The Joy That Kills In Kate Chopin's Story Of An Hour

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Not only Louise’s marriage limits her liberty, but also the return of her husband. From the moment that Mr. Mallard walks through the door, readers will agree Louise fails to achieve her freedom because she dies “of joy that kills” (Chopin 525). Here the “joy that kills” Louise can be interpreted in different ways. First, the characters in the story will believe Louise is too delighted to hear her husband is still alive and it is this “joy” that killed her. This interpretation is valid when Chopin depicts Louise as a woman “who had loved him [Mr. Mallard] ̶̶ ̶ ̶ sometimes” (525). Although a dash is used with the word, “sometimes,” it indicates love does exist between Louise and Mr. Mallard. Otherwise, Louise will not stay in the relationship …show more content…

Mallard fails to break away from her traditional gender role. In chapter two of Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, she criticizes the idea that women devote their lives to become mothers and housewives. She disagrees “Women can save more money by their managerial talents inside the home than they can bring into it by outside work” (Friedan 34). She thinks women should not blindly accept their occupations as housewives since their duties or roles are not limited to doing housework or rearing children. They should overcome the gender barrier and the feminine qualities that are attributed to them. From her argument of women’s role in society, one can tell Louise Mallard, is a typical female character who embodies what Friedan called the “traditional feminine characteristics” (35). For instance, her sister, Josephine, needs to tell her the tragic news “in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing” (Chopin 524). Words such as “veiled hints” and “broken sentences” indicate Louise is not strong enough to face or handle heartbreaking news. In this case, the news is about the ‘death’ of her husband. Moreover, when she knows her husband “died” in a train accident, she “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (Chopin 524). Although crying is a normal response to the loss of loved one, Louise is portrayed as weak when she needs her sister and her husband’s friend, Richard, to accompany with her during her mourning. According to Phil Zylla, who is a faculty member in the area of pastoral theology, he claims men usually prefer to be alone when they lose their loved one because they feel the need to disconnect (837). However, when compared to Louise, she lacks the strength to cope by herself and that confirms Freidan’s theory of gender roles wherein women are more emotionally supportive, weak, and

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