In Kate Chopin's, "The story of an hour"ÃÂ, a short story based on the central character's, Louise Mallard, change in life when she learns that her husband had a tragic death.
The narrator does not disclose much about Mrs. Mallard; her foremost condition is that she is a faithful and dedicated housewife suffering from a congenital heart disease. Her situation becomes more tragic when she learns that her husband has died on a railroad accident-she breaks down into tears convulsively and retreats to her room where she grieved in solitude. During her confined loneliness her conscience takes over her as she undergoes a mental transformation. She has an epiphany, during which she felt as if the outside world seemed perfect and free. Spring was in the air and Mrs. Mallard felt reincarnated from the life she used to live in onto the new world, with several new things that she wanted to learn and experience.
Mallard
Kate Chopin in 1894
Photoportrait of writer Kate ChopinShe started to realize that her marriage has now been terminated; she realized the gap that existed between her life and her hopes of a greater life and expectations of a better husband.
By briefly introducing Mrs. Mallard's thoughts on her marriage, we could clearly understand her situation and her unexpected relief for joy. Her cause for this reaction evolves from the way Brently Mallard treats Louise. It is common knowledge that marriages are not always about mutual love between two people and during the time that Chopin was writing, this was more often the case. Marriage was as much about monetary comfort, social status and acceptance as it was about possible love. The nineteenth century American society prescribed a rigid model of femininity to which its women should act in accordance with current customs. Notions of devout religiosity, limited intelligence and...