Symbolism in “The Story of an Hour”

Symbolism in “The Story of an Hour”

             The narrative “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin describes a one-day event concerning a woman in the last hour of her life and the emotional and psychological changes she goes through upon learning about the death of her husband. The story is more about women and their position in the marriage institution. It gives a tragic account of how a woman’s newfound status as a widow gives her freedom and strength. It also gives her an opportunity to develop her own identity. She goes through mixed emotions and feelings as she visualizes her past life and what the future hold for her. It is ironic that instead of being happy for his return, she is overwhelmed and dies upon realizing that her future fantasy has come to an end. Kate Chopin uses symbolism with detailed imagery in her narrative to develop the theme of freedom and confinement by showing mixed reactions of Mrs. Mallard as she processes the death news of her husband.

Mrs. Mallard was not satisfied in her married life as it was like an obligation. Chopin starts by informing the reader that “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble” (127). This symbolizes her emotional burden, which relates to her marriage. It seems in her marriage there was inequality, and she had little say. This is what brings conflict in Mrs. Mallard in her response to her husband’s death. Her reaction is complicated as, on the one hand, his death saddens her, but on the other hand, she sees freedom that lays beyond her for the rest of her life.  She represents women in her time that could not get happiness in marriage. This was not because it was happiness was absent, but simply because within their marriage, they were confined and restricted. Mr. Mallard’s accident and consequent death symbolized the change in her life. She moves from being someone’s wife to becoming a free and independent woman.

Part of confinement that affects Mrs. Mallard was from the expectation of the society in her role as a woman. Her sister Josephine says, “I beg; open the door–you will make yourself ill.”(Chopin 127). People like Josephine assumed that she would be in distress because she loved and treasured her husband. This was quite the opposite as she did not exhibit much of bitterness towards his death. This shows how many women are oppressed silently in marriage but never speak out due to societal confinement like wealth. At one point, she is afraid of feeling happy concerning her freedom: “she was striving to beat it back with her will” (Chopin 127).  She becomes conscious that society will determine her though on freedom was wrong. It suggests that she was from a time where women were restricted, and she was seeking to feel what the society expects of her. Nevertheless, she cannot stop herself from imagining her new life. She was not happy with her husband since she could not have her own say nor the will to do what she wanted. She is happy upon realizing that apart from being free from her husband, she still will be accepted in society. Perhaps divorce was not an option in her time; thus, being a widow was her only way out.

Chopin illustrates Mrs. Mallard’s potential found freedom through the use of symbolism in the setting within her bedroom. She gives a detailed description of her interior room setting and her immediate environment: “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair… She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin 127). All these symbolize her longing and desire for freedom. The open window in her house was symbolic in that it represented a new opportunity that laid ahead of her. The spring symbolizes a new beginning and fresh start that she was going to have without her husband. There was no one to stop her anymore, and she was visualizing a new beginning. Her husband’s death means she has no one to answer to but herself. She feels liberated from the confinement in her marriage, where her husband would no longer control her. It was like she was emerging from concealment. The “patches of blue sky [that showed] here and there through the cloud that had met and piled one above the other” symbolized her wake (Chopin 127). The blue sky symbolizes her freedom and life in the future held for her. She now has a bright future that is unobstructed by clouds, that is another individual. Light in terms of hope was emerging from enclosed areas in her life. Deep down, she knew she had been freed from living under another person’s shadow as now it will only be about her.  Chopin paints the picture of a marriage institution in which the men were domineering. Mr. Mallard did not treat his wife the way she would have loved to be treated most of the time. This indicates she was satisfied with the outcome of the death of her husband. Her only sorrow was from the loss of his life as a regular person but not that of living with him as his wife. From her point of view, it seems she never harbored any romantic feelings for her husband and only tolerated the marriage.

The initial grieve turns into pure happiness when it finally dawns on her that her husband is dead. She is now free from her husband’s domination. She whispers, “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin 127).  Her joy was also as a result of the vision of a new future. Initially, she felt that she did not have any other life apart from her marriage, but now she had the chance to start a new life and live differently. Chopin writes in “a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this, she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” This suggests she was resting from oppression in her life and liberty from the expectation of society. The armchair symbolized security and ease state she is in spite of her husband’s death. She even begins to notices the sounds she did not hear before suggesting that when happy, people may start to appreciate what they initially took for granted. She begins to realize and understand herself more as her body is filled with the happiness of her potential new freedom. Chopin writes, “There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (127). This suggests that Mrs. Mallard now feels that finally, she has won after long repression in her life. She can now go where she likes and do as she wishes.

The author develops a twist in the story’s ending when Mrs. Mallard new found freedom is shortly cut with the return of her husband from the presumed death. The story clearly illustrates the life of Mrs. Mallard and aims to reveal more of what makes her. She was so much overburdened by seeing her liberty taken away from her for the second time by a misunderstanding concerning the death of her husband: “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease” (127).  She is a person who had a great desire to get the freedom that was deprived of her in her marriage institution that it consumed her. She is unable to handle her emotions well that eventually, it caught up with her. She collapses and dies due to the feared heart disease. By having her die of heart disease, it signifies that she felt her marriage as a form of the disease that was constraining her. The irony is that Mr. Mallard never got to know that his presence in her life is what killed her. The assumption that probably would be made is that her heart could not handle the news she had gotten of his death.

Chopin’s “The story of an hour” is more than simply a terror story of a man who comes back from death.  Chopin is making a bold statement on gender roles and femininity in marriage. The central theme that develops is longing for freedom and the associated feelings of finally feeling free. The author expresses this journey not only in an entertaining way but also helps the readers to connect with her character. Through the use of symbols, she points out how marriage can be confining, and instead of a long loving relationship, it can be that of servitude. It brings out the idea that freedom is a prized possession. To Mrs. Mallard, losing it again after a short time span was a burden that she could no longer handle.