Rebekah Temp 8-28-13 p.

2 In the 1800s, men and women were not equal; a woman was simply her husbands property to stay home and raise his children, and most women accepted that and lived happy lives knowing they would never be their own person. But not Louise Mallard. Through a plethora of literary devices, Kate Chopin establishes a theme of freedom and characterizes Mrs. Mallard as a strong and independent woman. Chopin uses a shifting tone to convey the changes that Louise Mallard experiences after she is told that her husband has died. When she first hears the news, she weeps immediately with sudden, wild abandonment and Chopin uses phrases such as storm of grief and suspension of thought to show her initial sadness and shock. But as the story progresses, the diction changes to show how her thought process is changing. As she sits alone, thinking, the tone shifts to give a more intense feeling, as her pulses beat fast and her eyes became keen and bright. Rather than stay depressed and mourn her husbands death as most women would, she starts to think about herself. The tone shifts again to show her realization that she is free. With this epiphany, she is no longer sad that he has died but now has a monstrous joy and she welcomes it. She has completely transformed from Mrs. Mallard, a mourning widow, to Louise Mallard, a completely free individual. Along with tone, Chopin implements symbolism to show Louise Mallards appreciation of her new-found freedom. When she first realizes that she is a widow, she goes to her room alone and looks out the window. From the window, she can see not only the open square and the

beautiful nature, but also all the freedom she has been missing out on. From the window, she gains her epiphany that she is no longer under someone elses power. Sje is her own person and she is completely free. She realizes that its spring, which represents new beginnings, new life, and she looks forward to the new start of hers instead of mourning the end of her last. As she looks up at the sky, she sees clouds piling up, blocking out the blue, and the clouds symbolize her sadness for the loss of her husband and the clear blue sky represents her impending realization of independence. Later, the clouds clear up as her mourning ends and her epiphany that she is free starts creeping out of the sky. Chopin also uses irony to characterize Louise Mallard. The first thing mentioned in the story is that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble which implies that she is fragile and needs someone to support her. Her heart trouble is ironic because Louise Mallard is strong and clearly doesnt need anyones support. She prefers to be alone when she is told that her husband has died rather than stay with her sister and be comforted, and she prefers to be alone for the rest of her life, with no one supporting her, or in her mind, oppressing her. At the end of the story when she realizes that her husband is in fact not dead, she dies of heart diseaseof the joy that kills. This is very ironic because she didnt die because she was full of joy; she died because all of her joy was ripped away from her. She had spent an hour mentally planning how she would spend the rest of her independent life doing whatever she wanted and she prayed that life might be long to enjoy every second of her freedom. She descends the staircase like a goddess of Victory but soon realizes that she is not free, she does not get to live for herself, she is once again living in oppression. This horrible realization is what kills her, not joy that her husband is alive.

Unlike the other women of her era, Louise Mallard was independent and preferred to not have a man in her life. She didnt mourn him because he was never really necessary to her and she believed that he had been holding her back. She was able to believe that she would live the rest of her life in freedom when it was suddenly all taken away. She never knows how her life would have been different without a husband bending her will. This story shows that freedom is a gift that must be appreciated, because you never know when youll no longer have it.