“After the primarily necessities of food and raiment, freedom is the first and strongest want of human nature (Mill).” It was common to have married women who viewed their marriage as a cage. Because is still expected of a woman at this time, it makes since to feel as though its only obligation. Louisa Mallard completely alters her attitude about her husband’s death once she’s grasp the reality of her new entitlement to freedom.
Louisa Mallard is primarily devastated by the news of her husband’s death, but her attitude changes when “she realizes her freedom, and she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same , with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance” (169). Louisa no longer functioned after receiving the news. As those who become frozen with fear, Louisa resembles that same reaction. She “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment…” because she had lost a loved one (169). She was immediately heartbroken, which is a natural response to an announcement of that nature.
Then, she stopped crying and a new feeling emerges. Her attitude completely changes. She “sat silently and “she said it over and over under her breathe: ‘free,free,free’.”(169). That explains when she came to the realization that she no longer had to live in the shadow of her husband. She could do as she pleases, since she
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Placing the reader in the mind of the woman, so that we may witness the transformation the character undergoes. By going through the process with the character, causes the reader to encourage the character at the end. If this story was told by an outside perspective it would’ve seem harsh and/or depressing. The is so successful in her writing that even as a reader, I was devastated for Louisa once her husband walked in.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of An Hour.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, Pearson, 2012,