Symbolism In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

When a story is read there are many things the reader can take from the ending or the contents in the story. This is a powerful story that can be taken in by different angels and analyzed with different outcomes. Examples through the story can show signs of feminism and independent during a time where the main character of the story should be mourning she celebrated her freedom with guilt on her mind and happiness in her heart. The main character of the story shows complexity and different type’s emotions when faced with what most would think of horrible situation from one minute to the next. Symbolism is also shown in the story through the window that the character sits in front of showing that is a new and different view she will have. The story itself has a powerful meaning from beginning where she learns the death of her husband to end where she ends up passing away taking a sudden turn of events.

The narrator of the story describes the characters reaction to her husband’s passing as a moment of sadness and anguish.

Gradually that emotion begins to change into a feeling of independence and freedom when she realizes that things will no longer be the same that she now has all this time ahead of her to focus on herself. For example the main character Mrs. Mallard begins to show how her feeling of the loss of her husband were beginning to change “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will” (Choplin). Expressing her change in such a drastic way leads to think that there are many reasons why she changed so suddenly chanting a word repeatedly “She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes” (Choplin). Showing how truly free she felt how she may have come from a difficult marriage into now a free and independent women if only for a

moment.
A symbol that is seen in this story is the window it plays a significant part in the story and represents how the character ponders her new life and visualizes how she will spends her days now that she is no longer married. Giving the character a better sense of how she has regain a freedom she once had. For example in the story it says “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”.(Chopin). Expressing how things will be different the Mrs.Mallad how she can focus on herself and no one else. A new spring of life could be interpreted into a new chapter in life she is suddenly given this new and independent life where she does not have to rely on anyone anymore. In the story she is said to express her joy in such a powerful way “she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window”(Choplin). How she transforms from a weak character in the story into a strong one that has a voice in what she feels and what she wants.
This story shows how a woman can be independent how she being a female can show powerful will to live her own life without fitting the norms a traditional women should showing society that as much as she cared for her husband and enjoyed having spent certain amounts of time together she can also be happy living her own life and providing for herself. She had imagined a life where she would be able to enjoy her days proving to the reader of the story what type of setting she was in. The narrator of the story provides a sense of imagery to the reader when scenes unfold in the plot of the story. For example “She finally breaks away from the role forced onto her as the perfect wife and can begin to stop holding herself back”(FeministAnaylsis). Showing that she had accepted her husband’s passing and turned it into a positive change for her life. The complexity Mrs. Millard shows changes how the story can be interpreted.