Others // The Story of an Hour by Chopin
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The Story of an Hour by Chopin
The Story of an Hour started by introducing the character of Louise Mallard as a woman “afflicted with a heart trouble” and the news about the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. Chopin explicitly described the transition of Mrs. Mallard’s emotion of being dependent and weak to having sense of independence – freedom from the knot and bow of marriage. Her experience was not typical compared to other married women of her age. Knowing that her husband was dead, Louise’s feeling was described as vibrant as she expressed the thrilling joy at her newfound freedom. Chopin described the powerful thoughts that is within the deep inner-life of Louise that is not connected with her outside world, that it is only within her mind.
“There was 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. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.” The numbness, of her emotions, her mind oscillates to seek out a way to jump and voice out its terms but she can hardly give it a name. The feeling of excitement seemed to be peculiar on her senses. The thought that she can now stand on her own and act outside the shadow of her husband runs through her nerve.
In a limited time of happiness after knowing that her husband is dead, the Story of an Hour conveys that their marriage is a constraint to her joy and freedom. Much like an illness, she feels no independence unless her husband no longer exists. The heart trouble that is initially presented at the start of the story showed how her inner-thought and feelings was secluded within her that even affect her heart’s condition. Her sadness sinks inside her when she thought that “she knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her.” There suggests that she once loved her husband, but because of the experiences she had with him (the face that had never looked save with love upon her), she doubted her feeling and ended saying that it no longer matter if she loved him or not. What matters now is raging feeling that possess her – the monstrous joy that is now free.
Mrs. Mallard experience of freedom which she felt before she expired was worth of everything. It is more than gold, money, and power that anyone could get from the years of imprisonment in a situation no one wants to be in. The thrilling excitement and joy that at last “I’m free” was very evident on the inner-thought of Louise. Her death, due to the heart attack, was an admission that she has rather died and kept this happiness inside her than live destroying herself and happiness again.
2017/1083
