Chopins Characterization of Mrs Mallard - Book Report/Review Example

“A Story of an Hour” is indeed the story of Mrs. Mallard’s approach to life. Her initial reaction to the tragic event of the death of her husband was, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.” This is a significant observation by the author. Howsoever powerful maybe the waves, their real content is just water! The worst storm has in store the gentle breeze! Mrs. Mallard accepts the enviable, with astonishing grit.

And here is the turning point in the story—the instant transformation in her as she observes the goings-on in the world around, “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. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.” Her soul rested in the eternal silence, but she was also the physical body subject to the emotions of a normal human being. She sat still, motionless, except for the occasional sob. But her inner strength was showing; her true personality was beginning to assert. A strange process was beginning to take shape within her. Would she transcend the human limitations, would she be able to beat the pairs of opposites of happiness and sorrow, strength and weakness and the like?

Soon, she attained the tension-free state and felt as if the realized soul would ravel in bliss. That state of permanent joy, completely free from dualities of the mundane world! The author depicts the state of her inner transformation thus: “She said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.”Mrs. Mallard would now be mentally strong to challenge destiny. The issue was no more whether she loved her husband or not! That was part of her secular life.

The real purpose of life was to transcend the cravings of the body and enjoy the kingdom of the soul, which was ever free. Her whisper, “Free! Body and soul free!" precisely meant the same as she assured her sister that she was drinking the “very elixir of life through that open window.”The author’s description about her state, “a feverish triumph in her eyes,” and “carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory,” show that her mind was detached from this Planet Earth and she was floating in the heavens. At that moment her husband enters the house—looking at him, her mortal body collapses. She had reached the land from where no one ever returned and the excuse for her final departure was “the joy that kills.”... A great story!