Theme Of Personal Freedom In Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

The theme of this story is one of personal freedom and trying to be true to yourself while being a part of something else, like a marriage. During the book Mrs. Mallard was in a mixed emotions with her hearing about her husband dying and her being emotional about it, her telling herself that she is finally free and then finding out he was alive when he walked through the door. In "The Story of an Hour" the central idea would be when she posits the idea that a woman's life may actually be better without a husband. It was a radical idea at the time. In the older days it was assumed that women were the lesser sex and that men needed to make the important decisions in a family. When Mrs. Mallard was told by her sister Josephine that her husband was killed in a train crash she was depressed.”It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received” (Chopin 15). Richard friend only taken the time to assure himself that it was true when he saw

Mallard that would “make yourself ill” (Chopin 16). She was so full of joy and she did not want anything happen to this great day that she was having. Before she open the door she took a moment and prayed to herself that nothing could go wrong with her. When she opened the door and looked down the stairs she clasped on to her sister’s waist and the both of them fell down the stairs with Richard stood waiting for them at the bottom of the house. Once Richard walked into the house and stood over Josephine, he was amazed at Josephine's “ piercing cry” (Chopin 16). She was blocking him from seeing his wife on the ground because he was to late to seen. He was late because she had died to a heart attack-of joy that kills. This related to the part where she was full of joy that her husband is dead and no longer tied down, she was free. In the end came back and haunt her when the joy disappeared and ended up killing