starting to appear through the clouds. The storm of the story is coming to an end and blue sky can be