The Story of an Hour

'of joy that kills.'

Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour centers around an hour in the life of a young woman who receives the news of her husband's death in an accident.

However, it is stated in the course of the story that she does not reflect on this shocking news as sadly as many other women. At first, she weeps yet as the storm of grief disappears, she leaves the others and goes away to her room; observing the nature and law of life.

There, an open window awaits for her in the bluest open sky. The vivid imagery and symbolism of windows, open squares, and birds twittering add depth to the message of the following steps of freedom for her. The repetition of the word open signifies the lack of restrictions and forces to trap her like a bird in a cage.

Yet a subtle feeling that wrenches her soul comes closer at that point; her face is filled with lines of repression and years of being trapped in a relationship.

At the same time a 'monstrous joy' holds her. 'Free, free, free' uttering the word again and again, she realizes the years of joy and freedom that await her; she would only live for herself, with no one to impose on her how to feel, how to speak, or how to think. Sensing something wrong, she tries to think of the times when she loved him but the feeling of freedom surpassed that of love and longing.

'Free! Body and soul free!'

Welcoming the days of spring, and summer, she hears a knock on the door, she takes the steps descending the stairs, there welcomes her Brently Mallard; the man who outlived his wife.

Seeing him there, Mrs. Mallard dies of heart disease, of joy that kills.

Her death signifies the role of women in the patriarchal society where widows were seen as people of dishonor, and that her death works as the punishment of her freedom as a woman. Her brief joy and sudden realization of freedom highlights the restrictive nature of marriage and her death emphasizes that if she is dissatisfied with her life as a wife, she has no right to enjoy even the breeze of freedom.

Kate Chopin does not emphasize her name 'Louise' yet we know her as the wife of Mr. Mallard, symbolizing the only role of women as a wife in the late 19th century.

Her desire for autonomy suggests the challenging nature of marriage in a period of time where gender norms played an important role on shaping marriages and females. As a free woman now, she looks forward to future that she belongs as a woman who will not be forced to fulfill the roles attended by societal norms; rather, she is now living for herself and using her own agency to make decisions and taste independence for the first time.

Chopin subtly speaks of the struggles of women and societal norms that haunts womanhood. She uses irony to subtly criticize the society and it's force on women by ending the story with 'of joy that kills' putting an emphasis on the fact that a woman is forced to devote herself to her husband and her marriage.