Mrs Mallard Symbolism

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, being free means ¨ to stop having or being affected by something unpleasant, painful, or unwanted.” This explains how a character from a fictional passage, ¨The Story of An Hour¨ written by Kate Chopin feels after she is aware that she will no longer have to see her husband. The passage tells about a woman named Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard was told that her husband had been killed in a railroad accident, but this news had to be broken very carefully because Mrs. Mallard has severe heart problems. Once she first heard about her husband she mourned in her bedroom only for a short while. As she was staring outside her window, she felt a sense of freedom beginning to arise. Outside, it was a beautiful

As Mrs. Mallard was looking out her window, “there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky” (8). This scene particularly shows that out of a sky of gray there happened to be small spots of light that were shining through. The outside stands for what is going on in Mrs. Mallard’s life at the moment. Her husband has just passed away and she is in the process of mourning, however through all the negativity that she is filled with Mrs. Mallard finds something that cheers her up. Mrs. Mallard notices how she no longer is under her husband’s roof, it is all about her. Also, the author states, “There were 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” (6). This is another example of the use of the blue sky to once again prove how there is light at the end of the tunnel for Mrs. Mallard. At first, she wanted her life to be over, she could not stand constantly having heart troubles and being stuck with her husband. Although, Mrs. Mallard can see how the light in the sky relates to her being independent and having a better life. In the end, the sky helps Mrs. Mallard realize that her life is valuable and worth

Mallard established was created ever since her husband was no longer alive. However, it was taken away from her when her husband walked through the door, he was never involved in a railroad accident. The window, spring, and sky correspond with each other in that they are an example of independence that Mrs. Mallard gains. In the beginning, Mrs. Mallard grieves about the loss of her husband. She sits in her roomy armchair and is “pressed down by physical exhaustion” (4). This sadness only lasts for a short amount of time until Mrs. Mallard found relief from her husband being gone. The passage ends with the line, “of the joy that kills” (21). The reader can infer that Mrs. Mallard died because she was shocked to see her husband alive and so it triggered her heart complications. However, Brently Mallard is the one who killed Mrs. Mallard’s joy, which means he killed