In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” the theme is found within the concept of how someone can be trapped in a repressive, unsatisfying reality because of another’s thoughtless oppression and manipulation. The condition of life for Mrs. Mallard is terrible; yet for some reason she doesn’t seem to come to full realization until her husband’s death. This leads one to believe that it was commonplace for a woman to be unhappy in her marriage and have no conventional means of separation. Through the bright and hopeful Louise Mallard, Chopin communicates the theme that, during this time, even the best of marriages are conventionally oppressive.
Chopin displays a need for more independent women in this piece, suggesting that wronged womanhood is the simple fact that society didnt allow them to be on the same level with men. Mrs. Mallard realizes a possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being. This suggests a dying will for independence. Mrs. Mallard realizes that she can now rely upon herself for everything and it will become her number one driving factor in life. After she realizes this, Chopin says that Mrs. Mallard thinks spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. When she has days to herself, she will have no one to tell her what to do, as this line suggests her husband used to. She will be able to make her own choices and perhaps enjoy them. Summer is mentioned here, with other seasons left out, possibly hinting that summers are supposed to be fun, and hinting that Mrs. Mallard will now use them to her own advantage.
Chopin also incorporates the use of literary devices to portray the theme more vividly. There are key symbols in the story which represent Louises life of freedom. The spring day symbolizes a new beginning of her life in which she is free. Spring is the time when living things propagate and are reborn. Likewise, Louise believes she will become productive, energized and reborn. A second symbol is the open window in her bedroom. The window suggests that there is no material object standing in the way of her new life. There is a clear passage between her life of captivity to her life of freedom. Her husband was the only person holding her back, and now that hes gone, she is able to look forward to the future where she can live her life for herself. Mrs. Mallard had lived life with her true identity concealed; and Chopin asserts her view that, generally, marriage during this period was far from pleasant.
At the beginning of the story it is told that Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart condition which causes relatives to be cautious when mentioning news of her husbands death. However, when Louise Mallard went away to her room alone and was overcome with a sense of freedom and joy; not because she was a wretched wife, but because of the injustice she faced in her marriage. Though ecstatic over the endless possibilities that await in the future, her tenderness and compassion shows that Mrs. Mallard was not a cruel woman rejoicing over the death of her husband; she proves to be humane as she will mourn even after enduring such oppression.
Louise’s characteristics add to the theme of this story in several ways. One of her characteristics is her youth. This characteristic is important because it is symbolic of a fresh, new start at her life of freedom due to the death of her husband. She spreads her arms open, symbolically welcoming her new life. Body and soul free! she repeats to herself, a statement that shows how joyful she is for her new found independence. She has her whole life to live by herself and she welcomes the change as if an enormous weight has been lifted from her shoulders. Another characteristic of Louise, which also adds to the irony of this story, is her passion for living. She mentions that she will weep again when she is present at her husbands funeral, but she is able to look past that grim moment and look forward to the years to come that would belong to her absolutely.
Just when she is beginning to savor the sweet sense of freedom, her husband shows up at their house alive. When she sees him, she dies, not from the joy that kills, but because she is heart- broken and shocked at the reality. She ironically dies because she realizes that because Mr. Mallard is not dead, thus she will not be free; and the drastic halt is too much for her fragile heart to handle.
