In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard at first grieves over the death of her husband, but when she gets upstairs, she finds her new found freedom. In the time frame of an hour, her freedom is snatched from her because her husband is alive. Through effective use of imagery, symbolism, and a third person limited narrator, Kate Chopin shows the reader Mrs. Mallard’s feelings about marriage. Chopin shows her usage of imagery by describing the feeling of Spring. When Mrs. Mallard walks into her room, she sits down in a chair and looks out of the window, and it is apparent that it is Spring: “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
…show more content…
The reader could infer that Mrs. Mallard’s husband is dead: “It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed"” (Chopin 1). Mrs. Mallard believes that her husband is dead and it frees her from her marriage. Mrs. Mallard becomes very happy because she is reintroduced to the thing that her life was missing, which was her freedom. When Mrs. Mallard is realizes her freedom is coming back to her, she says, “She said it over and over under hte breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 1). She is free from the marriage and she can have her freedom to live her life. Just as Mrs. Mallard fantasizes about her new life ,that she will have as a widow, her freedom is snatched from her: “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one” (Chopin 2). If Mr. Mallard is not dead, then Mrs. Mallard’s freedom would remain prisoner of the will binding prison of marriage. At the
The reader could infer that Mrs. Mallard’s husband is dead: “It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed"” (Chopin 1). Mrs. Mallard believes that her husband is dead and it frees her from her marriage. Mrs. Mallard becomes very happy because she is reintroduced to the thing that her life was missing, which was her freedom. When Mrs. Mallard is realizes her freedom is coming back to her, she says, “She said it over and over under hte breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin 1). She is free from the marriage and she can have her freedom to live her life. Just as Mrs. Mallard fantasizes about her new life ,that she will have as a widow, her freedom is snatched from her: “Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one” (Chopin 2). If Mr. Mallard is not dead, then Mrs. Mallard’s freedom would remain prisoner of the will binding prison of marriage. At the