Character Analysis of Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour Essay

In the short story, The Story of an Hour, author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The naked as a jaybirds of the presumed termination of her economise comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief importee she experiences the joys of a liberated animation from the suppress relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too a lot for her bear and she dies. The meaning of animation and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself. Mrs. Mallards repressed married aliveness is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husbands friend Richa rd show to break the news of her husbands tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in neck with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husbands death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the publicize and ears became attentive to a song f... ... her true feelings with her sister, or talking to her husband or reaching out to other sources of help to address her marital repressed life, she would not have to dread living with her husband. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long (Chopin 262). Her meaning for life would not have to mean death to her husband. In conclusion, her lack of self assertion, courage and strong will to address her repressed life made her count at life and death in a different perspective. When in fact there is no need to die to experience liberation bandage she could have lived a full life to experience it with her husband by her side.Works CitedChopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Backpack Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 3rd ed. New York Pearson, 2010. 261-263. Print.