How do people react when involved in unhappy marriages? In the stories "The Legacy" and "Story of an Hour", two women are involved in unhappy marriage's.

       The story of Mrs.Mallard is similar to the one of Angela. Mrs.Mallard, a young handicap woman who was a house wife, was told by her friends and family that her husband had died in a train accident. After she heard the news, Mrs.Mallard decided to go alone in her room, she sat on her comfy couch, looked out the window, and seemed to be relieved, “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.”(19,20). When she stared at one of the patches in the blue sky, she felt something was coming to her and she was waiting for it, but she didn’t know what it was because it was too vague. Then when she abandonned herself she whispered the word “free” over and over. She thought about her husband for a bit, but then suddenly started thinking about the years to come that would belong to her absolutely, she wouldn’t have to live for anyone. Meanwhile, her sister, Joshephine, was begging her to open the door thinking she was making herself ill, but it was otherwise, “she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.”(69,70). Mrs.Mallard finally walked out of her room towards her sister with a certain pride. They both went down the stairs, and at the same time someone was opening the front door with a latchkey, it was her husband. Mrs.Mallard died of a heart disease-of joy that kills. Mrs.Mallard was relieved that her husband had died, and was thinking of all the time she had in front of her. She was finally free and could do what she wanted, she had planned her future and wished to live happily alone. Just like Angela, she knew something was going to happen, but this time Mrs.Mallard had no clue of what is was. When she saw her husband walk in the front door, she couldn’t believe he was still alive. Instead of living, she died of a heart disease which made her become free, and made her flee what she thought was an unhappy marriage. She too had escaped her husband.

       Both women have endured the same thing. They felt trapped in their marriage and tried to find ways to escape it. Angela Clandon tried to escape it by meeting a new guy for who she feel in love with, and when she realized that the man she loved had died it gave her the opportunity to flee her marriage by committing suicide. Mrs.Mallard on the other hand, felt free because she was told that her husband had died in a tragic accident. She finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and she would be able to do anything she wanted to, but when she saw her husband walk threw the door, she didn’t want to become trapped in her marriage again. She died of joy that kills. Both women handled their situations the same way and the one they thought the easiest, death.

English Essay #1

Mathieu Bigeault

Shan Evans

English 603-101-04-02

February 25, 2004