Motifs In The Story Of An Hour

In “The Story of An Hour”, Kate Chopin uses the motif of wings to develop the theme that sometimes, freedom is more valuable than love. There are many references to wings and comparisons of Mrs. Mallard to birds in the story.
The motif of wings helps develop the theme because it helps show the character’s development in the story. One clear example of the use of motif in the story is the name, Mrs. Mallard, which is a type of duck. As Mrs. Mallard realizes the good in her husband’s death, she resembles a bird about to take flight. She feels her independence coming to her, “creeping out of the sky” (Chopin, The Story of an Hour, paragraph 9), where the birds fly. She opens and spreads her arms, her “two white slender hands”, out in welcome, resembling a bird spreading its wings (paragraph 11). “Free! Body and soul free!”, she keeps whispering (paragraph 14). As Mrs. Mallard leaves her room and

One of the greatest examples of this universal idea is the myth of Icarus and Daedalus because they were trapped in a prison, but they escaped by creating their own wings. In the same way, Mrs. Mallard escapes her prison and gains independence. She does this when she realizes that with her husband gone, she is free to control her whole being for the rest of her future (paragraph 12). As stated before, Mrs. Mallard resembles a bird about to take flight as she realizes her independence. She celebrates her freedom triumphantly like a goddess of Victory. But just as in the myth of Icarus and Daedalus, her freedom was not to be, as her husband walks into her house. “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” (paragraph 20) Her joy that came with her freedom was so great that she was no longer sad that her husband is dead. Unfortunately, the sadness of it being taken away when her husband walks through the door is too much to bear that it kills