The Importance of Freedom in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour† grabs its readers from the start and creates an unexpected twist at the end of the short story. Louise Mallard is given the news that her husband has died in a terrible train accident. To her surprise, he arrives home and â€Å"did not even know there had been one† (Chopin, 607). Upon the death of Louise who once believes she was a widow only to find that her husband is still alive, the confusion begins. The death of Louise is questioned by many critics as a state of shock, depression, and sadness. However, Mark Cunningham’s criticism of Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour† states that her death was instead a discovery of freedom from the physical strains of her marriage with her husband and societal views†¦show more content†¦She was finally free, and therefore did not want to jeopardize it by expressing her feelings too soon. Upon looking out the window Louise saw that â€Å"there wer e patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window† (Chopin, 607). The blue sky symbolizes the sadness in her life from her marriage and the clouds piling over this blue sky represents the fact that the sadness in her life was finally fading away and her happiness was finally being reached with the passing of her husband. Louise, â€Å"whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky† (Chopin, 607) realizes that this blue sky is indeed a representation of, as Cunningham would argue, â€Å"control of her life fully, for there is no place for her in patriarchal society† (Cunningham, 53). Louise’s gaze of the blueness in the sky, is the true realization that she is free from all worries and can finally live as the dominant woman partner in the relationship. Mark Cunningham’s critical argument looked at Louise’s â€Å"new understanding of her marriage and her supposed sudden freedom from that marriage as well as the position of women in the late nineteenth-century† (Cunningham, 49). However, I feel it’s important to study the background surrounding why this marriage may have been so straining on Louise’s life. Chopin’s short story makes many referencesShow MoreRelatedThe Unique Style Of Kate Chopin s Writing1603 Words   |  7 PagesThe unique style of Kate Chopin’s writing has influenced and paved the way for many female authors. Although not verbally, Kate Chopin aired political and social issues affecting women and challenging the validity of such restrictions through fiction. Kate Chopin, a feminist in her time, prevailed against the notion that a woman’s purpose was to only be a housewife and nothing more. 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