Setting is used in stories to develop the mood and the surroundings of the characters in it. It can also symbolize different things that help us understand a character better. This is greatly portrayed in "The story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, the setting helps dramatize the change within Mrs. Mallard. .
Mrs. Mallard was an old lady who was struggling with heart problems, when she was informed her husband had died in a train crash. When she heard the news she went into her room alone and locked the door. "There stood, facing an open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair", in which Mrs. Mallard sat. She stared out the window looking at the never-ending terrain. Due to the fact that it was spring Mrs. Mallard noticed that all the trees outside the window where a fresh bright green color. She also noticed the tiny drops of water glistening off nature's miracles from the spring rain. This budding of plants and the birth of young animals symbolize a sort of rebirth for Mrs. Mallard. After being married for many years she had been contained within her husband's wishes. Now that he has died she is free from her constraints and can do and explore what ever she wants. She is hatching from her cocoon and a new life for her is about to begin.
"When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone", where she locked the door and hid away. This self-imprisonment symbolizes how she was chained down to her husband. Although she locked herself away it still shows how her life was enclosed in a small area of opportunity. This type of surrounding is what caused Mrs. Mallard to be reborn into a completely different person.
The room is what her life is while married to her husband and the window is her husband's death. If she leaves her room through the window and towards the endless blue sky she is starting a new life. A life she always wanted but was unable to pursue because of the restrictions of her traditional marriage.
