“She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free!’” These are a few of the words uttered by Louise, a woman caught between freedom and imprisonment. Freedom and imprisonment are key concepts that are repeated and evidenced in the world’s history over and over again. These two principles change the course of nations; however, they also change the singular, personal lives of individuals. As such with Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, as the main character feels and experiences both freedom and imprisonment from what she perceives. Louise, the protagonist, is left widowed after hearing of her husbands’ death. Unlike what the reader expects, Louise undergoes a transition from what seems to be unbearable oppression to a newfound
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Chopin uses beautiful, delicate imagery in the scene when Louise is up in her room gazing out the window, and uses this as a symbolic picture of Louise’s new sense of autonomy. The soothing breeze, the singing birds, and the happy bustle of the people below, these all convey a fresh start, as opposed to the inside of the house, which is dark and closed. The window represents the freedom and new life; the house represents the imprisonment and the life with her husband. This imagery leads into Louise’s change in the span of the short story. She goes from slightly depressed and hesitant, to scared excitement, to relief and delight, and finally, crushing shock that kills. Her character throughout demonstrates all the emotions that accompany liberty and captivity. Lastly, the theme is seen in the strangeness of the story itself. One anticipates a devastated Louise, but instead sees a woman starving for freedom from her previous life with her husband. This is where the theme reveals itself the most, in the almost horrifying twist that the wife longed for her husband’s death, and rejoiced when she heard the news. Her fear of “oppression” from her loving husband was so strong that she was empowered by the idea that someone who cared for her had died. It seems almost twisted and deprived of
Chopin uses beautiful, delicate imagery in the scene when Louise is up in her room gazing out the window, and uses this as a symbolic picture of Louise’s new sense of autonomy. The soothing breeze, the singing birds, and the happy bustle of the people below, these all convey a fresh start, as opposed to the inside of the house, which is dark and closed. The window represents the freedom and new life; the house represents the imprisonment and the life with her husband. This imagery leads into Louise’s change in the span of the short story. She goes from slightly depressed and hesitant, to scared excitement, to relief and delight, and finally, crushing shock that kills. Her character throughout demonstrates all the emotions that accompany liberty and captivity. Lastly, the theme is seen in the strangeness of the story itself. One anticipates a devastated Louise, but instead sees a woman starving for freedom from her previous life with her husband. This is where the theme reveals itself the most, in the almost horrifying twist that the wife longed for her husband’s death, and rejoiced when she heard the news. Her fear of “oppression” from her loving husband was so strong that she was empowered by the idea that someone who cared for her had died. It seems almost twisted and deprived of