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Mrs Miller in Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour.

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Introduction

The Widow?s Window What aching irony it is to love so wholly the idea of independence and have it stripped from you not a minute after you?ve tasted its sweet song. To have been so close to freedom and joy and to lose it only moments later. Is it any wonder then that Mrs. Mallard?s life was cut short in wake of the bittersweet news of her husband?s return? We relive and reveal the nature of Mrs. Mallard?s tale through the obstreperous symbolism, context, and motif in Kate Chopin?s ?The Story of an Hour.? ?She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life. ...read more.

Middle

Mallard is not zealous at the thought of a future stripped of the chain of marriage. Chopin uses light and airy words to express the feelings of the subject upon receiving word of her husband?s death. The open window in the story speaks of new possibilities and it is no small detail that Chopin uses the suspiciously appropriate occasion of heart disease to bring an end to the life of a character so verily heartbroken. ?The Story of an Hour? was penned by a female in 1894 and so it should come with no great deal of amazement that Mrs. Mallard?s perception of the world around her stems from the slave-like condition imposed on women of that time. ...read more.

Conclusion

She would not be ridiculed or persecuted for leaving her husband. It seems as though, in these times, becoming a widow was the only sensible path to freedom. Chopin exercises the motif of ?openness? in her story and provides many details throughout to tie in the very idea. Louise spends the moments after taking in the difficult news of her husband?s passing staring out the window. The window, which is open, is almost the entire framework of the story. If Mrs. Mallard had been sitting in a room devoid of windows, we may not be so quick to think that her life is actually going to change. Phrases like ?The delicious breath or rain was in the air,? are weaved in and out of each paragraph to tie together the feeling of freshness and openness within the story. ...read more.

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