In the 19th century, women were considered as being delicate and passive, and heart condition of Louise reinforced this societal expectation. Her physical weakness is a concern for people surrounding her, and this encourages them (Richard and Josephine) to stifle her feelings and emotions and to overprotect her. The fact that Louse had a weak heart forced Josephine, her sister, to tell her calmly and gently that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been murdered in a train fate. However, Louise strongly reacts to this sad news and unlike other women who will be paralyzed with self-denial over the message, and she leaps into her sister’s hand with abandonment. Louse’s reaction creates tension as this antagonizes the society’s sexist expectation. This also is against her body health-related limitations.
The approaching elements of string such as a return of a birdsong embody an approaching revelation, and its importance drastically overwhelms Louise, and by merely resisting this indescribable feeling, she starts to detest its implications more and more. At this particular moment, Louise begins to experience the physical excitement and emotional happiness that she is restricted to experience because of her fragile heart condition. She disregards all the limitations and restrictions imposed on her by the society and her own body, eventually giving herself to a sense of freedom characterized by emergence spring.
Louise and Josephine feel differently on the societal restrictions imposed on them. Josephine is represented as a perfect 19th-century woman who showcases her role as a caregiver. This is evidenced when Josephine kneels before her sister to open the entrance: “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door-you will make yourself ill," Josephine implores. Mallard Brently’s death caused mixed feeling from both Josephine and Louise. While Josephine was concerned and contended about her sister’s well-being and the state in the society, Louise was not satisfied and felt trapped in the restrictions imposed on her by society. Louise longs to be a person who depends on her own, who is physically and emotionally free as is evidenced by the remark: “Body and soul free!” However, the realization that her husband is not death causes her untimely death. She died of the fact that the joy she had tasted was so brief and that her soul cannot handle the depression after it experienced such freedom
Chopin’s description of Louise reveals the tone of subtlety yet cruel. This represents someone who brushes off and does not care about the notions of love and the best of marriages just for the mere idea of freedom. People around her thought that she was for her dead husband but in reality, she rejoices over her husband’s death. In the end, the doctors said that she passed on from the profound shock that her husband, after all, lives, “the joy that kills.”
The story is based on ironic juxtapositions. We are aware that what was to destroy later Louise’s is found in the quote: “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death” (Chopin, 1). Her health which corresponds to the situation of flimsiness and the surprising news can all be found in the text above. There is also the kind of writing style which is a more of a teaser. She compels the readers to fill in the blanks, for instance, when Louise was walking down the stairs, and her supposedly dead husband walks in; Richard comes between them to prevent her from supporting a disastrous shockwave. Chopin articulates, “But Richard was too late.” What Richard was too late to do is left for the readers to contemplate.
Many of us are dissatisfied with what is imposed on us and yet there are those who are contented with what the society limits them to do. What we think can be a key to long-suppressed freedom can come in disguised form, eventually leading to our downfall.
Work Cited
Chopin, Kate. Kate Chopin's "the Story of an Hour". 2017
