Mrs Mallard's Identity

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Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour,” is about the revelations Mrs. Mallard has after her husband’s death. Her sister and friend break the news to her that her husband has died in a train accident and she initially breaks down over her loss. After she retreats to her bedroom and has some time for reflection, she realizes that with her husband gone, life is hers to be lived however she pleases; she becomes hopeful and begins to look forward to life. When she comes back out composed, she receives the ultimate shock of her husband walking through the front door of the house, perfectly unharmed and very well alive. Mrs. Mallard collapses and dies on the spot from the heartbreak of knowing her freedom has been taken away from her, though everyone else believed her sensitive heart gave out from the joy of seeing her husband again. Mrs. Mallard’s excitement of the thought of freedom, and her despair at it being taken away reveals Chopin’s theme of her story: that one must retain his/her identity and independence, even in a marriage, otherwise personal …show more content…

Mallard is the central and dynamic character of the story. After learning of her husband’s death, she sits in her room looking out her window contemplating what has just happened. She first begins to have a feeling of panic towards the unknown feeling rising within her, but the panic switches to excitement as she realizes that she’s “free, free, free!” of her husband, and it’s a realization that “relaxed every inch of her body” (13). “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being,” she remarks (14). Mrs. Mallard seems to have never been moved so greatly, than by the knowledge that her life is now her own to live as she pleases. Had she not attached herself so strongly to her husband throughout their marriage, perhaps she would not have been lacking the independence she suddenly

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