The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is: The doctor said joy killed Mrs. Mallard.
This conclusion serves as the powerful and ironic final statement of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Throughout the brief narrative, the protagonist, Louise Mallard, undergoes a profound transformation. After being gently informed of her husband’s death in a train accident, her initial grief gives way to an exhilarating realization of personal freedom and autonomy. Alone in her room, she looks out the window and comprehends that she is no longer bound by the constraints of marriage. She quietly celebrates the prospect of living a long life for herself, filled with her own desires and will. This newfound sense of liberation is a “monstrous joy” that she embraces.
The story’s climax occurs when she finally leaves her room, revitalized, only to be confronted by the sudden and unexpected appearance of her husband, Brently Mallard, who is alive and well. The shock of this reversal is too much for her weak heart. When the doctors arrive to examine her, they completely misinterpret the situation. Unaware of her secret epiphany of freedom, they assume her fatal heart attack was caused by an overwhelming surge of happiness at seeing her husband alive. The story’s final, iconic line states, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease of joy that kills.” This diagnosis is deeply ironic, as the reader understands that Mrs. Mallard died not from joy, but from the sudden, devastating loss of it. The very freedom she had just begun to savor was snatched away in an instant, and the shock of returning to her previous life is what truly killed her.
