A text I particularly enjoyed reading was ‘The Story of an Hour’ by Kate Chopin. This short story explores how freedom and mortality can come hand in hand. This idea is explored through the development of the main character as she realises her husband has passed. Not only was the story line enticing and the metaphors alluring, the unforeseen denouement made the text all the more interesting.
I find the 5th paragraph particularly enlightening. The natural metaphors are used to unveil Mrs Mallard’s true feelings on her current situation. The trees are said to be “aquiver with the new spring life.” The word “aquiver” holds connotations of trembling, as though this is the calm before the storm. This may be suggesting that the quivering of the trees is escalating to something bigger, something miraculous, an eruption of the “new spring life”. The new “spring” life could be a metaphor for Mrs Mallard’s own new life. This pathetic fallacy reveals that she looks forward to what is ahead of her; life after death can be emancipating for those either side of the tragedy.
Furthermore, Chopin describes the rain to be a ‘delicious breath’, personifying the weather, thus indicating its superiority within the story. The word “breath” holds connotations of sighing; therefore this description of the weather could be interpreted as a sigh of relief on behalf of Mrs Mallard. Moreover, Chopin implicitly implies Mrs Mallards’ lust for freedom through the use of naturalistic analogies.
Another element of the story I found enthralling was Mrs Mallard’s reaction when she discovered her husband was alive. She dies of what the doctors call “the joy that kills”, unknowing of her likely devastation at the sight of her healthy husband. This is an interesting concept from a psychoanalytical point of view as it gives insight in the minds of men of the time the story was written. Interestingly, the doctors presume that the woman would be overjoyed to see her husband. This perhaps indicates that women were expected to dote on their husbands forever and always; this is suggestive of the reliable and dependable role males would play within a marriage. Additionally, Mrs Mallard’s sudden death is redolent of her great desire to be free. This ending emphasises the trials and tribulations she may have had to face in her marriage, and her longing to be free. However her death may be the sole experience that liberates her from her loathed restrictions.
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