Kate Chopin is known for addressing feminist issues many years before the feminist movement became a major social and political force in America. When Chopin was writing, the feminist movement had barely begun, and in Louisiana, women were still considered to be their husbands’ lawful property. “The Story of an Hour” reflects Chopin’s view of the repressive role that marriage played in women’s lives as the protagonist, Louise Mallard, feels immense freedom only when her husband has died. While he is alive, she must live for him, and only when he dies does her life once again become her own.
Mrs. Mallard is the typical American wife in the late nineteenth century who is legally linked to her husband’s power and status. Even though there is no sign of mistreatment by her husband, she is emotionally oppressed and with a “heart trouble”, which turns out to have both a physical and a psychological meaning. Mrs. Mallard is described as "young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength" (Chopin, 543). In other words, she's got youth on her side; she's pretty; and everybody seems to care too much about her wellbeing (no signs of physical or emotional abuse whatsoever). Nevertheless, the narrator says that the "lines" of Mrs. Mallard's face indicate that she's keeping a lot inside, or that she's full of "repression", but those lines according to the author were also sign of “certain strength”. Even though the reader doesn’t really know what kind of marriage the Mallards had, Mrs. Mallard describes her husband as always being nice to her and seemingly full of love. Mrs. Mallard was always treated as a delicate flower by all around her. At the very first moments of learning about the death of her husband, she was sad and grieving but when that moment was gone she starts to feel some change in her way of feeling. She was shocked and scared of these unpredictable feelings, inasmuch as, at first, even she didn’t know what it was.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air…….
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath:”free, free, free!” (543).
Kate Chopin describes in a very detailed way, the moment that Mrs. Mallard is realizing that from the tragedy of losing her husband, something good can come from it: “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” (543);
“Barbara Larson: A dialogical critic might note that although this passage relates Mrs. Mallard’s thought processes to the reader, it also exemplifies a dialogue between the voice of her old life as a subservient wife and the voice of her new life as an independent woman. One voice (the widowed Mrs. Mallard) remembers her role as a recently married woman, while the other voice (the single Louise Mallard) recognizes that the time for sustained grieving is over. The words “tender hands” and “never looked save with love” are obviously provided by the woman who at least thought she was content with her married life. The phrase “fixed and gray and dead” is somewhat neutral and serves as a transition to the voice of the newly liberated Louise, who looks forward enthusiastically to a life without marital bonds” (. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=24730838&site=ehost-live).
Mrs. Mallard realizes that the strong bond of marriage that has kept her from living an independent life was broken with the death of her husband. She feels relief, and she uses the phrase “free! Body and soul free” (Chopin, 543). These arguments lead the reader to understand that even though her husband was a good one, she is not happy with their marriage. Their relationship still lacks communication as she is oppressed by Mr. Mallard’s figure whereas in the nineteenth century the women didn’t have too much to say in regard, and the men decided on everything. The reader figures this out in the paragraph 14, when the narrator says: “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” (Chopin, 543). Note the phrase men and women. Louise never expresses any specific offenses Brently has committed against her; rather, the implication seems to be that marriage can be repressive for both parties, which will explain why the author says “men and women”.
Furthermore, Mrs. Mallard understands the “right” way for women to behave, but her internal thoughts and feelings are anything but correct. When her sister announces that Brently has died, Louise cries dramatically, in an automatic way, as she has always behaved like everyone else expected her to behave. She knows that she would grieve for Brently, “as she had loved him — sometimes” and fear for her own future. But when she is out of others’ sight, her private thoughts are of her own life and the opportunities that await her, which she feels have just been opened up by the presumable death of her husband. As mentioned above Mrs. Mallard suffers from a heart problem, which indicates the extent to which she feels that marriage has oppressed her. Her “heart trouble” is both physical and emotional, a problem both within her body and with her relationship to Mr. Mallard. The author describes her husband as a loving man who always looked upon her with love but still, she barely felt love for him. Her husband is portrayed as man that imposed on her and she is portrayed as a woman that had little choice but to obey her husband’s will. Ironically, although Brently loved his wife, he gives little or no concern to her happiness, even though it is unintentional, but “A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime …..” (543). In the hour, which Louise believes her husband is dead, she feels her new independence symbolically welcoming her new life; “Body and soul free!” (Chopin, 543) she repeats to herself, a statement that shows how precious her new independence really is for her. Only when Brently Mallard walks in does her “heart trouble” reappears, and this trouble is so acute that it kills her. The irony of the ending is that Louise doesn’t die of joy as the doctors claim but actually from the loss of joy. Brently’s death gave her a glimpse of a new life, and when that new life is swiftly taken away, the shock and disappointment kills her.
At the end Mrs. Mallard was the victim of her time, when the women didn’t have courage to express their will, to choose or be independent, as she repressed her thoughts in front of her husband, and only shortly before she died, she realizes that she needs freedom.