Doors In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

The phrase portal to another world is often used when describing windows and doors. It is not a literal meaning–as one cannot travel through space, unless an astronaut–it simply creates an image of moving from one world to another: a world of imagination, thoughts and ideas, perspective, possibilities, beauty, terror, wonder and freedom. Windows and doors create this imagery by allowing and preventing exit and entry from two different places.
The use of windows and doors in Kate Chopin’s, The Story of an Hour, creates a strong image of escaping the public view on social expectations, and being freed, briefly, into another world which allows Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and perspective on marriage to be revealed. The bedroom door, the front door, and the window emphasize the theme of confinement and social restrictions. Mrs. Mallard’s potential is limited by the pressures of social roles, and although doors and windows are seen as an escape to liberty, her true thoughts and feelings only exist behind a locked door, advancing the theme of social confinement and creating an illusion of freedom.
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It is a comfort zone, where people go to be alone, a place for freedom of thought and the development of expression, and a place to keep secrets. Behind a locked bedroom door is where Mrs. Mallard comes to the realization of her perspective on marriage: she does not love being married. Her outlook is not because of her husband, but due to the roles associated with gender, strongly seen in: “[t]here would be no powerful will bending hers…[as] men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature”