The Story of An Hour Quotes

What is it about "The Story of An Hour" that so fascinates the reader? Is it the surprise ending? Is it Mrs. Mallard's initial reaction to the news about her husband? With these quotes, discover how Kate Chopin dramatizes the story of a wife, who discovers the truth about her husband's death.

• "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "She said it over and over under her breath: 'free, free, free!' The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "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."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "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."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  
• "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of joy that kills."
  - Kate Chopin
  
  

"The Story of an Hour" Study Guide

• Text - The Story of an Hour
• Quotes
• Characters
• Terms / Vocabulary
• Questions for Study & Discussion
• Kate Chopin - Profile