The death of her husband is disclosed to Mrs. Louise Mallard with considerable carefulness. But, that does not stop her from breaking down physically and emotionally, revealing to the readers of this story several characteristics of her life and nature. Throughout the course of Mrs. Mallard’s illustrations of her life in her mind, one can see that she is victimized by her husband. His death oddly enough brings happiness and excitement. This must be because she is experiencing entrapment by the societal-accepted actions of her husband. She feels as if her vitality is not her own, and her voice is solely heard by herself. This leads her to feel astray, forgotten, and isolated. With nobody to turn to, no way to obtain help or comfort, she is put in a position where she is without consolation; feeling hopeless. Her emotions come straight from the treatment she is receiving from her husband. As she reflects, it is easy to see that Mrs. Mallard is not content with her lifestyle. She feels perturbed by her cursed fate. So the thought that she may be released from the restraints of her marriage feels joyfully divine. Plans of her potential alternate life overwhelm her. Over several years she has built up intense repugnance toward her husband’s behavior and her life. Thus she is consumed by a false sense of …show more content…
Mallard is officially where she wants to be—free from her husband’s restrictions—in an individualistic state. Most people desire love and security within another partner, but Louise unconventionally desires to be self-sufficient. She has little sympathy toward the reality that her husband has died and is more so eager to become independent and unrestricted. She quickly moves from her state of mourning the death of her husband to focusing on herself. Her tears cease, and she becomes absorbed in a future without a husband confining her. The feeling of being forever separated from her husband never occurs to Mrs. Mallard as a miserable or unpleasant
Mallard is unsatisfied with the limitations of her marriage, however, like Desiree, she is submissive and believes that the end of her duties as a wife will come at the death of her husband and her freedom will be given to her. Also, she experiences little or no feelings because of her marriage. This is shown when Mrs. Mallard, after hearing of her husband’s death, cries, but ironically she senses a moment of euphoric pleasure at the awaiting freedom in her remaining life. “She saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” Mrs. Millard is now aware of things that were not noticeable before such as: the beginning of spring, patches of blue sky through clouds, the twittering of sparrows and the smelling of the pending rain, which may signify the nature of her freedom. Mrs. Mallard would now be able to live her life outside the home and find her identity.
Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Sommers have a fair share of intemperance. Mrs. Mallard has come to the realization that the death of her husband is not only a tragic occurrence, but also a beneficial cutting of her previously binding marital ties. The crisis of her grief has given her new insight on her life, and Mrs. Mallard understands that her marriage has limited her independence and freedom. Due to this realization she immediately forgets about the accident and starts to think about her freedom: ““Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering” (paragraph 14). It is only an hour after Mrs. Mallard has received the bitter news of her husband’s death. Considering that her husband is gone, instead of mourning, she is overwhelmed with the freedom she
Mrs. Mallard never explains in details on why she feels as though she is trapped in her marriage. After she finds out about her husband’s death she is heartbroken realizing she would never see him again in this life. Though she had loved him, she felt as though he oppressed her either by meaning to or not out of care for
In “The Story of an Hour” we see Mrs. Louise Mallard receives news of the death of her husband. The
Louise Mallard represents a self-image of a fragile woman, who’s strength, passion or any kind of emotions she has remained deeply hidden behind layers of suppression. If she ever breaks free of confinement, she will find no other society willing to take her in and Mrs. Mallard will have gained freedom just to find out that she has no future ahead. She is only freed when her husband passes away. This overwhelming joy she feels hearing the news
This personal confession shows that Mrs. Mallard, though she will mourn at first, now is free to “live for herself,” (228) not for her imposing husband. Before her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard believed she was in a healthy, normal marriage. This death revealed to her how while she cared about her husband, she despised the lack of freedom her marriage had given her. All of the realizations that Mrs. Mallard reaches during her time of reflection shows the readers exactly why she will no longer mourn the death of her husband.
With the denotation of haunted and fatigue, it provides negative imagery to the reader. The purpose of this is not only to show how frail Mrs.Mallard is, but also to show how heavily dependent Mrs.Mallard is on her husband for happiness instead of
Unknowingly to the reader, the cyclical fate of Mrs. Mallard is stated in the first sentence of the author’s work, moreover, it is the title of the story and will take the reader over the course of an hour wherein determining Mrs. Mallards fate. In short, Mrs. Mallard is afflicted with heart trouble, she is then given grave news of her husband’s death. Richard’s, the family friend, “Hastens to forestall any less careful news”.(57) Wants to be the bearer of bad news, in doing so does not wait for conformation of Brently Mallard’s death. Which in turn will lead the wife to believe at the time; her
Mrs.Mallard's rather uncommon reaction to the news of Mr.Brently Mallard's death logically foreshadows the complete revelation of her suppressed longing for freedom. Being alone in her room "When the storm of grief" is over, she experiences "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." Finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow: "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." In her soul, the dark clouds are disappearing because she is illuminated. All the memories of her husband are now of the past. She is living in the present. At this point, she is no longer "Mrs.Mallard." She is Louise and is ready to welcome a new horizon of freedom : "Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own." Overwhelmed with a new sense of herself, she feels as if she was "a goddess of Victory." In just a brief hour, she learns what it is like to be her own person, to live for herself without the force of her husband's will.
Mrs. Mallard had, "in that brief moment of illumination"(15), stumbled upon a truth: she was now her own person, free from the confines of her husband. She had loved her husband, "sometimes"(15), but that didn't matter: "What could love ....count for in the face of theis possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! THE theme of the story unfolds at this point: Mrs. Mallard, through the death of her husband, is able to experience the joy of the realization
The Character of Mrs. Mallard Mrs. Mallard is a very self-centered character, we can easily see this through her thought process in “The Story of an Hour.” She pitied herself and the fact that she was tied down in her marriage. While she loved her husband, and he was nothing but loving in return, her own selfish need to be “free, free, free” overcame any love she had for her husband. She had become so completely self-absorbed that her wants and needs took over her grieving period. She understood right away that she had lost her husband sorrow overtook her, as would be the natural response to the loss of a loved one.
Mrs. Mallard is a woman that is suffering in marriage. We realize that she was not very optimistic about her married life. The night prior to the "death" of her husband, she had quietly prayed for her life to be short. She had reached a point of disillusionment and would gladly welcome death as an option out of the marriage. When she learns that her husband had perished in the train accident, she first reacts by
Upon hearing the death of her husband's, Mrs. Mallard went through many different emotions. The first emotion is grief, the author tried to compare Mrs. Mallard to other women that would've responded to the news of their husbands death with "paralyzed inability" ( "she
Next, Mrs. Mallard was a woman who suffered from the times where women were treated with less value and importance. She lost her own life because rejoice at her husband’s tragedy. Her uncontrollable desire to be free made her become a frivolous woman, who let his personal longing’s end with his own life. When she realized that her husband was alive all his plans vanished. Her happiness was a temporary happiness which lasted less than an hour.
I think Mrs. Mallard felt trapped in her marriage, a marriage where communication no longer existed. I believe this caused her to feel very alone and restless in her marriage. In the late nineteenth century, women basically had little or no rights. It was thought that women’s sole purpose in society was to marry, have children, and to care for their family and household. Women of this era were not allowed to satisfy their own wants and desires. Therefore, we can assume that Mrs. Mallard got married at a young age. This fact, along with the crumbling of her marriage caused her to feel lost in a world where she knew not even herself. The fact that she was unable to experience life for herself resulted in her yearning desire for independence. These explanations contributed to Mrs. Mallard’s overwhelming enjoyment of her newfound freedom.