Louise Mallard's Death

Death is the one concept that we can not avoid and at some point we all encounter it, how we arrive or how our fate will be decided is what will vary. This being the case with Louise Mallard, the main character from Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour and the grandmother, the main character from Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find. They physical aspects of their respective deaths and their backgrounds which gives an insight on why they died are different, but both their deaths represent an emotional and symbolic characteristic. Louise Mallard and the grandmother both have a story to tell and it is told through the eyes of death.

Louise Mallard was a woman that felt she was confined in marriage and had her no life of her own, which

gives an insight on why she died the way she did. On the other hand, the grandmother, a self-righteous person who believed that her own personal standards are what defined a good person. Her refusal to acknowledge her own flaws is what would eventually lead her to death.
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips.

She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" (Chopin). This was the first time that Louise Mallard tasted freedom and the feeling was so overwhelming that she couldn’t contain herself. The thought of being free after years of oppression was too much for to handle. There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature (Chopin). This can give one insight on why she died from heart failure, something she cherished to be take from her at a moments notice was just too much to overcome. The grandmother’s manipulative ways lead her down the wrong path. The first act came when she snuck her cat Pitty Sing along for the ride, knowing her son disliked arriving with the cat. She had her big black valise that looked like the head of a hippopotamus in one corner, and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it. She didn't intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself. Her son, Bailey, didn't like to arrive at a motel with a cat (O’Connor). The irony in this would be that the cat would be the cause of the

accident. The grandmother’s manipulative ways would be the beginning of her end when she lies to the family about a home that she used to visit, that contained a secret panel. She knew that Bailey would not be willing to lose any time looking at an old house, but the more she talked about it, the more she wanted to see it once again and find out if the little twin arbors were still standing. "There was a secret panel in this house," she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, "and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found . . .(O’Connor)" The grandmother’s failure to realize her own faults is what lead to her death. Her manipulations eventually caused a domino effect.
The grandmother’s and Louise Mallard’s deaths both occur at the end of the story, but how they arrived at death couldn’t be more different.

Louise Mallard’s death was due to a heart attack that occurred after she learned her husband had not been killed in a train wreck, while the grandmother’s demise was in the form of being shot to death by the Misfit. Though I concede that how they died is different, I still insist that they both died at the hands of an another person. Louise died symbolically at the hands of her husband. Even though he didn’t physically kill her, emotionally he contributed to her demise. When Louise seen her husband had not been killed, her joy that she felt came and went, leading to a heart attack. The grandmother died physically at the hands of the misfit, but it was her emotions that caused him to kill her. His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother's head cleared for an instant. She saw the man's face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest (O’ Connor). It seemed that the grandmother saw a glimpse of weakness with the Misfit, when she recognized that he was about cry and that’s when she tried to play on his emotions even more by reaching out and touching him; which caused her to be

shot.
In conclusion, sometimes our life’s choices can play apart in our death. Looking at Ms. Mallard, she felt she had been confined to marriage for so many years and what she really wanted was to be free, but out of dedication to her husband allowed her personal feelings to be locked away. The grandmother on the other hand always openly expressed her personal feelings. She never held back how she truly felt, which ironically played apart in her death. Although two different characters, both show what can happen when you are either too open or too closed off when it comes to your thoughts. Oh the irony!