Theme Of Mrs Mallard

Characters:

Mrs. Mallard is the central character and the protagonist. She has likely been dominated by the men in her life for all of her life; first the father and then the husband. Mrs. Mallard is described as weak and frail and although she secretly longs to be free she had resigned herself to a loveless future. The author stated, “…a future where she would bend her will to his dominance both kind and cruel…” (Chopin). From the stages or loss and bereavement, Mrs. Mallard demonstrates the last step of acceptance indicating that she likely went through the other stages when she married Mr. Mallard.

Mr. Mallard is the antagonist whose physical presence in the story is very brief in direct involvement but he is indirectly present throughout the story. The reader not able to know what the motives of the antagonist are as we only have Mrs. Mallard and her impressions of Mr. Mallard that we learn of in a type of flashback. The motivation of Mrs. Mallard is becomes clearer as the story progresses, she longs for freedom but had resigned herself to a life where she never would be free. Prior to this point of the story Mrs. Mallard had no motivation and exhibits two of the stages of loss and bereavement, depression and acceptance. While she is sitting alone in her room, looking out of the window she was

The story addresses the trouble of the heart both medically and emotionally. Her heart is not really in her marriage but her heart is racing at the thought that she is now free from her husband but at the end her heart races and gives out when she realizes that she is still trapped in the marriage but the only freedom available to her is death. Medically, the shock on her weak heart is the likely cause of death but it is the emotionally loss, the heart of her motivation that may be the real cause of death. Her heart is broken at the loss of her freedom just at the moment of her imagined