Waiting for Freedom in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

It is difficult to call Kate Chopin a “feminist” because the term and sociopolitical movement did not exist at the time of her writing. However, many of Chopin’s works deal with feminist issues and themes, including themes of women’s oppression and struggle in society and the public role that women were expected to play in contrast to the rich interior life that could be wholly different. In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses point of view, character, setting, plot, and symbolism to show the theme of how an interior life can be different from the exterior circumstances that society sees.

The point of view in “The Story of an Hour” begins and ends objectively, though the narrator has limited omniscience because the narrator narrates most of the story as it relates to the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard. In the opening line, Chopin establishes the point of view, “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.” The narrator is almost like someone from the community or family. The knowledge of Louise Mallard’s “heart trouble” is the type of thing that neighbors know would about one another during this period in time, and the action that the narrator is first describing—the relaying the news of her husband’s reported death—is a community or family event. The narrator also narrates Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, relaying them unfiltered, such as when Louise thinks about her husband: “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often, she had not. What did it mater!” Though the narrator is using the pronoun “she,” these are the thoughts of Louise, not the narrator, much like the central character experiencing real love in Desiree's Baby. At the end of the story, the narrator delivers the “punch line” for the story, and the dramatic irony: “When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” The narrator exists after Louise dies and relays the final line of the story objectively, and though the reader understands the irony of the final line, it is delivered much as one might hear in a beauty parlor or restaurant—a sad story about a member of the community. By adopting a point of view that has the authoritative and sympathetic voice of a community or family member and also showing Louise Mallard’s interiority, Chopin develops her theme of the difference between the interior life and perceived exterior circumstances.

The central character in “The Story of an Hour” is Louise Mallard, who is a round character who has realization and growth as she contemplates the news of her husband’s reported death. Chopin introduces Louise as “Mrs. Mallard” and then refers to her as “she” through the majority of the story. Only in the last third of the story is her first name revealed—Louise. By introducing and developing the character this way, Chopin is making a thematic point that the individuality and identity of someone, especially a married woman, is not considered important by society. The character is “Mrs. Mallard” first, and “Louise” only to her pleading sister, Josephine. In contrast to her remaining unnamed—in fact, being presented as a somewhat flat character in the external world of the story—Louise’s interior life is dynamic and intimate, and this is where her growth occurs. As she realizes her husband is dead, Louise feels grief, but it is overridden by another feeling—the feeling of freedom. “She said it over and over under the breath: ‘free, free, free!’ The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes…, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed… her body.” Chopin narrates a physical change that also signifies the emotional change. Louise is now free from her husband and in control of her life. Whereas the social expectation is that Louise would be a grieving, devastated widow, she instead is liberated—so much so that the shock of seeing her husband alive and unharmed was devastating and fatal. This deep change in character supports the theme of the conflict between interior life and exterior circumstances.

The plot of “The Story of an Hour” is revealed through an interesting use of story structure and dramatic irony. The story begins with the news of the death of Brently Mallard, Louise’s husband. Such an event often serves as a climax in typical story structure—the death of a character at the end as the resolution to the story. “The Story of an Hour” is in fact structured similarly in that the main character’s death is revealed at the end, and it’s the juxtaposition of the first event in the story—the reported death of Brently Mallard—against the last event—the death of Louise Mallard. The story’s structure supports the theme because it uses the individuality of the story to play against the expectation of story form. Chopin alludes to this in describing Louise’s reaction in that, “She did not hear the story as many women had heard the same…” The familiar image of the grieving widow at the end of a story is replaced by a woman who cries but then enters a room by herself to be alone with her thoughts. By starting at a typical “ending” point for many stories, Chopin builds a story about a woman who grows after that moment. However, the story obeys traditional structure by including external conflict and resolution in the final paragraph of the piece. Louise’s “feverish triumph” and carrying herself like a “goddess of Victory” conflicts with Brently’s appearance. Reality crashes in on Louise’s hopes for a liberated life, and it is too much to bear. Louise’s interior trajectory is cut short by her reality, and she is unable to realize any of her goals. 

The external setting of “The Story of an Hour” is contemporary to the time when the story was written—the 1890s—and takes place in a nondescript middle-class American home over the course, as the title suggest, an hour. The internal setting takes place in Louise’s mind, and it is here where the character grows, experiences conflict, and finds resolution. Louise experiences the most profound moment of the story, the “strongest impulse of her being,” while lost in thought. She is waiting “fearfully” for “something” to come to her, the state of being free. By having this most profound moment of the story happen internally, Chopin is showing how powerful and important the internal “setting” of the mind can be. Whereas the external setting has confined and limited action, the internal world is rich and dynamic and the setting for which the main character experiences the most growth. The difference in the action and growth of characters in the two settings for the story compliment the theme of the story.

One prominent symbol in “The Story of an Hour” is the room in which Louise locks herself after the news of Brently’s death. Culturally, the act of going into a room signifies a desire for privacy, and the room becomes a symbol of that privacy, to be alone with one’s thoughts. In describing the room, Chopin writes, “There stood, facing the open window, a roomy and comfortable armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.” The room contains a chair and window that allow Louise to enter the rich interiority of her own world. Contextually, the room is a symbol of separation between Louise and the other characters. Just as she is mentally withdrawn from her sister and brother-in-law, she is also physically withdrawn and separated, “drinking in a very elixir of life” through the room’s window. When she emerges from her room, Louise is doomed, dying within moments. 

Chopin explores ideas about roles and identity in “The Story of an Hour.” The narrator narrates both the events in the external world and Louise’s thoughts, the story’s conflict between an idealized imagined life and reality, the external and internal setting, and the use of physical space as a symbol in the story all help Chopin develop the theme of the differences between someone’s interior world and exterior circumstances.