In “A Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard deals with the fact that her husband has passed. At first, she is heartbroken but quickly becomes ecstatic at the fact that she can be her own woman, not being held down by a man, which was the norm during this time period. At the end of the story, Mr. Mallard comes home, not dead. Mrs. Mallard is so surprised by this she has a fatal heart attack. This conveys that one can only live their life when not held down by others. Ms. Chopin conveys this idea through with initial reaction, her inner thoughts, realizing what her husband’s death means for her, her relationship with her husband and her reaction to seeing her husband. When Mrs. Mallard is initially given the news, she reacts like she was expected to, with extreme sadness. She was overwhelmed with emotion to the point where she “wept with sudden and wild abandonment.” Given the time period, she was expected to do this as women were seen as weak and needed to be with a man. This is solidified by the fact that when she was first processing her emotions, more specifically, joy, as “she strived to beat it back with her will”. …show more content…
Mallard comes to terms with what happened, she later becomes thankful for her husband's death, as she “repeated to herself: Free! Free! Free!” This shows just how held down she was under the rule of her husband. She celebrated this fact as she felt free to live on her own terms for the first time since she had married Mr. Mallard. This further supports the main idea as Mrs. Mallard felt that as if she was being held captive by her husband and she is feeling a taste of freedom for the first time. This is solidified by her thought of, “she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers”, the further emphasized how skewed Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s relationship had been and can be assumed that there was no love between them, given how quick Mrs. Mallard came to her realization and how her attitude