In "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin introduces us to a woman living in the oppressive times of the nineteenth century, Louise Mallard. She appears to be an old lady with a bad heart who is blindly living in a bad marriage, like everyone else at the time. However, a closer look at Louise reveals a more complex woman: a spiritual and fragile, young woman who is aware of her incarcerating marriage.

When I first began reading "The Story of an Hour", my first impression of Louise was that she was an old woman with heart trouble. I was surprised in the eighth paragraph when Chopin tells us that "she was young, with a fair, calm face" (paragraph 8). We are informed that, even in her youth, Louise is "afflicted with a heart trouble" (paragraph 1). Even so, I believe that her heart trouble...