Johan Barradas

IB-English
Period 5

Essay response to choice #4

The 18th century was a very difficult time for women, and Kate Chopin Illustrated
this idea writing different shot stories and novels about the topic. In The Story of an
Hour by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard was a sympathetic character struck down by cruel
fate because she was just experiencing the freedom and independence that was taken
away from her dead husband.
Evidently it should be considered that Mrs. Mallard did love her husband,
however it is mentioned that she only loved him sometimes and that often she had not,
which can subsequently make the reader conclude that Mr. and Mrs. Mallard
relationship as husband and wife was not very strong, and that even a single breeze
could had shattered it into pieces, that breeze was represented by those news told by
her sister.
On the other hand Mrs. Mallard life as an 18th century wife was full of oppression
and disagreement from her husband. Therefore after hearing the news of her husbands
apparent death, she began to feel independent and also became positive about the
future, as said in page 218 but she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of
years to come that would belong to her absolutely meaning that she did felt sorrow, but
that feeling of sorrow was clearly overwhelmed by her feeling of victory over all those
years of oppression caused by society.
In the same way drinking the very elixir of life through that open window
symbolized the independence she had finally achieved, and looking to that window

Johan Barradas
IB-English
Period 5

inspired her to begin planning her own future, which caused her perspective on life to be
shifted positively, proof of this is all the positive details given by Kate Chopin in page
217 such as the delicious breath of rain was in the air assembling the idea that Mrs.
Mallard felt comfortable about her husbands death.
Pursuing this idea further, Mrs. Mallard experienced the joy of being free, as said
in page 218 there would be no one to live for her during those coming years meaning
that there would be no powerful will binding hers in that persistence in which 18th
century woman lived through. As monstrous as it may have seemed, she had
discovered how it was to not be held back by someones ideals, and that all those days
of suffering had finally paid off, even if it was inhuman to feel happy about her
husbands death, she happily imagined on how those days ahead of her would have
been her own without ever thinking of an unexpected visitor.
Additionally in the last paragraph of the story it is mentioned that Mrs. Mallard
died of a heart disease followed by the sentence of a joy that kills certainly this
emphasized the main theme of the short novel by making the reader conclude that she
died because all of her freedom and plans for the future were crushed by the
unexpected arrival of Brently Mallard. On the contrary it was also concluded by the
characters in the story that she died because she was joyful about Mr. Mallards arrival,
illustrating this as a perfect example of irony.
So in my opinion, I feel that Mrs. Mallard was a sympathetic character struck
down by cruel fate because in the 18th century women were oppressed and never got
the chance to express, be independent and be free themselves, and after all her

Johan Barradas
IB-English
Period 5

development of character caused by the fake death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard was
held back down by her husbands arrival, which made her heart to fade away in despair,
causing her eventual death.