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Mrs. Mallard's Death

787 Words4 Pages

A death in the family is a difficult challenge in most people’s lives which can affect them significantly. In the short story, “The Story of an Hour”, just this happens but the reaction is not in the way most would expect. Mrs. Mallard, the main character, is told her husband has died in a train wreck. The news of Mr. Mallard’s death awakens a long suppressed and dormant sense of freedom in Mrs.Mallard. This freedom is short lived, as her husband’s return crushes her awakened spirit and ends her life. We know this is the case because of the words Kate Chopin uses to illustrate the scene outside Mrs. Mallard’s window as well as the progression of her thoughts and feelings after hearing the “tragic” news. Kate Chopin frequently uses symbolism …show more content…

Mallard’s new freedom isn’t developed in a short moment. We are given insight to how Mrs. Mallard began to realize the change within her. Once Mrs. Mallard was in her bedroom, “she sank [into the armchair], pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” . This reaction to her Husband’s death shows that her thought is reaching into her soul to pull out her long suppressed happiness. Many would say that Mrs. Mallard could just be in a deep state of grief but there is proof of her growing understanding. Mrs. Mallard had a look in her eyes that “was not a glance of reflection but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought” . This lets us know that her thoughts are moving and growing. With a change so drastic, it must be instinctual to fight it. Mrs. Mallard began to become alarmed with her new transformation “and was striving to beat it back with her will”. Mrs. Mallard didn’t have much choice in whether she wanted to change or not, but by the end she gains a whole new sense of self-awareness and mindset. Once Mrs.Mallard has this realization, she asks herself the question “What could love…count for in face of this possession of self-assertion, which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” . There is a sense of accomplishment when enduring a transformation as drastic as Mrs. Mallards. When Mrs. Mallard emerged from her room “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself

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Mrs. Mallard’s conflict reflect the situation of many women in that era because women in that time that was married lived under the husband identity, didn’t have much freedom, and were trap in marriage. Women in that era stayed in marriage even if they were unhappy. Even though Mrs. Mallard loved her husband it seems as she no longer cared to be in her marriage any longer. “But she saw beyond the bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.”

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(Chopin, the Story of an Hour)” It would be prudent to believe by the way Mrs. Mallard was crying that indeed she was devastated about her husband’s tragic death.

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