Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. Chopin was a literary genius when it came to embedding clues that foreshadow the ending. Chopin either states the clues directly or sneakily hides them within the text from her story.

The most apparent element of foreshadowing is the very first sentence. Yes, Mrs. Mallard had “heart trouble”. Of course it isn’t just a small tumor or anything like that. It is heart disease, heart disease that was caused by her husband.

The fifth paragraph is also filled with foreshadowing. With such intense details such as “new spring life”, “breath of rain”, and “countless sparrows”. Mrs. Mallard is noticing every detail of her surroundings. She is not struck with guilt or pain from her husband’s death, but rather the opposite. She is filling her life with happy thoughts. This tells us that Mrs. Mallard had a hard love life and that she never truly loved him.
“She knew that she would weep again,” and she was right. This single line out of the entire short story reveals to the readers that her remorse will return. By Mrs. Mallard telling us that she will “weep again” we can infer that Mr. Mallard will come back into her life.

From every foreshadowing clue throughout the story, before the reader gets to the ending, he or she should be able to predict that Mr. Mallard will step back into Mrs. Mallard’s life. As for the death of Mrs. Mallard, the heart disease got the best of her.