Kate Chopin’s purpose for writing “The Story of an Hour” is to demonstrate the idea that with freedom comes delight and horror. She conveys this point by using characterization. At the beginning of the story, the audience reads that Mrs. Mallards husband has passed away. She is told by her sister that her husband has passed, but unlike most people, Mrs. Mallard does not “accept its significance” due to a “paralyzed inability.” Because of the inability, she is filled with misery and “physical exhaustion”, but not for long. She murmurs, free, free, free” as she realizes that due to the passing of her husband, she is now unrestricted to his will. She can now “live for herself” because there is “no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence