Belonged to Her Husband

In her short story “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin portrays the uncommon feelings of a dutiful, heart troubled, housewife who has her innermost hidden dream come true in an uncommon way. Mrs. Mallard exchanged her personal life and freedom for love and a home to be shared with her husband Mr. Brently Mallard. Though through this sacrifice an unknown whisper of longing to be free stirs inside her waiting to be released by any means possible. Producing a whisper of a new life that will bring freedom in a way she may have never imagined for her and for her husband. It is this freedom in the end that her husband will possess instead of the anticipated fantasies of his wife.

At the start Louise Mallard is not portrayed by herself alone, yet is referenced as “Mrs. Mallard” (Chopin 246) removing the thought of her individuality completely. This reference of pairing is further enhanced by the introduction of her sister Josephine, initially referenced by her first name alone in the story. It appears to show that while others have their individuality Mrs. Mallard has none, and possibly has had none for some time. The “veiled hints” (246) are not only that she possibly is trapped in marriage but more interestingly longs for freedom though she may not feel it yet on the surface.

When receiving the news of her husband’s death “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment” (246) revealing not only a certain acceptance of his passing but a hint of relief to her current situation. The room she retreats to alone paints the picture of inner feelings and desires. Hinting at the future in the middle of the room is “a comfortable, roomy armchair” (246) suggesting the present confines of their relationship have been released and there is now room to move around. Louise thinks deeper into her freedom but still recognizes she will mourn over her husband’s death. Her tears now not just filled with joy will still bear sorrow when she will see “the kind, tender hands folded in death” (246 - 7) at his funeral. For now though she will welcome the open window in front of her suggesting an opening to a new world and new life but it is not yet a clear life that lies in front of her.

The environment that she faces while taking in the news creates a dull stare upon her eyes relating to the routine and stagnation of daily life in their marriage. The scent of rain in the air provides a cleansing of life and to be able to start again in her new found freedom. Yet the spring has not arrived in the story to foreshadow what is being felt might not be what is to come. With the horizon patched with clouds again challenges the thought that her future is not finite and caution should remain in her mind though it is flooded with so many thoughts, her future is truly clouded.

The turning point would become her full acceptance of his death. She did love Brently, there was no doubt about that, but she revels in the acceptance in his death, glorifies and welcomes the future of owning her own life, and needs it so much that when she returned to her husband’s friend Richards downstairs “she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (247). Louise wanted and needed her husband dead to become happy with her own life again and walked in the glory of the fictitious thought side by side with her sister. Only to be struck with the most inconceivable action that could take place in her life at that very moment, her husband walked through the front door of his own home alive.

It is this moment that every piece falls into place. It is not the freedom of life that Louise receives but the freedom of death. The comfy roomy chair facing an open window of patchy clouded skies is meant for her husband. The tender hands folded in death would be her hands. All the thoughts and realizations of everything she had felt in the past hour would only belong in the perspective of her husband. It was the whisper of new life that she felt deep inside that would grow her stressed heart to accept a freedom in death and the residing freedom in the end that her husband would obtain.

Work Cited

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Literature and the Writing Process.  Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. New Jersey: Pearson, 2011. 246 - 247. Print.