Richards, learned about a railroad disaster when he was in the newspaper office and saw

Louise’s husband, Brently, on the list of those killed.

While many women would be struck with the news in disbelief, Louise cries with “wild
abandonment”—which shows how powerful her emotions are. Additionally, while other women
would be content to mourn for longer, Louise quickly transitions from grief to joy about her
husband’s passing.  

She feels apprehensive and tries to suppress the building emotions within her, but can’t. She begins
repeating the word Free! to herself over and over again. Her heart beats quickly, and she feels very
warm.

Louise Mallard

A woman whose husband is reportedly killed in a train accident. When Louise hears the news, she is
secretly happy because she is now free. She is filled with a new lust for life, and although she usually
loved her husband, she cherishes her newfound independence even more. She has a heart attack when
her husband, alive after all, comes home.

Brently Mallard

Louise’s husband, supposedly killed in a train accident. Although Louise remembers Brently as a kind and
loving man, merely being married to him also made him an oppressive factor in her life. Brently arrives
home unaware that there had been a train accident.

Josephine

Louise’s sister. Josephine informs Louise about Brently’s death. She cares for her sister

Richards

Brently’s friend. Richards learns about the train accident and Brently’s death at the newspaper office,
and he is there when Josephine tells the news to Louise.

While Richards is a background character in the narrative, he demonstrates a high level of

friendship, consideration, and care for Louise. 

Theme

The Forbidden Joy of Independence- Even though these are her private thoughts, she at first tries
to squelch the joy she feels, to “beat it back with her will.” Such resistance reveals how
forbidden this pleasure really is. When she finally does acknowledge the joy, she feels
possessed by it and must abandon herself to it as the word free escapes her lips. Louise’s life
offers no refuge for this kind of joy, and the rest of society will never accept it or understand it.
Extreme circumstances have given Louise a taste of this forbidden fruit, and her thoughts are, in
turn, extreme.
The Inherent Oppressiveness of Marriage- Louise views Brently’s death as a release from
oppression. She never names a specific way in which Brently oppressed her, hinting instead
that marriage in general stifles both women and men. She even seems to suggest that she
oppressed Brently just as much as he oppressed her. Louise’s epiphany in which these
thoughts parade through her mind reveals the inherent oppressiveness of all marriages, which
by their nature rob people of their independence.

Heart Trouble

The heart trouble that afflicts Louise is both a physical and symbolic malady that represents her
ambivalence toward her marriage and unhappiness with her lack of freedom. The fact that Louise has
heart trouble is the first thing we learn about her, and this heart trouble is what seems to make the
announcement of Brently’s death so threatening. A person with a weak heart, after all, would not deal
well with such news. When Louise reflects on her new independence, her heart races, pumping blood
through her veins. When she dies at the end of the story, the diagnosis of “heart disease” seems
appropriate because the shock of seeing Brently was surely enough to kill her. But the doctors’
conclusion that she’d died of overwhelming joy is ironic because it had been the loss of joy that had
actually killed her. Indeed, Louise seems to have died of a broken heart, caused by the sudden loss of
her much-loved independence.

The Open Window

The open window from which Louise gazes for much of the story represents the freedom and
opportunities that await her after her husband has died. From the window, Louise sees blue sky, fluffy
clouds, and treetops. She hears people and birds singing and smells a coming rainstorm. Everything that
she experiences through her senses suggests joy and spring—new life. And when she ponders the sky,
she feels the first hints of elation. Once she fully indulges in this excitement, she feels that the open
window is providing her with life itself. The open window provides a clear, bright view into the distance
and Louise’s own bright future, which is now unobstructed by the demands of another person. It’s
therefore no coincidence that when Louise turns from the window and the view, she quickly loses her
freedom as well.

Weeping

Louise’s weeping about Brently’s death highlight the dichotomy between sorrow and happiness. Louise
cries or thinks about crying for about three-quarters of “The Story of an Hour,” stopping only when she
thinks of her new freedom. Crying is part of her life with Brently, but it will presumably be absent from
her life as an independent woman. At the beginning of the story, Louise sobs dramatically when she
learns that Brently is dead, enduring a “storm of grief.” She continues weeping when she is alone in her
room, although the crying now is unconscious, more a physical reflex than anything spurred by emotion.
She imagines herself crying over Brently’s dead body. Once the funeral is over in her fantasies, however,
there is no further mention of crying because she’s consumed with happiness.
1. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those
patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent
thought.

This quotation appears after Louise has gone alone to her room to deal with the news of Brently’s death.
After an initial fit of tears, Louise looks out her window at the wide-open spaces below. This quotation is
our first hint that Louise’s reaction to Brently’s death will be surprising and that Louise is very different
from other women. Whereas most women would gaze reflectively at the sky and clouds, Louise’s gaze
suggests something different, something shrewder or more active. What she sees as she gazes out the
window is different from what other women would likely see after their husbands have died. Not long
after this passage, Louise acknowledges the joyous feeling of independence that Brently’s death has
given her. Here, at the window, the first breaths of these feelings are stirring, and her “intelligent
thought” will quickly engage once again as she processes these feelings and allows herself to analyze
what they mean.

2. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a
shudder that life might be long.

This quotation appears close to the end of the story, just before Louise leaves her bedroom to go back
downstairs, and illuminates the extent of Louise’s elation. Before Brently’s death, Louise viewed her life
with trepidation, envisioning years of dull, unchanging dependence and oppression. The “shudder” she
felt was one of dread. Now, however, she is free and independent, and her life is suddenly worth living.
Whereas she once hoped life would be short, she now prays for a long, happy life. This passage, besides
showing us how fully Louise feels her independence, also highlights the unexpectedness of Louise’s
reaction. Rather than dread a life lived alone, this solitude is, for Louise, reason enough to anticipate the
future eagerly. When Brently returns, she dies, unable to face the return of the life that she’d dreaded
so much.

Chopin is known for addressing feminist issues many years before the feminist movement became a
major social and political force in America. When Chopin was writing, the feminist movement had barely
begun, and in Louisiana, women were still considered to be their husbands’ lawful property. As a result,
Chopin’s brazen, sensual, independent protagonists were years ahead of their time. “The Story of an
Hour” reflects Chopin’s view of the repressive role that marriage played in women’s lives as the
protagonist, Louise Mallard, feels immense freedom only when her husband has died. While he is alive,
she must live for him, and only when he dies does her life once again become her own.

Chopin died of a brain hemorrhage in 1904. She was fifty-two.

reflect in her writing her own struggles with identity and thoughts about marriage, family, love and
sexuality.

Imagine a world where women are fighting for unprecedented rights

internal struggle of women who have been denied autonomy.
repression happens when a person’s thoughts, feelings, or desires are being
subdued. Repression can happen internally and externally. 
Freedom Louise’s life is shaped by what society believes a woman should be and how a
wife should behave
Marriage was a means of social control—that is to say, marriage helped keep women in
check and secure men’s social and political power. While husbands were usually free to wander
the world on their own, hold jobs, and make important family decisions, wives (at least those of
the upper class) were expected to stay at home and be domestic. 
 She sees her marriage as a life-long bond in which she feels trapped, 

Consequently, the ending of the story is double-sided. If the doctors are to be

believed, Louise Mallard was happy to see her husband, and her heart betrayed her.
And outwardly, no one has any reason to suspect otherwise. Her reaction is that of a
dutiful, delicate wife who couldn’t bear the shock of her husband returned from the
grave. 

But readers can infer that Louise Mallard died of the grief of a freedom she never
had, then found, then lost once more. Readers can interpret Louise’s death as her
experience of true grief in the story—that for her ideal life, briefly realized then snatched
away.

The House and the Outdoors

The second set of symbols are Louise’s house and the world she can see outside of her
window. Chopin contrasts these two symbolic images to help readers better
understand how marriage and repression have affected Louise. 

First of all, Louise is confined to the home—both within the story and in general. For
her, however, her home isn’t a place to relax and feel comfortable. It’s more like a
prison cell. All of the descriptions of the house reinforce the idea that it’s closed off and
inescapable. For instance, the front door is locked when Mr. Mallard returns home.
When Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief, she goes deeper inside her house and locks
herself in her room.

In that room, however, Mrs. Mallard takes note of the outdoors by looking out of her
window.  Even in her momentary grief, she describes the “open square before her
house” and “the new spring life.” The outdoors symbolize freedom in the story, so it’s no
surprise that she realizes her newfound freedom as she looks out her
window. Everything about the outside is free, beautiful, open, inviting, and
pleasant...a stark contrast from the sadness inside the house. 

The house and its differences from outdoors serve as one of many symbols for how
Louise feels about her marriage: barred from a world of independence.

‘The story of an hour’, as the title suggests, is really a story of an hour of Mrs. Mallard’s

life. It’s written in third person narrative technique from an unknown narrator’s
perspective. The writing style is quite simple but intriguing as well. The author has
done a great job in describing Mrs. Mallard’s despair and then her happiness. The story
flow is quite smooth; nothing seems forced or unnatural.

Heart- Women were expected to be passive and delicate in the 19th century,
and Louise’s heart condition reinforces this societal expectation. Her physical
weakness further encourages the people around her—like Richards and
Josephine—to stifle her emotions and overprotect her.

Sprinh- The elements of spring—the resurgent prominence of plant life, the

return of birdsong, everything—embody an approaching revelation, and the
vague signification of it all slowly overwhelms Louise. By resisting this
unnamable feeling, she begins to fear its implications all the more. It is notable
that the sensation seems to reach out to her from the sky and air, indicating its
vast and all-encompassing strength.

Heartbeat-Louise’s fast heartbeat no longer seems an antagonistic force. Her

physical excitement has now been reframed as an indication of her happiness
regarding her new independent life. That she will regret seeing her husband’s
dead body emphasizes the fact that she never disliked Brently as a person.
She holds no grudge against him, as he had always been kind and loving to
her. Her joy, then, is the result of the life ahead of her that will be full of
freedom and independence.

Impulse-The fact that she identifies her freedom of will as strong—“the

strongest impulse of her being”—once more challenges the previously
established notion that she is weak. Whereas before, under marriage’s
oppressive control, she was viewed as dependent on others, now her self-
assertion renders her both physically and emotionally free, as evidenced by
her exclamation, “Body and soul free!”
Triumph- Louise’s posture and gaze symbolize confidence and power despite
her sister’s overprotective intrusion and the expectation that she remain
passive and weak. By embracing her sister she proves once again that she
holds no grudges against those who ultimately oppress her.
Heart-Louise’s heart trouble symbolizes her emotional delicacy. It presents
her with a conundrum: allow herself to experience the full capacity of human
feeling and consequently risk her health, or stifle and repress her emotions in
order to go on living a compromised life. Her heart condition therefore mirrors
the ways in which the institution of marriage encroaches upon Louise’s
independence, for just as her heart’s weakness keeps her from leading the life
she would otherwise live, marriage prevents her from exercising her freedom
of will.