Mrs Mallard Symbolism

In the Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, Louise Mallard experiences a series of emotions after she hears about the death of her husband. Mrs Mallard, who suffers from a heart problem; her sister Josephine has to attempt to inform Mrs. Mallard of the loss of her husband in a amiable way. Immediately, Mrs. Mallard mourns the loss of her husband in which her grief comes to end end when she makes her way upstairs to her room. While in her room, Mrs. Mallard begins to feel a sense of exhilaration and begins thinking of the enjoyment without her husband around. As Mrs. Mallard finally leaves her room, Mr. mallard enters the house. Mts. Mallard then suffers a heart attack upon noticing that she is stuck in her marriage after all. In “Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses symbolism and feminism to show Mrs. Mallard's joy of independence.

The open window from Mrs. Mallards bedroom symbolically represents the freedoms that await for her after her husband has died. From the window, Mrs Mallard sees the “patches of blue

Mallard in her relation with Mr. Mallard is an institution of her freedom. In the late 19th century, a husband would be the person that would be the “powerful will”(14) in his wife. When Mrs. Mallard says that “A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime,”(14) the reader realizes that problems in marriage doesn’t lie on individuals but in marriage itself. Even if the husband in the marriage means well, he still has the power to do and say what is right or wrong in the marriage. Therefore, Mrs. Mallard feels as if she is always a lesser party. She has to always “life for” (14) rather than herself. So when Mrs. Mallard finds out of the news that her husband has died “She (had) wept” (3) with “wild abandonment” (3). Many readers seem to think the she is devastated because of her loss of her husband, but really, she is experiencing an insight to her call to