The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

“The story of an hour” was written by Kate Chopin. The main content of this story is about a woman, Mrs. Mallard. She is so depressed after hearing the horrible news of her husband’s death. She rushes to her room and stays alone. She struggles mentally for a bit, and she realizes that she will have more freedom than before which makes her change the attitude about her husband’s death. However, Mrs. Mallard dies at the end of the story, because her husband’s comeback makes her lose freedom. From here, we can see that the social environment for women is so bad. The story was written in 1894, when women rights were limited. When a woman gets married to a man, she will be considered to be the property of the man (Spack, 2005) Women do not have freedom as well as they cannot speak out their feeling. In this essay, I want to discuss the characters, theme and some symbolism in this story.

Mrs. Mallard is the typical woman in that social environment. She does not have freedom. At the beginning of the story, “knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble” (Chopin, 1894, p. 6), the two words “heart trouble” are the most important information in this story. Why does a story start with a sentence telling readers that the main character Mrs. Mallard has heart disease? I think it shows that Mrs. Mallard is chronically stressed in that social environment. It is like a ticking bomb. She has been hoping for freedom for a long time. The heart disease paves the way for Mrs. Mallard’s death at the end of the story. When Mrs. Mallard hears the bad news of her husband’s death, she becomes very distressed. From “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (Chopin, 1894, p. 7) we can see Mrs. Mallard loves her husband and she cannot face this horrible news. In that society, death of a husband means that the wife should live alone forever, she becomes a widow. “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her” (Chopin, 1894, p. 7) when Mrs. Mallard runs away, it indicates that she wants to escape from the constraint. Her room is like her own private space, she can think about her life without any constraint, and she can really be herself. The space outside of the room signifies the force in the patriarchal society. The door of her room is like the cut-off rule between the society and the life she desires.

 “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air.” (Chopin, 1894, p. 7) When a person can take the initiative to feel  “the delicious breath of the rain”,  her mood would be very merry.(except for the death of her husband) Here, Mrs. Mallard’s body and emotion is an obviously contrasting. If we think her body is fragile, so her spirit is not that fragile. Her mind is ready for the new life.  “New spring life” is like the hope of a free life for Mrs. Mallard. It already shows that Mrs. Mallard will realize her new life later. There is an old saying in China “ rainbow comes after a storm” (Ming, 1998, para.1)which means if you overcome the difficulties in your life, the better life is waiting for you. “The delicious breath of rain” stands for that Mrs. Mallard will get out of her husband’s shadow. “Rain” is like her husband (control of her life, makes her lose freedom). “In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves” (Chopin, 1894, p. 7) “notes of a distant song” here represents Mr. Mallard’s struggling in her mind. She wants freedom, but she also thinks about her place in that society.