Quote-Response

"Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his gripsack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephile's piercing cry; at Richard's quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife."
(Chopin, 326)

The quote I chose is from "The Story of the Hour" by Kate Chopin. The story is about a woman who is led to believe that her husband has died in a railroad accident at work. She goes to her room and weeps, but then is overcome with joy when she realizes that she is completely free. She can do what she wants without being limited, she no longer has to worry about pleasing another person, and she believes that her body and soul are now free. When she composes herself enough to leave her room to her sister's wishes, she goes downstairs and sees her husband enter the room; this is the passage of my quote. Josephine let out a piercing scream and died of a heart attack; not because it was such a shock to her, but because she realized that she was once again trapped. I thought this quote was the most important in this story because it is the exact moment she realizes that she will never be free again, and it was apparently so devastating to her that she died. This shows, in an exaggerated sense, how desperate some people are for freedom.