Mrs. Louise Mallard In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Sommers have a fair share of intemperance. Mrs. Mallard has come to the realization that the death of her husband is not only a tragic occurrence, but also a beneficial cutting of her previously binding marital ties. The crisis of her grief has given her new insight on her life, and Mrs. Mallard understands that her marriage has limited her independence and freedom. Due to this realization she immediately forgets about the accident and starts to think about her freedom: ““Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering” (paragraph 14). It is only an hour after Mrs. Mallard has received the bitter news of her husband’s death. Considering that her husband is gone, instead of mourning, she is overwhelmed with the freedom she

Mrs.Mallard's rather uncommon reaction to the news of Mr.Brently Mallard's death logically foreshadows the complete revelation of her suppressed longing for freedom. Being alone in her room "When the storm of grief" is over, she experiences "something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name." Finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow: "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." In her soul, the dark clouds are disappearing because she is illuminated. All the memories of her husband are now of the past. She is living in the present. At this point, she is no longer "Mrs.Mallard." She is Louise and is ready to welcome a new horizon of freedom : "Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own." Overwhelmed with a new sense of herself, she feels as if she was "a goddess of Victory." In just a brief hour, she learns what it is like to be her own person, to live for herself without the force of her husband's will.

Mallard is unsatisfied with the limitations of her marriage, however, like Desiree, she is submissive and believes that the end of her duties as a wife will come at the death of her husband and her freedom will be given to her. Also, she experiences little or no feelings because of her marriage. This is shown when Mrs. Mallard, after hearing of her husband’s death, cries, but ironically she senses a moment of euphoric pleasure at the awaiting freedom in her remaining life. “She saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” Mrs. Millard is now aware of things that were not noticeable before such as: the beginning of spring, patches of blue sky through clouds, the twittering of sparrows and the smelling of the pending rain, which may signify the nature of her freedom. Mrs. Mallard would now be able to live her life outside the home and find her identity.

Mrs. Mallard is a woman that is suffering in marriage. We realize that she was not very optimistic about her married life. The night prior to the "death" of her husband, she had quietly prayed for her life to be short. She had reached a point of disillusionment and would gladly welcome death as an option out of the marriage. When she learns that her husband had perished in the train accident, she first reacts by

In “The Story of an Hour” we see Mrs. Louise Mallard receives news of the death of her husband. The

Mallard being a bad husband, the author makes no implications to such a thing. In fact, we are told that he “had never looked save with love upon her,” (CITE) which would imply she had no real ill feelings toward Mr. Mallard. That is, she had no real grounds for her negativity towards him. She even tried to appeal to her own emotions by pointing this reasoning out to herself, but in the end, she put up a poor defense of how she deserved to feel elated over her husband’s death. “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion…” (CITE) Mrs. Mallard allowed her selfish emotions to take over, “her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her.” (CITE) This possibly even ruined a good thing between her and her husband. Then again, the love in the relationship seemed very one sided as Mrs. Mallard admitted that her love for her husband was not complete. The way she tosses aside a relationship like she did makes it challenging for one to sympathize with Mrs. Mallard's character.

Upon hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard is overwhelmed with grief, which swiftly turned into hope. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction upon receiving the news of her husband 's death is considered to be unusually by society’s standards. In the beginning of the story it is revealed that Mrs, Mallard suffers heart problems; however, when it is revealed that her husband is dead her heart is relieved. She was thrilled that she was able to be her own person again. It was revealed through her reflection on her marriage that she “had loved him - sometimes” (16). Mrs. Mallard overcame is quick to overcome her grief after the realization that she has been set free of her horrible marriage. As a married woman, Mrs. Mallard is miserable, but as a widow she feels a sense of relief that she is free of her marital vows. At the end of the story Mrs. Mallard dies of a failing heart which it ironic because typically a woman would be filled with joy to find out

Mrs. Mallard had, "in that brief moment of illumination"(15), stumbled upon a truth: she was now her own person, free from the confines of her husband. She had loved her husband, "sometimes"(15), but that didn't matter: "What could love ....count for in the face of theis possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! THE theme of the story unfolds at this point: Mrs. Mallard, through the death of her husband, is able to experience the joy of the realization

Upon hearing the death of her husband's, Mrs. Mallard went through many different emotions. The first emotion is grief, the author tried to compare Mrs. Mallard to other women that would've responded to the news of their husbands death with "paralyzed inability" ( "she

The journey that both Mrs. Mallard and Amir experience sends them into deep emotion; furthermore, their attitudes during these occurrences display the similarities between the two very different characters. The sudden news of her husband’s death at first sends Louise into turmoil. Her reaction of weeping at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms portrays the idea of Mrs. Mallard’s feelings of love and security being torn apart (288). The isolation that Louise then places herself into illustrates her willingness to stay strong and the difficult expedition her heart embraces upon to process her feelings.

I think Mrs. Mallard felt trapped in her marriage, a marriage where communication no longer existed. I believe this caused her to feel very alone and restless in her marriage. In the late nineteenth century, women basically had little or no rights. It was thought that women’s sole purpose in society was to marry, have children, and to care for their family and household. Women of this era were not allowed to satisfy their own wants and desires. Therefore, we can assume that Mrs. Mallard got married at a young age. This fact, along with the crumbling of her marriage caused her to feel lost in a world where she knew not even herself. The fact that she was unable to experience life for herself resulted in her yearning desire for independence. These explanations contributed to Mrs. Mallard’s overwhelming enjoyment of her newfound freedom.

Unknowingly to the reader, the cyclical fate of Mrs. Mallard is stated in the first sentence of the author’s work, moreover, it is the title of the story and will take the reader over the course of an hour wherein determining Mrs. Mallards fate. In short, Mrs. Mallard is afflicted with heart trouble, she is then given grave news of her husband’s death. Richard’s, the family friend, “Hastens to forestall any less careful news”.(57) Wants to be the bearer of bad news, in doing so does not wait for conformation of Brently Mallard’s death. Which in turn will lead the wife to believe at the time; her

Mallard’s unusual reaction becomes less unusual and more understood as one begins to read more into the story. “She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free” (15)! This explains why the story was filled with more happy descriptions rather than depressing ones. Her crying is made clear as a sign of relief, not pain. This makes the reader ponder what kind of marriage she had. She could have had an overbearing, alcoholic, controlling, or obsessive husband. Even worse, Mr. Mallard could have been all of those things. The reader does not know for certain. All he/she knows is that Mrs. Mallard is joyful to know she is free from him. “She saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (16). Some may argue that it is completely immoral for Mrs. Mallard to feel this way. On the contrary, feminists will argue that she has the right to feel that way due to her possibly being in an abusive or unhappy relationship. As insensitive as Mrs. Mallard may seem to be, she is not completely heartless. “She had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not” (16). She did not completely despise her husband. For some people, including Mrs. Mallard, the bad moments outweigh any good ones in the relationship.

Within the story The Story of an Hour there is a train wreck that Louise Mallard’s husband is thought to be on and so his name is on the list of people whom have passed. Mrs. Mallard’s sister and husband’s friend, knowing that she has “heart troubles,” try to keep the news from her before they can enlighten her of the harsh news lightly and smoothly, with much success. She shows a face of how she should react, but on her own she thinks of all of the possibilities that she can do now. She actually feels better about life and wishes for it to be longer than she had when her husband is alive. Through his death she gains a sense of identity for herself. During the time of Mrs. Mallard’s world, a good wife would be one that “accepts the conventions”

Next, Mrs. Mallard was a woman who suffered from the times where women were treated with less value and importance. She lost her own life because rejoice at her husband’s tragedy. Her uncontrollable desire to be free made her become a frivolous woman, who let his personal longing’s end with his own life. When she realized that her husband was alive all his plans vanished. Her happiness was a temporary happiness which lasted less than an hour.