Mrs Mallard Symbolism

In Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” the setting of the story is very symbolic. Chopin sets up for the story and its setting by saying, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.” (205). Chopin immediately portrays Mrs. Mallard as how most women were typically seen in this time period, weak and dependent on their husbands. This also tells us that Mrs. Mallard most likely never leaves her home. Mrs. Mallard’s sister and one of her husband’s friends come to her house to reveal the news to her. The entire story takes place in the home of Mrs. Mallard; there are three areas of her home that are symbolic: the downstairs, the upstairs bedroom, and the stairs.

Mallard’s home, where her sister and her husband’s friend reveal the news of his death to her. They bring the news to Mrs. Mallard in the home that she shares with her husband. This is symbolic because the bottom floor of her house represents her marriage to her husband, and how she is trapped and controlled by her husband. In the time period that this story takes place it is reasonable to assume that she moved from her father’s home into her husband’s home so she has been controlled by a man her entire life. So initially the shock of her husband’s death is heart wrenching, she doesn’t know how to handle it. She weeps immediately like a good wife should and is just gut wrenched with grief. As she is downstairs with her sister and her husband’s friend she acts like any wife should at the loss of their husband. As she begins to reconcile herself she feels as if she needs to get away from her sister and her husband’s friend, she starts to feel trapped in the lower level of her