Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour - Essay Example

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” The protagonist of this short story is Louise, who has a heart condition. She is waiting of her husband to return from his trip to another town, when she receives the news of his tragic death in a rail accident. She bursts into tears and pours out her grief, yet in the midst of her grief, a fierce spark of joy burns – the realization that she is a free woman now, relieved of her husband’s oppressive influence. But even as the bud of freedom blooms, it is quenched all too quickly – because her husband returns.

The shock of his unexpected return is so great, Louise dies of an instant heart attack.[www.vcu.edu]. The prospect of a return to the captivity of her gender is that unpleasant. This story examines the theme of freedom vs. imprisonment through one day in the life of Mrs. Lousie Mallard. This story examine gender equations and the protagonist’s search for her own role and identity[www.glencoe.com,n.d.] . Louise Mallard’s identity is tied up with that of her husband and it is only the prospect of his death that unlocks the possibility that she can actually live for herself and be guided by her own desires.

The dawning of freedom is symbolized by the signs in nature: “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air.”[Chopin, 1984] The yearning for an independence that was forbidden to women in Kate Chopin’s time is manifest in Louise Mallard’s whisper: “Free, free, free!” Chopin expresses the protagonists’s joy at the prospect of moving out of her husband’s oppressive shadow: “Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

” [Chopin, 1894]. The story poignantly sets out the dawning realization in Mrs. Mallard, of the possibilities inherent in a situation she had never dreamed possible – the death of her husband. She moves from a state of frozen immobility to a state of waiting – waiting for the breathtaking, joyful realization to hit her. She has never dared to give voice to her inner yearning for freedom and independence, but the prospect of her husband’s death is the achievement of what was once an impossible dream.

The society imposed gender restrictions are finally being lifted and she faces the prospect of a life where she can finally give vent to her innermost desires. For a brief period in the story, she is free. Gradually, there is an awakening in her – a transition from the conventional sorrow that is expected of her to the realization that she is now free to choose to reject society’s imposition upon her conduct and role. One glorious hour, when Louise Mallard rejoices in the fresh breeze of freedom – a freedom she had never anticipated or ever expected that she could have.

In this brief momentous hour, Louise Mallard realizes the enormity of the burden of captivity that society has placed upon her through her confinement in the traditional subordinate role ascribed to women in Chopin’s day. The role that has been imposed upon her and which is not her free will choice is something she has resigned herself to almost unconsciously, as she has lived through the years of emotional and mental imprisonment under her husband’s authority. But an unexpected freedom has been handed to her through the news of her husband’s death.

The use of the term “the joy that kills” is symbolic and represents the theme of freedom vs. imprisonment.[www.tqnyc.org]. Like a bird that has slipped out of its cage and experienced the joys of freedom, Louise Mallard has experienced the same exhilaration of freedom. The joy is so intense that it has changed her forever and raised the possibility of becoming a new person- free of her husband’s control over her life. But seeing her husband again at the end of the story is a cruel shock to the bird that has slipped out of its cage.

The prospect of being rudely shoved back into it, to again taste the rigors of imprisonment after having experienced the breeze of freedom is unbearable, dealing the death blow to the sensitive protagonist. Louise’s “heart condition” is in fact, a symbolic representation of her sensitive soul that is being crushed in an oppressive vice of chauvanism. The underlying message in the story is that the outward diseased condition is only a reflection of the inner disease - the mental agony of imprisonment in an oppressive marriage.

References: Chopin, Kate. (1894). The story of an hour. þiElectronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R) “The Story of an Hour”: retrieved July 20, 2005 from URL: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/storyofhour.html. “Explorations of “The Story of an Hour”: retrieved July 20, 2005 from URL: Analysis: “The story of an Hour”: retrieved July 19, 2005 from URL: http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC040522/shortstories/storyofanhour/storyhourmain.

htm#Analysis “Kate Chopin”: Retrieved July 19, 2005 from URL: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/cgi-bin/splitwindow.cgi?top=http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/top2.html&link=http://www.spydersempire.com/empirezine/features/august/chopin1.htm