Story Of An Hour Transcendentalism

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Chopin writes on issues involved with female independence, marriage, and love in the 1890s in a short story about Louise Mallard in her unexpected last hour of life. After Mrs. Mallard discovered that her husband has supposedly died in a railroad accident, she is confronted with emotions of grief and overcome with the potential freedom that she will have for the rest of her life. The controversial emotion takes over her thoughts as she peeks outside her bedroom window at the open square. Unlike many other typical stories, “The Story of an Hour” does not end happily, but ends with a climactic, unexpected twist. The plot twist destroys Louise's dreams of her new free life and tragically ends what, at the beginning, appeared to be a beneficial turn of events. In the end, ironically, Mr. Mallard is free of Mrs. Mallard. However, the story does not explain if Mr. Mallard goes through the same process of feelings as Mrs. Mallard.
Chopin shows Mrs. Mallard as a compassionate character of strength and insight. As Mrs. Mallard starts to accept …show more content…

Mallard's characteristics are controversial by the abnormal nature of her grief over her husband because it might portray self-absorption or excessive egotism. Nevertheless, Chopin intentionally diverted the reader from interpreting the story in this way, and Mrs. Mallard's conversion to a temporary state of intense excitement may simply suggest that natural need for independence can overcome even the strongest of bonds and feelings such as love and marriage. Mrs. Mallard accepts her feelings with the suggestive guide of the environment. This is the imagery of which symbolically relates Mrs. Mallard's personal awakening by the beginning of new life like the spring season. Ironically, she does not choose her new understanding of life, but receives it from natural surroundings outside her window, "creeping out of the sky." "Mallard" is a word for a type of duck, and may be used as Louise’s last name in order to symbolize

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