"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
Chopin’s Louise Mallard and Anticipation of Freedom
Jan 20, 2009
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, considered an example of early feminist literature, illustrates a woman’s reaction to the possible end to an unhappy marriage and the beginning of a new life on her own. Louise Mallard, a woman with a heart condition, learns that her husband may have died in a railroad accident. In shock, she doesn’t know how to react to his death.
Louise anticipates a life without her husband as she sits alone in a room looking out of a window, and the idea of personal freedom appeals to her. In the course of an hour, she has a number of physical changes and emotions. She displays such profound emotions that her sister thinks Louise will make herself sick. In “The Story of an Hour,” Louise’s anticipation of freedom and her physical reaction become intertwined with one another.
When Louise first learns of her husband’s death, she weeps to the point that her body wears down. She goes into a room and sinks into a chair. She is “pressed down by physical exhaustion that haunted her body and…reached into her soul” (277). Hearing the news of her husband’s death seems to make Louise tired, as if it possesses her. Her physical reaction affects her very soul, the entirety of her being.
Once the initial reaction subsides, Louise begins anticipating the new life she can have now that her husband is gone. As she looks out of the window, Louise thinks of her marriage, her mixed emotions about her husband, and new possibilities. She whispers “free, free, free” under her breath (278). The idea of freedom reenergizes her. It’s not that she doesn’t love her husband on some level, but she can steer her life in a new direction. However, her freedom is short lived.
Louise is on an emotional high when she exits the room. As she and her sister descend the stairs, Louise’s husband walks in the house. Before Louise could be shielded, she sees him and “died of heart disease” (279). It is as if she dies of a broken heart. Her physical death represents the death of her freedom. The heart failure can also be attributed to the emotions rollercoaster she has been going to in that single hour.
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin presents a character who contemplates a life outside of the marital bonds. She can now embark on a life that she never expected to experience. The physical reaction to her husband not being dead was extreme. However, it demonstrates what happens with freedom dies.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. 4th edition. 1990.
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