Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

“The Story of an Hour” is a short story in which Kate Chopin, presents a view from the unheard side of marriage. The main character of the story is Mrs. Louise Mallard, she experiences a sense of freedom rather than the loneliness and grief she is supposed to feel after she learns of her husband’s death. In Chopin’s “Story of An Hour”, it reflects the nature of marriage during the time, but Mrs. Louise Mallard learns that marriage is a prison. She is unable to escape from this theme, which is displayed through setting, conflict, and symbolism.

The setting in “The Story of An Hour” was heavily influenced by the time in which the story was written. It was written in 1894, this was a time that women lacked the power or “say so” in their marriages.

Mallard faces an internal conflict throughout the story. She has a person vs self conflict when she is afflicted whether to feel the grief of her loss, or joy because she is a free woman. The major theme in Kate Chopin’s story is freedom. The first scene of “Story of an Hour” introduces Mrs. Mallard who has just been told her husband has died in a horrible wreck. “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was affected with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin). Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, mindful of her heart condition, breaks the news to her in broken sentences and veiled hints (Jamil). She had to be careful because she was frail. The loss of Brently was her losing her way of life. Mrs. Mallard reacts to the situation showing much grief like any wife would feel. “She wept at once with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (Chopin). She rushes off to her room. As the reader, she shows a different side of her emotions. She shows signs of happiness because she has a new-found freedom from her marriage. Mrs. Mallard has had a revelation in her life she feels reborn. Everything around her is giving her a fresh and new start. Winter has passed, the winter is a firm representation of her husband’s death. Spring has sprung. Spring symbolizes her newly found sense of freedom. “She could see in open square before her house the tops trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin). The rebirth is also symbolized by the smell of rain in the