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The Story of an Hour


             In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" death leads to an awakening sense of freedom within Louise Mallard. The news of her husband's death releases not only a sense of relief, but a feeling of true happiness. Yet in the end, it is the death of her happiness and joy that kills her in the end, not grief.
             Mrs. Mallard is told in "veiled hints that revealed in half conceiling" by her sister, Josephine, and her husbands firend, Richards, that her husband was "killed" in a railroad disaster. They tell her in this manner because she is afflicted with a heart trouble. She weeps in her sister's arms and then retreats to her room alone. While sitting in her room looking out the window she chants in a quiet whisper "free, free, free!" It is an obvious point that Mrs. Mallard has been liberated through her husband'd death. Although she isn't without love or care for her husband, she admits "she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death." Yet she sees years to come where she would live only for herself.
             Mrs. Mallard feels trapped and repressed in her marriage to her husband. She says in regards to her husband "there would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature." The thought of having her life to herself brought Mrs. Mallard extreme joy. She kept whispering "Free! Body and SOuld free!" She said a quick prayer that her life might belong to enjoy because she used to fear that life would belong with her husband. As she left her room, her husbnd, Brently Mallard, entered through the door. He had infact not been killed, but no where near the accident when it occurred. It was at that moment, at the sight of her husband, Louise Mallard died.
             The story of Louise Mallard is a tale of enlightenment. It is through her husband's "apparent" death that she looks forward to life and finds happiness.


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