Freedom of Story of an Hour

Cody Rightmyer

English 102

Tues/ Thurs 10:35

2 December 2015

Freedom

        Everyone believes that freedom is the one thing that each person in our world should get once they are married to someone else. The freedom sought after is expressed through the relationship between the two of the couple. This so called freedom should go for both the man and the woman of the relationship. However, in the past, these freedoms were not very present and in fact were not truly given to the female of the relationship. During the late nineteenth century, the time period in which Kate Chopin wrote her short story “The Story of an Hour,” women were severely crippled in the idea of freedom of their marriage and their lives. The main character Louise displays this sad truth when she hears that her husband had died and she is now a widow and therefore single. All though this is displayed through the tragedy of death, it in actually shows how much a marriage can affect the lives of women during the time period. Women just simply did not have the same freedoms as men did once they were bounded to a marriage. In the short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894 titled “The Story of an Hour,” the true freedom that women possessed during the late nineteenth century is exemplified through Louise’s emotional roller coaster after hearing that her husband had just died. Her transition from genuine sorrow to an overall happiness because of her new freedom and independence shows the oppression that women must go through.

        In the beginning of the story, Louise is minding her own business when her sister approaches her with some bad news. This bad news was that Louise’s husband had died in a train wreck. As most people would be, Louise was initially distraught and deeply saddened by the news that she was just told. Her husband had just passed away, the one she was supposed to love for the rest of her life, through any obstacles that may approach them. However, Louise did not take this news as poorly as most people would have. She listened to this horrendous news “with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance” (Chopin 87). This shows how Louise may not have been as completely attached to her husband as others may have assumed she should have been. Instead of tears continuously weeping upon her face, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,” and was seemingly okay with the fact that her husband was gone (87). Pain and suffering was still felt through Louise’s body and she clearly was affected by this as she did feel that slight abandonment from her husband. This shows that she can comprehend the fact that what once was a stabilized marriage now was gone, she was alone. “When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone” (87). This was the first significant mo/ent that began to show her sudden realization of freedom. She no longer was tied down to someone else. She is now alone as her own person. Louise walking to her room alone after her grief signifies her journey into newfound freedom.

        Louise is now alone in her room. She has nobody with her and she is alone and trapped in her thoughts. This leaves her time to think about everything and her current situation. Despite being taken back by her loss, she sits in a chair and looks outside her window to see only happiness and positives of life, as if nothing bad had happened and in fact only good could come from this death. Chopin says that Louise sat back and saw “the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (88). The fact that Louise sees the life in the air around her and not have her mind clouded with all of the negativities that should surround death shows how she sees how beneficial this death could be. All though one life had gone away, her life was merely beginning. She is ready to turn over the new leaf and begin her new life of freedom. In a book written by Ellen Burton Harrington with a chapter titled “Naturalism and the Short Story Form: Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’” where she describes the writing style of Chopin as she displays “the demarcating limits of human experience” (Harrington 76). This shows the underlying intentions of Chopin by having such a dramatic thing as death show how women truly felt during her time period. It may have not have been completely evident to Louise right away that she was now released from her previous attachments. However, after sitting and thinking about her life, she finally comes to this sudden realization and says “‘free, free, free!’” underneath her breath (90). This is the exact moment where Louise sees her new freedom in this world.

        Once one marries another, they must know that they are about to spend the rest of their lives with that one other person. This can be a very heavy burden for some and especially for women of the time of Chopin as they must know spend their life trying to please the male of the relationship. However, in Louise’s life in this story, her husband is now gone and she is alone. In a journal written by Daniel Deneui titled “Chopin's The Story of an Hour,” he states that there is “no male aggressor-partner” in this relationship anymore (Deneau 3). The fact that it is not just a lack of a male partner, it is instead the lack of a male aggressor partner, shows how Louise was forced to live her life in tension and oppression. However, this is now all gone and she can begin her new journey alone. In the story Chopin states that Louise “saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin 92). This shows that Louise saw the light at the end of the tunnel and realized she would no longer have to fall into conformity and listen to what her husband had to say and live her entire life solely to please him. She was now free to make decisions about her life that were for herself only. She realizes that in her new life ahead of her, “there would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself” (92). This is something that a married woman was not necessarily able to do during her time as it was the belief of society that the women were to take care of every need that the men had. Louise was free and finally independent.