Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Those who feel trapped at times often search for ways to seek the fulfillment of freedom from that certain confinement. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, readers experience what it was like to be a woman of this era being controlled by society’s ideals. In the story, Mrs. Mallard, a sickly woman must face the harsh news of her husband’s death but what seems to be a widow gone mad turns out to be a woman finally realizing what it is like to be free for the first time in her life. Chopin’s purpose or message in “The Story of an Hour” is to seek happiness through independency and thinking/acting for oneself. The story begins with Louise Mallard, a young woman with heart trouble learning of her husband, Brently Mallard’s supposed death from a railroad disaster (Chopin par. 1-2).

Mallard burst into tears as she slowly begins to accept its significance until she eventually locked herself in her room alone (Chopin par. 3). Kate shows how Louise is, at first, reacting to the news how society would want her to act (grieving from the death of her husband) until her mindset starts to change. She sat in an armchair and began to realize things she had not noticed before. The delicious breath of rain in the air, the peddler crying his wares, and the countless sparrows twittering in the eaves (Chopin par. 5). Louise would soon see patches of blue sky through the clouds possibly symbolizing opportunities that were opening up to her now that she was free of