Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is an allegory for the patriarchal constraints that were placed upon 19th century women when they were wed. Chopin utilizes symbolic imagery, repetition, and irony to explain why 19th century marriage was a sexist construct created by brainwashing and forced dependency, in which women needed to escape from in order to find autonomy and freedom.
“The Story of an Hour” opens with the news of the death of Louise Mallard’s husband, Brently Mallard. Josephine, Louise’s sister, and Richards, Brently’s friend, were very wary of how to break the news to Louise, who had a severe heart problem. Louise is immediately distraught and horrified by the news; she “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” (3), and after her spell of crying, goes to her room for solitude.
Alone in her bedroom, Chopin sets the stage with imagery of “a comfortable, roomy armchair… into [which] she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (4). The window in front of her chair was open, and through it she could see “...the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves” (5). The description of the nature beyond her window is jarring in contrast to the death of Brently; it is a near depiction of a miracle, a beautiful spring day, despite the bereavement that had caused her to weep just moments before. The beauty of the spring often is used in literature to describe serenity, peace, and rebirth, all three of which were now bestowed upon Louise as she begins to notice a feeling of newfound freedom in her life.
“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” (9). Louise begins to feel a different emotion and sensation, though she cannot tell if it is a premonitory feeling or a joyful one. Again, Chopin utilizes imagery to give the setting an almost eerie atmosphere by appealing to Louise and the reader’s senses.
As Louise starts to unravel and becomes excited, she begins to repeat the word, “free” (11). In lines 11 and 16, she says, “over and over under her breath… ‘free, free, free!’” (11); she later whispers, “Free! Body and soul free!” (16). This repetition emphasizes the new jubilation within Louise’s body and mind as she explores the idea of a free life without the confines of her marriage to Brently. She paces excitedly; Josephine worries for Louise’s health, and asks Louise to let her into the bedroom, concerned that “...[she] will make [herself] ill” (17). Louise denies Josephine’s disquietude, telling her to “Go away,” for “[she is] not making [herself] ill” (18). Chopin employs the repetition of the word, “free” to make a strong statement that shows the joys and exhilaration that come from being free from marriage that a patriarchal society had forced upon Louise.
The entirety of “The Story of an Hour” manipulates the literary expression of irony to show that Brently Mallard’s death was not just a simple tragedy, but a shattering of the shackles of 19th century sexism, and a bohemian ideology of freedom. While it is expected that Louise would sob and be miserable and grief-stricken over her husband’s death, the ironic twist of her new euphoria and excitement over Brently’s death suggests that her marriage was prison-like. Additionally, towards the end of the story, Brently returns, as “he had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one” (21), which is yet another shocking twist in the short story. Finally, the story ends with another death: the death of Louise Mallard. The doctors state that “she had died of heart disease – of the joy that kills” (22).
Through ironic twists of fate, repetitive phrasing, and presentative imagery, Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” ornaments the restraints that sexism and the patriarchy enveloped within 19th century marriage, and why Louise Mallard’s only way to escape it was to die.