In Kate Chopin's, "The Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard is happy to realize that she has finally obtained freedom. A woman living in the Victorian era whose desire is to have freedom. Louise Mallard is a house wife, and feels that she has lost her freedom when she gets married. Her reaction to her husband death news highlights a woman struggle. Mrs. Mallard desire for freedom is seen by her thoughts of freedom, the things she sees that resemble freedom and why she wants freedom in her life.
Thoughts of freedom start running through Mrs. Mallard head. In the story the following is said, "She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her." This demonstrates that now that she has received the news that her husband is dead, this has now brought her joy. Not that she doesn't love him because she mentions that, "she loved him sometimes," but to know that she is finally free is what brings her joy. As it states in the story, "And yet she loved him-sometimes often she had not," this is what Mrs. Mallard felt for her husband. As critic Donald F. Larsson states, "Certainly, we are told of the joy she feels with the freedom she finds in her husband's death, but we are not specifically told that she is skeptical of marriage in general." Also, she begins to think about what life will be like as a free and independent woman. Mrs. Mallard starts showing her deep down desire to have freedom in her life and be her own person. For example, in the story she says the following words to herself under the breath, "Free, free, free!" this demonstrates how she has felt suffocated in her marriage and how her freedom and liberty is taken away since she got married. Back then woman were mostly inside the house in other words they were just house wives. Mrs. Mallard realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before marriage once again. .
