“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin focuses on a woman named Louise Mallard and her reaction to discovering her husband's death. The descriptions that the author uses in the story have meaning in the plot because they foreshadow the ending. This story mainly follows a woman with heart problems. Her husband's name appears at the top of the list of people killed in a train accident. The story explains his reaction after finding out about his death. At the end of the story, her husband (who actually never knew about the accident) shows up on her doorstep. When she sees him, she has a heart attack and dies. Chopin describes her as a fragile woman. Because she was “afflicted with a heart problem,” when she received notification of her husband's death, “great care was taken” to break the news “as kindly as possible” (1). Josephine, her sister and Richards, her husband's friend, expect her to be devastated by this news and fear that depression will kill her due to her weak heart. Richards was "in the newspaper office when information of the train wreck was received, with Brently Mallard's name at the top of the casualty list" (1). He is therefore one of the first people to know of his death. Knowing Mrs. Mallard's heart, she realizes that they must be careful in letting Mrs. Mallard know. Josephine told him because Richards feared that "any less careful, less tender person" would pass the message on to Louise Mallard (1). Because of her heart problems, they think that if the message of her husband's death was conveyed to her in the wrong way, her heart would not be able to withstand it. They also think that if someone is being cautious in giving her the message, that... middle of paper... the fact that Chopin describes her eyes in this story demonstrates exhilaration. The author describes her joy at her husband's death as monstrous to give the reader the idea that she feels extreme joy over an event that would normally elicit the opposite reaction in a person. The descriptions in the story foreshadow the tragedy that ends the story. The author believed that unexpected things often happen. In the case of this story, Louise Mallard believed her husband was dead, after her sister, Josephine, told her so. However, when it is revealed that her husband has been alive the entire time, she is unhappy to see him and suffers a fatal heart attack. Even though she had heart problems, Richards and Josephine thought that the news of her husband's death, and not the fact that she had seen him again, would be harmful to her health, perhaps even fatal. Chopin managed to get this message across.