Monday, June 18, 2012

Is it possible to die of feeling overjoyed by someone's death?

I would imagine that, if one has an underlying condition such as heart disease, high blood pressure, or the like, it is possible to "die of" any extreme emotion that would aggravate such a condition.  If joy can excite one enough to raise one's blood pressure or increase one's heart rate, then I would think that it is possible to die as a result of that emotion, but we might more likely attribute it to that underlying condition than we would the emotion that triggered it. 


However, one of the great ironies of this story is that Louise Mallard doesn't die of the "joy that kills" when she sees her husband alive, but none of the other characters in the story know this.  Only the reader, who has been privy to her innermost thoughts and feelings during her immediate response to the news that her husband has been killed in a train accident, knows that it isn't joy she's feeling; it's terrible, terrible disappointment because she realizes that the freedom she thought she'd gained is once again out of her reach.

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