Simple Summaries

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• Mrs. Mallard learns about her husband's death in a train accident.
• "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms."
• Mrs. Mallard experiences the expected emotions of loss and grief.
• "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance."
• As the shock of her husband's death settles, Mrs. Mallard begins to feel a sense of liberation.
• "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully."
• Mrs. Mallard reflects on the opportunities for a new life without the constraints of marriage.
• "She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long."
• She anticipates a life filled with personal freedom and self-discovery.
• "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life."
• Just as Mrs. Mallard is reveling in her newfound freedom, her supposedly dead husband walks in.
• "It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella."
• The shock of her husband's return proves too much for Mrs. Mallard, leading to her sudden demise.
• "When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills."

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