When a person dies his or her life is celebrated. It is a time when everyone remembers all the good qualities the person had and the good events that the person had lived through. They celebrate life, not death. Mrs. Mallard does not rejoice in the good memories she has shared with her husband; rather she rejoices that he is gone. Even with the open minds and extreme feminine rights activists in today's society rejoicing in the death of your husband does not seem acceptable. If it is not acceptable now, just think about how acceptable it would be in early 1900's. Yet, when isolated in the room in the early 1900's Mrs. Mallard silently is almost relieved to hear the news that her husband is dead. When looking at Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," understanding the setting means understanding the entire story. .
Inside her own house, the house that she keeps clean is her prison. In the early 1900's most women are confined to the house that she keeps. They were very oppressed and their lives were completely dominated by their fathers and then by their husbands when they were married. Mrs. Mallard's job was to be a housewife and that is what society and her husband expected her to be. So, that is exactly what she was. But she had hopes of one day being free. If she did not, her reaction to her husband's death would be more focused on how tough her life will be without him. Finally one day she hears the news that her husband died in a train accident and she retreated and spent a little time in solitude. It was alone in the room that she realized she was free from everything that her husband and society had bound her too. As soon as she realized what lies ahead of her, "She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free""(46 Chopin)! Being free and making herself happy was her only job now. She is now free to start an entire new life. The story being set during the spring is a symbol of that new life.
Mallard feels at the news of her husband's death. ... Chopin symbolically appeals to all five of the reader's senses through the description of daily life outside Mrs. ... Mallard, but also the death of Mrs. ... Mallard's entire life that truly lived. ... Descriptions of scenery, personality, and emotion each add an element of sympathy that the reader inevitably feels toward Mrs. ...
