Personal Freedom In The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

The short work entitled “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a prime example of the kind of literature that was being written during the Victorian Era. Like many other female authors in the late 19th century, Chopin often highlights the repression that women faced during that time, especially in regard to their rights in marriage. “The Story of an Hour” is a whirlwind of a narrative that takes place over the course of a mere hour and reaches its conclusion in just under one thousand words and yet Chopin is able to fit an abundance of important literary elements into this brief work. Chopin uses imagery and setting to symbolize the central idea that personal freedom is the most important thing one can obtain. When the main protagonist
It is no coincidence that in the opening line of Chopin’s story it is revealed that, “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble,” and due to this heart condition she would need to be informed the news of her husband’s death in a highly sensitive manner (647). While taking into account the symbolic weight of the heart it is inferred that Mrs. Mallard not only has an actual problem with the way her heart works, but symbolically she has a problem with her idea of love. This literal trouble with her heart can be directly correlated with the troubles that she personally faces in her love life, or lack there of. Indeed, it is later shown that Mrs. Mallard is in a marriage that was seen as traditional at the time: the husband having all the control in the relationship and the wife being subservient to her man. Once Mrs. Mallard has hears the news that her husband has supposedly died in a train accident, after a brief period of mourning, she is no longer burdened with her heart condition. When Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room her sister, Penelope, worries that she will work herself up with so much sadness that her heart condition will kill her. Mrs. Mallard feels quite the opposite of sick, as the story explains she felt as if, “she was drinking in a very elixir of life” (Chopin 648). Elixirs by definition are magical potions used as a cure to
In a way, the house is symbolic of her lack of freedom and the constraints she has due to her relationship with her husband. That being the case, the open window that she first perceives her new freedom from her husband can be seen as a “window of opportunity” which gives her the first glimpse of the world of opportunities outside of the confinement that her husband imposes on her. When Mrs. Mallard fully comprehends the extent of her new freedoms she joyously leaves the room and rushes downstairs with her sister towards the door. Since the house represents the confinement of her husband then the front door of the house is symbolic to the threshold which Mrs. Mallard must cross to become completely free of the walls of her repressive life and begin her new life of freedom. Just as Mrs. Mallard approaches the front door in order to begin her life a new she is confronted with the horrible truth that her husband is still alive and his presence in the doorway physically blocked her from leaving the house and thus never truly achieving the freedom she was so ready for. The crushing of her joy was enough to set off Mrs. Mallard’s troubled heart and she dies just in front of her husband who was standing in the front