Mrs. Mallard's expression about her husband's death is one of grief at first, but she starts to realize when she is alone that her true feelings start to surface, ones of joy, freedom, and independence. Mrs. Mallard sees "…patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other…"(78) which symbolizes her separation from her husband's control and that there is hope beyond the murky life that she had lived prior to the report of his death. She realizes that she can make her own life and have control of her own decisions, perhaps a life that belonged to her and only her. "She was drinking in a very elixir of life…"(79) and "…running riot along those days ahead of her"(79) to convey new language that will give her new experiences and a realization of new ways of thinking.
Mrs. Mallard was free in her mind for an hour and she had feelings that were never expressed or felt before, and was not a possession but a liberated woman.
"Free, free, free!" that had echoed from Mrs. Mallard's breath came to a crashing halt when she was confronted by her husband. After seeing her husband alive, she knew that all her dreams that were envisioned was never going to happen. And death was better than the repression that had occurred through the marriage.
"When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills. "(79) sums up the entire feelings that Louise had toward her husband. The only way she could leave her husband, where she couldn't be free in life, she was able to set her soul free with death and how she would be truly happy and at peace. Kate Chopin was showing that women of that time were not given many opportunities, which is projected in this tale to show men that a lot of women at that time didn't feel particularly content with the roles that were forced upon them.
William Atkinson
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