Mrs. Mallard's Dream

The dream of an hour

In ‘The dream of an hour’ the writer describes the process of grieving that a Mrs. Mallard goes through after learning of her husband’s death and the effect this has on her identity which becomes increasingly focused and possessed by the ideas of freedom and independence. These extent of the power of these ideas is conveyed through the increasingly invasive narrative structure, the development and personification of Mrs. Mallard’s environment and the description of her almost physical possession.

In ‘The dream of an hour’ Mrs. Mallard’s growing intoxication with the concept of independence is mirrored by an increasingly invasive narrative structure. The effect of this is that the entire story becomes a focused reflection

of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts. This growing domination of the story helps make Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts appear progressively more and more overwhelming and powerful. In the beginning of the story the narrative perspective is very detached. In the first two paragraphs Mrs. Mallard is referred to by name which makes her appear distinct and ordered. Furthermore because the other characters at this point are also referred to in the same way Mrs. Mallard appears to be a part of a greater whole. However this rapidly changes and in the third paragraph the word ‘she’ is used to describe Mrs. Mallard a total of 4 times while Josephine is relegated to ‘her sister’. This early separation begins the process of focusing the story around Mrs. Mallard. This structure is made to seem even more invasive towards the middle of the story through its begins to describe the inner thoughts of Mrs. Mallard stating that her gaze ‘was not a glance of reflection, but rather [indicative] of a suspension of intelligent thought.’ The result of this focus on Mrs. Mallard’s inner thoughts is that the story begins to center increasingly around her which mirrors and emphasises the power of her newfound ideas. This is taken further in the latter half of the story as the narrative structure becomes increasingly dominated by free indirect discourse as it describes her abandonment of her past life: ‘What did it matter!’. This use of free indirect discourse has the effect of showing the broad effect of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts as they begin to manifest in all aspects of the story. By mirroring the growing power of Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts with the increasing invasiveness of the story’s narrative structure, their influence is made to appear emphasised and accentuated.

Throughout ‘The story of an hour’, the environment around Mrs.

Mallard highlights the authority of her thoughts and ideas by mirroring their development. This mirroring has the effect of making Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts more pronounced by making them into physical and tangible elements. The first turning point of the story is punctuated with the description of an ‘open window’ which Mrs. Mallard sits opposite to. The word ‘open’ is typically used to describe possibility and potential. When this common meaning is connected to the word ‘window’; a word which represents a physical portal from the inside (which is seen as repressive and contained) to the outdoors (which is seen as liberating) an image is created of a tangible opportunity for Mrs. Mallard, who is indoors, to escape and be free into the outdoors. The effect of this physical portrayal of potential freedom is developed through the description of the things occurring in it. ‘patches of blue sky’ are described as showing ‘through the clouds’. The word ‘sky’ develops the idea created by the portrayal of an ‘open window’ by physicalizing the wide borders of the outside world. Furthermore the description of ‘patches of blue sky’ becoming visible through the clouds is a very tangible mirror to the growing ideas of freedom that penetrate Mrs. Mallard’s mind. The effect of this mirroring is that Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts appear significant and powerful. These two elements, (Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and the clearing sky) become further connected through the description of Mrs. Mallard’s ‘gaze’ which is ‘fixed’ on the clearing sky. This connection

makes