Emotions in the Story of an Hour

1. Selina Jamil introduces the essay by showing how Kate Chopin describes, a women of the 19^th century who is self focused and transforms after hearing news that her husband is dead. Mrs. Mallard has a weak heart and learns from her sister that her husband has died and transforms to living her life to the fullest since she is now free and feels liberated since she is no longer married. She now becomes emotionally stable since she can now do whatever pleases her as a woman living in the 19^th century. Selina notes that the Chopin says “It was only yesterday [Mrs. Mallard] had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Selina, 216). This shows that Mrs. Mallard would now live a happy   without her husband who was cutting it short.
2. Jamil suggest that Mrs. Mallard faced emotional problems that made her celebrate the death of her husband. She notes that when the wife hears of her husband’s death she realizes that life can be beautiful. Later on when she hears her husband coming, she collapses and dies since she thought she would never see him again. She breaks down because she the man who would have cut her life short had arrived. Mrs. Mallard has had emotional struggles just like many women have and they end up seeing life as being meaningless (Selina, 219).
3. Norma Basch shows how women completely depend on men and this makes them be treated as slaves just like Mrs. Mallard who was always submissive to her husband while R. J. Dolan shows that emotions affect and influence the life of a person. John Deigh on the other hand defines emotions as a state described by the world which either gives people pleasure or displeasures them. In addition, William James discusses emotions as bodily feelings and characteristics that come along with the mood.
4. Jamil shows out differences between emotions and reasons since she elaborates that, Mrs. Mallard had emotional struggles that made her celebrate the death of her husband. She had reasons to be joyful after the death of her husband since he had made her suffer psychologically and she remained silent until the time he died. Mrs. Mallard is the submissive wife who regardless of the bad things happening to her remains silent just like other married women do (Selina, 217). After the death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard is now a free woman who does not suffer from any emotional stress and has reasons enough to be joyous.
5. Jamil concludes her essay by showing how much Mrs. Mallard is affected by the return of her husband and since she cannot handle the news, she collapses and dies. She cannot imagine going through the earlier stresses she faced before the alleged death of her husband. This shows that Mrs. Mallard suffers in her marriage and is free after her husband is said to have died and she cannot imagine living with the same man once more.

Work cited

Selina.J Emotions in the Story of an Hour (2009)