Sympathy For Mrs. Mallard Analysis

Do you feel sympathy for Mrs. Mallard, why or why not? It would be very easy to say that she is acting like a selfish child who seemed happy to be free of her husband though, his unexpected death was not the kind of freedom she wanted was it ? When Mrs. Mallard hears the unhappy news of her husband’s death in a railroad explosion she grieves as any woman would upon hearing such news but, then she thinks about her new found freedom and she’s almost as giddy as a school girl.
The time is late nineteenth century, where it was still very much a man’s world and a woman had no right to own anything. The Women’s movement was beginning to have a few murmurs here and there and yes, there was a desire among woman to want to be independent but women were not allowed to express those desires to her husband. To suddenly become a widow meant that any lands owned now belonged to the widow. Louise Mallard mentioned that she sometimes loved her husband and sometimes didn’t, which is not very different from marriages today. I am on my second marriage and my ex-husband was a bit of a control freak as well as somewhat of an egotist so, I can understand why Louise feels a sense of freedom at upon learning of her husband’s death. …show more content…
When she was locked in her room and could have a moment’s peace and repose, she was still trying to be strong but every so often a tear would show itself. Once she let down her all of her defenses she realized that, for the first time she did not belong to anybody and it frightened her. This new freedom she felt washed over her and bathed her like a newborn child, she felt so alive for the very first time that she did not know what to do with