Death is considered the ultimate loss and sadness to all family and friends of the deceased. In many cases this is true, but not in Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour." This story portrays Mrs. Mallard's very unusual reaction to the gloomy situation. Kate Chopin uses symbolism to help show Mrs. Mallard's emotional change during the hour of learning her husband's dead.

The first line of Kate's story mentions that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble (772). Heart trouble can symbolize emotional weakness as well as the obvious physical weakness. The word afflicted was not only used just to inform that Mrs. Mallard has heart problems, but that it was an almost torturing result of distress and suffering. From this the reader can tell that Mrs. Mallard is depressed even before hearing the news.

The telegram symbolizes the time period of the story, which took...