Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

Freedom and Independence in “The Story of An Hour” In her short story “The Story of An Hour,” Kate Chopin shines a light on early feminism. Her 1894 story illustrates a woman who was restricted and had hardship due to her marriage. After being faced with a tragic death, the woman becomes enlightened and begins to feel freedom. Kate Chopin uses “The Story of an Hour” to display a woman’s response to an unhappy, oppressive marriage and the chance of freedom and independence.
Louise Mallard has heart trouble. Her husband, Brently Mallard, was killed in a railroad disaster, and Louise must be informed of this very easy. Her sister, Josephine, and her husband’s friend, Richards, told her about her husband’s death. Once Louise is told about her husband’s death, she goes upstairs to her room, alone. She sits down and looks out an open window and sees trees, smells rain in the air, a peddler, and hears someone singing as well as the sounds of sparrows. She …show more content…
Louise was not sure what it was nor did she know what it was. “But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her, though the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (1). When she finally figured out what that feeling was, she knew immediately that it was her freedom and independence coming back to her. All she could say as it entered her body was “free.” She was finally free from her marriage and her husband. She was no longer oppressed. Louise was delighted to have these back. “Free! Body and soul free,” she kept whispering (1). When her sister, Josephine, pleaded with her to open the door, Louise told her no, “She was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window” (2). She felt as if the life she was breathing from the open window was magical. She did not want her freedom and independence to be taken away from her once