The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is one of English literature’s most famous short stories. The main character, Louise Mallard, is a young woman with a calm face “whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 180). Louise is happy to learn that her husband, Brently, is dead because he had bent her to his will with “blind persistence…a kind intention… made the act seem no less a crime” (Chopin 181). His death becomes a liberation for Louise—”‘free! Body and soul free,’ she kept whispering,”—with which she finally attains freedom and control over her life (Chopin 181). While perhaps Brently loved Louise as an inferior object that would obey him uncritically, his controlling behavior qualifies today as emotional and psychological abuse. Unfortunately, this was a typical situation for the 19th century in which the story is set. Back then, women were considered intellectually handicapped, and their main tasks consisted of submitting to their husband’s will and providing them with heirs. Marriage was based on the consolidation of resources rather than love or personality compatibility.
Various symbolic elements, such as the weather and time of year, reinforce themes of liberation and repression. After learning the news, Louise looks out the window at a square with “patches of blue sky” and the trees “all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin 180). The promise of renewal represents Louise’s hope for the beginning of a new, more pleasant chapter of her life. She fantasizes about spring and summer days “that would be her own” (Chopin 181). However, her literal descent from upstairs to downstairs symbolizes the crash from heavenly daydreams to hellish reality, where she sees her live husband opening the front door. Ironically, her instant death from heart disease is attributed to overwhelming joy rather than the horror she must have felt to see her dreams of freedom wither. Furthermore, the ending exemplifies situational irony since Louise is dead, but Brently is alive, which is the exact opposite of what the situation seemed to be at the beginning of the story.
Work Cited
Gardner, Janet E., et al. Literature: A Portable Anthology. 5th ed., Macmillan Learning, 2021.