What is the message of "The Story of an Hour"? Did Kate Chopin have a similar life to Mrs. Mallard?

Kate Chopin's tale "The Story of an Hour" centers around a woman who does not realize her own dissatisfaction with her marriage until she receives word of her husband's death in a railroad accident. Mrs. Mallard's sister tries to be as gentle as she can when she tells Mrs. Mallard of the tragedy. Mrs. Mallard weeps and then retreats to her room alone.

As she sits by the window, Mrs. Mallard observes the spring day. She is a young woman yet, and her face is calm, but there is a hint in her expression that suggests she has been repressed somehow. Mrs. Mallard suddenly becomes aware that something is coming, something she is partly afraid of and doesn't understand.

Then she recognizes it. Mrs. Mallard is free. She is no longer under the will of her husband. Certainly her husband had loved her and was kind to her. She even loved him at times. Yet now she can live for herself, completely independent, able to make her own choices and follow her own paths without having to bend to the will of another. The days and weeks and years spread out before her, and she prays that her life will be long so she can enjoy what she has found.

Then, however, as her sister leads her back downstairs, the door opens and her husband walks in. Mrs. Mallard drops to the floor dead.

Indeed, Kate Chopin does seem to suggest in this story that married women are often too much under the control of their husbands. She is not saying that all husbands are cruel or that they deliberately oppress their wives. Mr. Mallard, in fact, seems to be a kind man who sincerely loves his wife. Even so, though, Mrs. Mallard feels constrained in her relationship. She always has to consider someone else and often bow to the will of someone else.

Kate Chopin married when she was twenty and had six children over the next nine years. There certainly may have been times when she felt constrained by her family responsibilities. Her husband died when she was only thirty-two, and readers may well wonder if she perhaps felt a bit like Mrs. Mallard. She never remarried, even though many women of her era did. In fact, she moved her family back to her hometown of St. Louis and threw herself into the literary and cultural scene of the city and into her writing. Perhaps Chopin had found her own freedom.

What is the message of "The Story of an Hour"? Did Kate Chopin have a similar life to Mrs. Mallard?

Chopin often does write about freedom in a woman’s life and how marriage can constrain that; however, this short story shows freedom a bit differently.  In describing how she feels now that the protagonist’s husband (seems to be) dead, the narrator says, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” We learn right after this that maybe the protagonist loved her husband, maybe she didn’t—the point is freedom from responsibility of all sorts. Women, the narrator implies, are capable of placing the same burdens on their fellow creatures as men are.  The “persistence” is “blind” as well, suggesting it is an innate quality about human behavior, not just the behavior of men.  Often Chopin seems to privilege women in her stories simply because they are much more interesting to write about than men.

What are three character traits of Mrs. Mallard in "The Story of an Hour"?

Mrs. Mallard is dutiful, naïve, and passionate. Over the course of “The Story of an Hour,” she reveals these three character traits through her reaction to news of her husband’s supposed death.

First, Mrs. Mallard is dutiful and faithful to her role as a devoted wife. When she hears about the train accident, she weeps “with sudden, wild abandonment" in a “storm of grief.” After retreating to her room to be alone, she calms down and admits that

She had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.

Despite this ambivalence, she definitely feels affection for him and implies that she was always obedient to him. Her following sentiment suggests a past, stereotypical, and deferential existence as his wife:

There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.

She joyfully realizes that she no longer will be expected to follow her husband’s unwelcome command.

Second, Mrs. Mallard is naïve. Having never before experienced freedom outside of a traditional role of a dutiful wife, she is initially frightened by feelings of liberation.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her … her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will—as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.

Author Chopin implies that this upper-class housewife lives a sheltered, materially comfortable existence. Up until now, Mrs. Mallard dared not think outside of her circumscribed duty as a wife. Now confronted with the loss of that role, however, she is alarmed by the impending future and bewildering emotional changes. As unfamiliar feelings begin to overtake her, she resists them before surrendering to them. Eventually, her “look of terror” becomes a celebration of independence.

Third, Mrs. Mallard is passionate and unapologetic in her elation at newfound autonomy. After rejoicing in the realization that her husband’s death sets her free, she feels no shame.

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.

Instead of feeling guilty over her joy at emancipation resulting from her husband’s death, she welcomes independence with open arms. Although she will continue to play the proper wife in public and weep over her husband’s dead body, Mrs. Mallard knows that she now has

possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

When she finally reveals herself to the public (i.e., her sister and her husband’s friend, Richards), she cannot hide the

a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.

What does "The Story of an Hour" infer about Mrs. Mallard's marriage?

Given her initial reaction to the news that her husband had been killed, we might suppose that Mrs. Mallard's marriage was very good and filled with love and devotion. The narrator says, "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms." Mrs. Mallard then retreats to her room to grieve some more. Such a dramatic reaction suggests that she had truly loved her husband and the news at losing him is devastating. 

But this initial reaction is just that: mostly a reaction. It is the reaction of a woman who had been playing the role of a dutiful, loyal wife. In this role, she had been fully dependent upon her husband. So, some portion of her dramatic grieving is the result of losing the person upon whom she depended so much. The reaction stems from living this role. 

When she begins to experience her new feelings of freedom and independence, it becomes clear that, while her marriage might have been good on the surface, her spirit had actually been repressed. So, her initial reaction of grief seems to have stemmed from that role of the loyal wife. But with her great awakening of independence, she reveals that her true happiness had been repressed by that role of living for her husband, rather than living for herself: 

There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination. 

No longer burdened by her husband's will, she feels liberated from that old role. She can now live for herself. Given this discovery of happiness in independence, the conclusion is that their marriage was functional. There may have been some degree of genuine love, but this was all on the surface. Inside, Mrs. Mallard's spirit was oppressed to the point that she repressed any notion of living for her own happiness. In that respect, the conclusion is that the marriage was deeply flawed because Mr. Mallard did not know how to, or simply would not understand and encourage his wife's free will and happiness. 

What does "The Story of an Hour" infer about Mrs. Mallard's marriage?

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Mr. Mallard would likely describe his marriage as happy and satisfying, for he would have no real reason to think otherwise. After all, his wife admits to herself that his hands have always been kind and tender towards her, and his face has always been filled with love.

What’s more, Mrs. Mallard does love her husband, at least sometimes. Other times she has not, but she likely never showed that. She has been the obedient wife, the keeper of their home. Her husband would have no reason to expect that she ever thought anything else, and indeed, Mrs. Mallard has not realized it either until she believes her husband to be dead. Then a world of freedom opens up before her that she has never thought of. She can live for herself now instead of for her husband. This implies, of course, that Mrs. Mallard has been living for her husband. Mr. Mallard likely would not have thought of it in those terms, but his marriage would certainly have been comfortable for him with such a wife.

Indeed, Mr. Mallard likely never learns of any of his wife’s reactions to his supposed death, for the moment he walks through the door, very much alive, Mrs. Mallard’s heart gives out, and she falls down dead. The doctor says she has died of a “joy that kills.” Mr. Mallard has no reason to think otherwise, and therefore, his memories cling to his happy marriage even in his grief.

How does Mrs. Mallard's character evolve in "The Story of an Hour"?

The short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin tells of Louise Mallard, a young wife afflicted with heart trouble who hears that her husband has been killed in a railroad disaster. She goes up to her room to process the news on her own. At the end of the story, it is revealed that her husband is still alive. He enters the house while his wife is descending the stairs, and she falls and dies of a heart attack.

Mrs. Mallard goes through a profound change in the course of the narrative. At the beginning of the story, when she first hears the news, she is in the mindset of the subservient wife; she automatically weeps at the loss of her husband.

However, when she goes up to her room to mourn alone, she sits down in a chair facing the open window. Outside she sees the fresh life of springtime, feels a hint of coming rain in the air, and hears the cry of a peddler, a person singing, and sparrows twittering. She marvels at the clouds in the blue sky.

She slowly comes to realize that she is not sad at all that her husband has died, but rather relieved. She is free from his domineering attitude and can now live life as she chooses.

There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.

As Chopin points out, she is no longer mourning at all by the end. Instead, she is "drinking in a very elixir of life." This is why she receives such a heavy shock when she realizes that her husband is still alive.

How does Mrs. Mallard's character evolve in "The Story of an Hour"?

The transformation that occurs in Mrs. Mallard is chronicled by the character's nomenclature. For, in the beginning of the narrative, she is called Mrs. Mallard and the impersonal "she," which denotes the subservient role that she plays as the wife of Bently Mallard under the femme covert laws of her Victorian era. So repressed is she that the news of her husband's death

pressed [her] down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. 

She climbs the stairs, goes into her room, and sits with her head thrown back upon the chair, motionless. Slowly, the feeling of freedom enters her consciousness.

She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will....

Finally, she abandons herself and utters under her
breath:

"free, free, fee!"... "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

It is at this point that "she"  becomes specifically "Louise" as her sister calls out her name, begging her to open the door and asking, "What are you doing, Louise?" Now an individual with her own separate identity, "Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her" and there is a "feverish triumph "in her eyes as she stands at the top of the stairs "like a goddess of Victory." However, Bently Mallard enters through the front door and Louise returns to a mere "she" as she dies of heart disease--a "joy that kills" her individual identity.

How does Mrs. Mallard's character evolve in "The Story of an Hour"?

The massive change that occurs in the character of Mrs. Mallard of course is due to firstly the news that her husband has died and secondly that he has not actually died. The first bit of news triggers initial grief, which quickly subsides into feelings of liberation and freedom. The news of the death of her husband makes her realise just how oppressive marriage has been to her:

There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature.

For Mrs. Mallard, the death of her husband means being "free," as she repeats to herself, and it means being able to open herself to the years ahead that would "belong to her absolutely." However, having experienced and savoured such a tantalising taste of freedom and having undergone this epiphany, she has it seized back from her abruptly and shockingly. This is why she dies at the end of the story. When she sees her husband very much alive, and is forced to acknowledge that the freedom she has just so deliciously savoured has been snatched back from her, her heart cannot take the shock, and she dies. The final sentence of the story is an excellent example of irony: she dies of "joy that kills," though it is only the reader that knows it is the joy of the freedom she experiences in widowhood that kills her when she recognises she will have to relinquish it, not the joy of seeing her husband alive again, which everybody else assumes is the reason for her demise.

What motivates Mrs. Mallard's actions in "The Story of an Hour"?

Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the news of her husband's death is shaped by her longing for individual freedom, a concept that a married woman of her time did not have. 

During this period in history, 1894, there was a great debate going on regarding the role of women in society.  Women don't get the right to vote until 1920, however the struggle for equality for individual rights began in 1848. So Louise Mallard was shaped by her desire for acceptance as an individual by society. 

As a widow, Mrs. Mallard would be allowed to lead a life of personal choice.  Accepted in society, she would not necessarily need to get remarried to attend social functions, host parties or engage in charity work.  This is what dominates her thinking for the brief space of one hour before it is all taken away by the return of her very much alive husband.     

"Chopin deals with the issues of female self-discovery and identity in "The Story of an Hour." After Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband's death, she is initially overcome with grief. But quickly she begins to feel a previously unknown sense of freedom and relief."

"At first, she is frightened of her own awakening: "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully." Her own feelings come upon her, possessing her. When she first utters the words "free, free, free!" she is described as having "abandoned herself."  

Is Mrs. Mallard's character consistently portrayed in Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"?

Among the several characters in "The Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard is the only dynamic, round character: a dynamic character usually undergoes some sort of fundamental change as the result of one or more plot elements, and a round character generally exhibits inconsistencies and problems that affect most of us.  Dynamic, round characters are often difficult to summarize easily because they are, like many real people, complicated.

In the case of Mrs. Mallard, for example, our first indication of her uniqueness is that she has a bad heart:

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

From the first line of the story, we know that we have a character with two serious problems to face--heart trouble and the unexpected death of her husband.

Even Mrs. Mallard's reaction to the news of her husband's death is slightly unusual: instead of "paralyzed inability to accept its significance," we are told that she wept with "wild abandonment in her sister's arms."  One could argue that her reaction is unusual because Mrs. Mallard is an unusual woman, a characteristic that takes an even more dramatic turn in the next scene.

After Mrs. Mallard goes upstairs to her room in order to be alone and absorb the news, she was "pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body," but, at the same time, she is bombarded by life-affirming images--"trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life," "delicious breath of rain," "countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves."  These images of life and living take her on a mental path that will lead to a life-altering change in her self-conception.

Something--she doesn't know what--is beginning to intrude on her consciousness:

She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was trying to beat it back with will . . .a little whispered word escaped her slightly-parted lips.

This leads, of course, to her new belief that she is free of the repression of marriage, free to spend all her days and hours as she wants, free to assert her will in all things for the rest of her life.

The change that has taken here has made her, perhaps for the first time in her married life, a fully-developed, self-assertive individual, the only such character in the story.  No other character displays such dynamism, intellectual and spirtual growth, which, by the way, is not a socially acceptable set of changes for a woman of the late 19thC.

One could argue that her death of a heart attack when she realizes Brently Mallard is alive is Mrs. Mallard's way of self-assertion in the face of complete negation of her hopes for the future--in effect, she wills herself to die because, from her new perspective, her life is over.

How does Mrs. Mallard's character develop in "The Story of an Hour"?

As “The Story of an Hour” progresses, author Kate Chopin gradually allows the reader to see different aspects of Louise Mallard. When the story opens, the author creates the impression that the Mallards are a happily married couple. Chopin uses the characters of Richards and Josephine to build this impression, as the two of them show tremendous concern over Louise’s emotional well-being when she learns of Brently’s death. Their assumption that she will be devastated with grief strongly suggests that the Mallards have been happy together. Louise’s collapse adds to that impression.

When the newly widowed Louise retires to her room, the reader sees a different side of her. Chopin creates the impression that Louise is experiencing an epiphany as she gazes out the window. Brently’s death has given her freedom from constantly having to bend to his will. This freedom brings “monstrous joy” also because she realizes that she had been repressing her real feelings about their marriage. A few minutes alone, after she emerges from her temporary stupor, rouse Louise to confidence in asserting herself. She keeps repeating, “Free! Body and soul free!"

This sensation undergoes a rapid reversal when she leaves the room and sees Brently alive and well downstairs. As Louise’s freedom ends, so does her life.

What conflicts does Mrs. Mallard face in "The Story of an Hour"?

The primary conflict within Mrs. Mallard is the emotional ambiguity she experiences upon learning of the death of her husband. When she is told that her husband has died in a train accident, she goes to her room alone. Mrs. Mallard seems to experience some confusion regarding what it is she's feeling: "she was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will—as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been." Then, "when she abandoned herself a little," she realizes that she will be "'free, free, free!'" At this point, she loses the look of terror that had been on her face, and she now recognizes that:

she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her [...].  But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.

In other words, then, Mrs. Mallard will mourn her husband, and it sounds as though he was quite loving and kind.  However, simultaneously, the knowledge that her life will now be hers alone to live as she chooses is such an incredibly compelling and welcome feeling. Although she does experience conflict regarding her husband's death, her feelings of relief that she will finally be free triumph over any sense of loss she feels.

How is Mrs. Mallard described initially in "The Story of an Hour"?

The answer to this question depends upon whether it refers to the first physical description or the first description of any kind. The first description of Mrs. Mallard of any kind appears in the first sentence of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. This has nothing to do with her appearance, however; instead, it is an assessment of her medical condition. It says that she is "afflicted with a heart trouble." People of any age, shape, and size can have heart troubles. It can run in families, which means you can inherit it from your parents. However, usually heart problems are a result of coronary artery disease. This is caused mainly by certain risk factors which include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and depression. Some lifestyle factors that increase risk are smoking, drinking too much alcohol, lack of exercise, and a poor diet. From this first comment on Mrs. Mallard, then, we can see that she could be just about any age, shape, or size, because her heart disease could have been inherited, or it could have been brought about by her lifestyle choices.

If the question refers to the first physical description of Mrs. Mallard, we find this in paragraph eight: "She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength." According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word "fair" when used as a physical description means "not dark." So someone with fair skin or a fair complexion has light-colored skin. This is confirmed just a few lines later when Chopin writes that Mrs. Mallard has "white slender hands." We can conclude from these few words of description that Mrs. Mallard is young and has light-colored skin. Her demeanor suggests that she has strength but also that she has been repressed or forcefully controlled.

In conclusion, if you count her heart trouble as a description, Mrs. Mallard can potentially have almost any appearance, but if you go by the first physical description of her, then Chopin gives more specific details.

Why does Mrs. Mallard die in "The Story of an Hour"?

Strange as it may sound, Mrs. Mallard dies because of the shock of discovering that her husband is still alive and that she is therefore not free of the strictures of marriage.

The story starts with the news that Brently Mallard was killed in a railroad accident. The news is broken to Mrs. Mallard, who is of frail health, extremely gently, for fear of the news taking its toll on her. After experiencing the initial waves of grief, Mrs. Mallard finds herself overcome by joy and relief at the thought that she is now free to live life entirely on her own terms.

Shortly thereafter, Brently arrives home, and everyone realizes that the news of his death had been false. It is this revelation, especially with the knowledge that her newfound freedom has been snatched away from her, which causes Mrs. Mallard's heart, which was already impaired, to give out.

Doctors later attribute her death to heart disease and to "the joy that kills," which tells readers that they thought it was the joy and relief that she felt at seeing her husband again which triggered her death. They, of course, did not know anything about the sense of joy and freedom which she had experienced while thinking that her husband was dead.

What are the characteristics of Mrs. Mallard in "The Story of an Hour"?

I edited this question as we are no longer answering questions about two separate characters/stories since they count as two different answers.

Mrs. Mallard is a young woman. She is a married woman with a supposed condition described as "heart weakness". When she first receives the news of the death of her husband in a train wreck, she weeps and sinks in despair as it is expected from those who gave her the news.

Yet, we slowly discover that this woman has lived a life of oppression and self denial. She had been living up to the social expectations placed upon women: They must marry, follow and support their husbands, and bear children at some point.

She seems then to be a woman who would have much rather eliminated all of that in favor of living a life of independence and finding herself. Yet, this was no possible. Or was it? Apparently it would have been possible, as she began to realize how she could taste freedom now that she was on her own. As she begins to daydream and drift into her new possibilities, she opens up completely and we perceive the depth of her oppressive life. She desperately wanted out.

Then, as we discover that the husband was not really dead and she comes back to reality, she cannot bear it anymore. She is obviously a woman who has given too much of herself and is desperate to recover it back. Yet, when she cannot bear thinking of her life back to what it was her death is more than just significant: It is symbolic of every person who once makes or needs a change and decides not to ever look back again.

How did Mrs. Mallard's outlook influence her actions in "The Story of an Hour"?

Unfortunately we cannot assume that Mrs. Mallard had any specific outlook on life other than to hope and pray that she makes a good marriage, and that she is fortunate enough to live a good, healthy life as a wife and mother. This is because the women of her time could only aspire to that much. It is not like she had a variety of options (neither did any of the women of her generation) awaiting such as schooling, independence, nor the acquisition of personal riches.

In reality, there was not much he could want for and, for this reason, the influence of it in her life was that she married accordingly and probably without love in the first place- just for the convenience that women married for.

Therefore, her outlook in life was too poor to have influenced her in any transcendental way other than to do what she is told and to obey the expectations of society.

How did Mrs. Mallard's outlook influence her actions in "The Story of an Hour"?

In Kate Chopin's stunning short story, "The Story of an Hour," Louise Mallard has seen her life as a "long progression of days" to simply survive. She has had no true freedom, no conscious sense of self. She is married, to a kind man, but he does not see her as an individual. She is isolated, like a lonely ship on the open sea without a compass: she has had no direction, passing one day like the next.

When news comes of Brently's tragic death in an accident, there is concern for the widow, especially in that she has a "weak heart," but Louise chooses the solitary confines of her room rather than the company of Richards (the family friend who brings the new) or her sister-in-law Josephine. Instead, she goes to her room to contemplate her life, her loss, and her future.

Looking out the window, an errant thought presents itself, paradoxically horrible yet wonderful:

She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her...What could love...count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being.  "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

Whereas she had formerly seen her life as a long line of empty days lying before her, now she sees a long line of days filled with endless possibilities. Here we read how her outlook influences her actions. With a new future ahead (even acknowledging that her husband had been a good man and she had sometimes loved him), Louise is filled with a sense of purpose.

Finally leaving her room at her Josephine's pleading, the new widow carries herself regally like a queen down the stairs, full of hope and plans. In that moment, the door opens and Brently Mallard appears, totally unaware of what has transpired.

It seems he had been nowhere near the accident that was reported to have claimed his life. Richards tries to shield Louise from the shocking sight of her husband, but the desolation that descends on her in her sudden loss of hope and certainly that she will again have to live a life of repression is too much for her. She is described as a strong woman, but even this cannot be borne, and she dies.

The doctors explain that her heart gave out, that she died of the "joy that kills," expecting the sight of Brently was too great a joy for her heart to handle; ironically, the loss of her freedom is truly what kills her, what the doctors could not know, and would not be able to fathom in any case, in the society of men that had dominated Mrs. Mallard's life.

Did Louise choose to die rather than face the bleak prospect of endless days without personal purpose? Who can say for sure. However, whereas she holds herself like a queen in knowing she is free, she, in essence, gives up and dies, rather than return to the life she had known until that day.

How did Mrs. Mallard's outlook influence her actions in "The Story of an Hour"?

Well, I think the big action that you need to focus on in this short but excellent tale is Mrs. Mallard's response to the news that her husband died in an accident. Although initially she responds with grief, soon afterwards it becomes clear that the experience of her life, and in particular her marriage, means that she looks upon her new-found situation in a very different way:

There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.

Note how she describes marriage as an imposition of "private will" in "blind persistence." It is this experience of marriage as a patriarchal institution that has suppressed her needs and desires as a woman that makes her whisper now: "Free! Body and soul free!" It is this experience as well that is the real cause of her death when her husband turns up at the door - having received even but a tiny taste of that freedom, she is unable to return to the oppression of matrimony.

How does the author of "The Story of an Hour" life parallel Mrs. Mallard's?

“The Story of an Hour” is a short one, and simple.  It tells of a young Mrs. Mallard with a weak heart who learns that her husband has been killed in a work accident.  After she sobs uncontrollably at the news, she isolates herself in her room and, after examining her emotions, is struck with the feeling of freedom.  Her husband’s love, up to that point, had been a burden, had been restricting, preventing her from living entirely for herself.  And now that he has died, she begins to envision with relish what her life will look like alone.  Indeed, she wishes “that life might be long.  It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”  What she dreaded as a married woman, she now eagerly anticipated as a widow.  However, there had been a strange miscommunication – her husband, in fact, had not been in the accident, and the shock the woman feels at seeing him walk through the door is enough to stop her heart.

In the story Mrs. Mallard believes her husband to have died; in reality, Kate Chopin’s husband Oscar died in 1892, when Kate was still quite young.  He never reemerged as Bently Mallard did, but we can imagine that Kate drew on her own experience with her husband’s death for this piece.  In addition, one of the most common themes in Chopin’s works is that of female empowerment – she was a very strong woman herself, and believed that women should have the opportunity to be in control of their own lives.  And here, in “The Story of an Hour,” we have a woman who is given that opportunity.  Moreover, rather than cede her newfound freedom back to her husband at the end of the story, she dies.  They say in the story that she dies “of heart disease – of joy that kills.”  Indeed, it was the shock of that joy being stripped away from her – she could not live as she once had.

How is the character of Mrs. Mallard (Louise) presented in "The Story of an Hour," considering her thoughts, actions, and relationships with her husband and sister?

For your characterization of Louise Mallard, consider how she acts and feels being trapped within the rigid confines of Victorian society. Kate Chopin characterizes her protagonist through narration that is limited to Mrs. Mallard's point of view. By doing so, the reader gains an intimate perspective of the inner thoughts and feelings of this character.

When examining Louise Mallard's thoughts and actions, consider her reaction upon hearing of her husband's death. At first, she reacts with grief. This is a natural and expected response. However, upon further reflection, she concludes that widowhood will grant her a degree of freedom that she lacked as a married woman.

While someone might see relief, even joy, at the death of a spouse as callous, Chopin does not present Louise this way. Instead, Louise is presented as a victim of society and circumstance ready to take advantage of what could be a new opportunity for freedom and self-discovery. Think about what this says about her sense of optimism and her mercurial nature.

In relation to her husband, consider how marriage was oppressive to Louise. The reader does not learn any specific details about the nature of their relationship, but the way the marriage has worn her down is apparent. It is clear that other characters think of her as meek and frail—something delicate that must be handled carefully. This is not to say that Louise never felt affection for her husband. She admits that she did at times love him. Rather, it was the institution of marriage that had been oppressing her.

When you examine the relationship between Louise and her sister, think about how Josephine takes on the role of comforter. She knows that Louise is in need of support even if she fails to understand the true nature of her mental state. Note that Josephine also feels exasperation toward her sister when she refuses to come out of her room. This indicates that Louise is capable of maintaining sisterly relationships even if they are strained at times.

Finally, consider how the use of language and structure highlights Louise's emotional and mental state. For example, the use of descriptive language and vivid imagery helps to convey the physical and emotional toll that Louise's unhappy marriage has taken on her. The description of her as being "weak" and "frail" underscores the idea that she has been oppressed by her marriage and is in need of liberation. Also, consider how the short and compact structure of this story emphasizes the intense and transformative nature of her experience and how quickly she moves from one emotional state to another.