The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

The description of what Louise sees out of the window in front of her chair is very detailed in my opinion. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." That paints a vivid picture of what Louise was experiencing as she sat in her chair. Realists didn't want their readers to have to use their imagination when they read their stories, so the descriptive and detailed way that Chopin explains the setting of her story is a good example of realism.
The social issue that Chopin addresses in The Story of an Hour is women's rights. In the story Louise is happy after her husband is thought to be dead, because she is finally free to live her own life as she sees fit. I didn't get the feeling that Louise's husband was tyranical or abusive, but Louise just wanted the chance to live of her won free will like many women would not have been able to during that time period. "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination." Back then a wife would have been expected to be meek and willing to follow her husband wherever he may choose to go. Louise wanted to make her own decisions for once, which would be a growing desire of women in the years to come. "'Free! Body and soul free!'"